U.S. Open security cost may not outweigh benefit to area
By Tom Yerace / VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Tens of thousands of golf fans will surround Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and company when they tee off at the 2008 U.S. Open in San Diego, along with a small army of police.
They will ensure that traffic to and from Torrey Pines Golf Course moves smoothly and that an overzealous fan doesn’t pluck that black Nike cap from Tiger’s head.
And, apparently, authorities will attempt to ensure no jihadists infiltrate the U.S. Golf Association’s premier event.
If last year’s Open at Oakmont is any indication, taxpayers in California should be prepared to cough up some big bucks so that nothing — bad traffic, hooligans or al-Qaida — mars the festivities:
– Pennsylvania “donated” at least $250,000 — and probably more — for the wages and overtime for about 100 state police troopers and command staff.
– Allegheny County spent more than $100,000 in U.S. Department of Homeland Security grant money to pay for emergency medical staff and security from the Sheriff’s Department.
“The question is whether the USGA could have been billed more,” said Nathan Benefield, director of policy research for the Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative, Harrisburg-based think tank. “How much benefit did they gain from having the police protection there, because I imagine it probably took away the state police from other places they could have been.”
KEYSTONE COSTS
At least 100 troopers from the Pennsylvania State Police worked at Oakmont each day.
Capt. Roger Waters, commander of Troop B, Washington, coordinated the troopers working at the Open.
‘We were directed by the governor’s office to work with the U.S. Open,” Waters said. “We were assisting local police departments.”
Waters said the Open drew officers from four different troops in the region so no single unit found itself short staffed.
According to Waters, troopers logged 5,200 hours, About 1,400 of those hours were considered regular duty, the remainder, overtime.
“Normally it involved eight-hour shifts,” Waters said.
And for all of this, the USGA paid not a penny, not for 1,400 hours of regular trooper wages, nor for 3,800 hours of state police overtime.
To put it bluntly, the state cut the USGA a major deal on what it did pay.
“I think it was only $11,000 and that was for the merchandise tent,” Waters said. “The merchandising tent — that is a capital enterprise to make money — so we charged them for that.”
The souvenir tent brought in millions to the USGA.
