Awaiting a disaster at MGM’s arena

By Brendan Shanahan, Las Vegas

Wednesday, May 14, 2014 | 2:03 a.m.

Last year, I sent a letter to the Sun complaining of my experience at the Beyonce concert at MGM Grand Garden Arena on Dec. 7. After the show, I was horrified to see that the entire population of the arena was to be forced to leave through a single exit, with guards blocking alternatives.

It took us almost an hour to shuffle, shoulder to shoulder, to the casino floor, whereupon we ran into a huge crowd of cowboys at a National Finals Rodeo event.

MGM’s policy of forcing arena patrons back into the casino is exceedingly dangerous and cynical beyond belief, and I find it impossible to believe that it can be legal.

The recent stampede at the Mayweather fight was fortunate not to be on the scale of other crowd-control catastrophes, such as the Hillsborough disaster in the U.K. I implore the Sun to investigate the crowd-control measures at the MGM, to hold those responsible accountable and to force them to change this potentially horrific policy.