Monday night’s deadly terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, got Mike Francesa thinking about the challenges in keeping not only concertgoers safe, but also those attending sporting events.
NEW YORK (WFAN) — Monday night’s deadly terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, got Mike Francesa thinking about the challenges in keeping not only concertgoers safe, but also those attending sporting events.
“This specifically hit me last night about events and how big the job is of the people we take for granted every day, the people who are in charge of our safety, how big the job is to secure not only a stadium or a concert hall or an arena, but think about the other parts, just securing a city or securing an area, no less securing a country, ” the WFAN host said Tuesday. “It is something we take for granted. It’s something that unfortunately every once in a while, like last night, you see it; you’ re knocked back into reality with it.
MANCHESTER CONCERT ATTACK: Latest | Photos | Videos
“Don’ t be a person who says, ‘I’ m not going to an event because it’s not safe, ‘” he added. “It is safe. The people are that good. They do a great job.”
Francesa noted that just last week callers to his show complained about long security lines outside Yankee Stadium.
“People just have to understand that this has become just part of how we live, and if you’ re going to be someone who goes out a lot, whether it’s concerts or to ballgames, you realize standing on line and going through metal check and being checked and going through all the stuff is now part of our condition, ” he said. “It’s part of going to an event. It has to be budgeted in.”
Francesa also expressed sadness over the attack. He mentioned that he had taken his daughter to a Grande concert at Mohegan Sun.
“It is very much a young — 12 or 14, all the way down to 9 to 10, up to 15-, 16-year-old — mostly female audience that goes to that kind of concert, ” he said.
“We got the reports when we were driving home last night, and you listen to all the terror and all the horror and the chaos and the fear in people’s voices and everything. It’s just sad, really sad to see.”
To listen to the segment, click on the audio player above.
