Video: Security Workers Keep Public Safe at Bancorpsouth Arena

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by Alyssa Martin

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) — As the Bancorpsouth Arena celebrates its 20th season, one of the key elements in hosting the numerous events is the security team.  

Before any event at the Bancorpsouth Arena, Richie Sansone conducts a meeting with his security team, briefing them on the night ahead.

It’s one of his many duties as head of the bancorpsouth arena security. Sansone joined the team when the arena opened and after serving in the military, he came back in 2000.

Each event is unique and requires different levels of security.

“As far as an event where we would have the most people, Florida Georgia Line a recent event we had 55 people working. In years past, take Aerosmith for example, we had I think 72 people. We actually used the Mudcat football team for part of that,” Sansone said.

Each member of the security team has a specific role.

“Most of the time I use females that work here for checking Ids in the beer stands, if we’re selling alcohol , they also monitor the side doors so nobody slips their buddy in that might not have a ticket for an event, the guys usually are the front of stage guys, the muscle of the pack, then I have several supervisors that help things click right along for me as far as when we have meet and greets for the artists, so I’m not tied up doing that, they go handle that that way I can stay up here and fight any kind of fire we might have before the event starts,” he said.

It’s a lot of hard work for Sansone and his team. Sometimes they work multiple events back to back but they want all who come through the doors to have a good time.

“The hardest part probably is making sure that every fan that comes to whatever show it might be leaves with an enjoyable time. We want everybody to go home , and say ‘hey we want to come back next time’ and that’s probably our biggest challenge because you know it’s hard to keep everybody happy but we do our best to do that,” Sansone said.

Sansone and his team will be busy the next few weeks preparing for the royal horse show, Sir Elton John’s concert and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.