Candlestick Park will see possibly the wildest crowd in history on Sunday as the San Francisco 49ers host the New York Giants in the 2012 NFC Championship Game. The 49ers organization has already announced that it will be beefing up security at the game in case the excitement proves to be too much for some fans, but officials are hoping that fans will take advantage of a little-used service.
Shoshana Walter of The Bay Citizen reports that although the text service Badfan has been available at Candlestick park for three years, many fans are either unaware of the service, or use it incorrectly. The idea of the service is that it is an anonymous way to report unruly, out-of-line, or hostile fans to stadium security. The way it works is that signs are posted instructing fans to text "BADFAN," the issue and location of the incident to 41513. The texts go straight to stadium security. Unfortunately, the service could use with some more awareness as to its positive aspects.
About half of the text messages sent to the system are pranks or fakes, according to team officials. A significant number of texts are useless to security officers because they do not include location information.
During a preseason game with the Raiders last summer marked by violence in the stands, stadium security officials received only about 20 text messages that were not fakes or pranks, but 90 requests for medical service, including one for a man who was beaten unconscious in a restroom, and another for a fan who was shot several times in the stomach in the parking lot after the game
The San Francisco police chief announced that there will be 25 percent more officers than usual at Sunday's game.
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