Early in July, Stacey Hall, a professor of sport management and the executive director at the University of Southern Mississippi’s National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security, logged onto Zoom to moderate the latest meeting of the research institution’s professional advisory committee—a group composed of more than 30 major league stadium operations executives and security directors, plus two FBI agents, that holds quarterly roundtables comparing and sharing best practices across their field.
On that day, discussion among members was dominated by a familiar concern in an economy currently claiming record-high job openings: Even with sports venues finally reopening at full capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many are struggling to hire enough ushers, security guards, and other part-time workers to make their game-day operations go.