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Message: [QUOTE="NorSyr66, post: 4988012, member: 1763"] I was hesitating about posting to this thread until your post popped up. I had posted several years back on my experiences with court storming and I am going to repeat my story at this time. My wife and I after we retired worked about 10 years as ushers at what is now the PNC arena in Raleigh. One night we were working a NC St basketball game and they were playing either Duke or UNCheaters. As always NC St was huge underdogs versus this opponent. It was apparent with 10 minutes to go or so that a possible upset was brewing so the usher supervisor requested about 20 of us larger size ushers to leave our posts in the arena and join him near elevators on arena floor. We were there to assist the fully deployed security staff in controlling the crowd. The ushers were instructed to line up on each side of the aisle way to allow the players to exit the court between us since security expected the floor to be stormed. We lined up and were speaking to the fans as the game wound down with NC ST winning. We told them our intent was not to keep them from storming, only to allow the players to leave and they were fine with that. As the clock hit 0:00 it was like a bomb went off. The fans adjacent to us three or four deep were orderly but the 1000s behind them were heading in all directions to the court. They pushed, shoved and climbed over people. I was standing with my arms interlocked with the next usher on each side of me and all of a sudden it was like I was caught in a ocean wave. We all were lifted off the floor and just shoved back into the players bench area. I ended up on the floor far enough back to be safe from the crowd moving towards the main court. There was no stopping the court storming. I learned my lesson and never agreed to participate in any future crowd control activities where court stormings were involved. Main reason for my post is your comment regarding "the security guards doing their job and telling the fans/students to wait". Sounds good on paper but it doesn't work. [/QUOTE]

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