US top-tier leagues back drones disable Bill

Article posted by Coliseum, March 6^th, 2025

Image: Quadcopter camera drone, Josh Sorenson, CC0

The National Football League (NFL – the top professional American football league in the world), the Major League Baseball (MLB – a professional baseball league in North America), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA – a non-profit organization that governs college sports in the United States), and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR – an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing) said they support a Bill introduced in the Congress (US) recently that would give the State and the local law enforcement authorities the ability to disable drones during sporting events which the leagues say have become an increasing threat.

‘ESPN’ stated that the Bill sponsored by Senator Tom Cotton (Republican-Arkansas) and Senator Jacky Rosen (Democratic-Nevada) and entitled the ‘Disabling Enemy Flight Entry and Neutralizing Suspect Equipment (DEFENSE) Act’ would provide “the tools for the local and the State law enforcement to protect the citizens”, as per Cotton.

Commented Cotton, “The local law enforcement already protects the perimeter of these events. We already expect them to stop a dump truck that would cause harm so we need to also give them the tools to protect the airspace from the weapons and biological threats.”

The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the Federal Government of the United States. It is bicameral composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, and an upper body, the United States Senate. It meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

‘ESPN’ further stated that currently only the Federal law enforcement on-site at events such as the Super Bowl (the annual league championship game of the National Football League of the United States), the World Series (the annual championship series of Major League Baseball), the Rose Bowl (an annual American college football bowl game), and the Boston Marathon (a 26.2-mile [42,195-meter] footrace that takes place annually in Boston, Massachusetts) can disable the unauthorized drones. Nearly all the other major sporting events, including thousands of NFL and MLB games, do not have officials on-site with the legal authorization to quickly remove a drone threat.

Cotton said the Federal agents represent “a small fraction of law enforcement” and that there are “not enough” to man large-scale sporting events on-site – “They need these local and State authorities to protect the restricted airspace.

Cotton’s office said the four leagues endorsed the Bill as did the Southeastern Conference (SEC – a collegiate athletic Conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States).

David Thomas, MLB’s Senior Vice-President of Security and Ballpark Operations, sent out a statement which read, “If enacted, this legislation would dramatically increase the security of our stadiums and the safety of the 70,000,000 fans who attend our games annually.”

The NFL said that in the 2023 season alone it experienced more than 2,800 drone incursions into the temporary restricted airspace around its stadiums which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA – a US Federal Government agency that regulates civil aviation) defines as below 3,000 feet and within three nautical miles of the stadium from one hour before until one hour after the game.

The NFL paused the American Football Conference (AFC) Championship Game in January 2024 between the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs after a drone entered the stadium’s restricted airspace. The drone operator pleaded guilty to violating the national defense airspace. More recently, on January 11^th, a wild-card game between the Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers was temporarily suspended when a drone flew over the bowl of the Ravens residence – the 71,008-capacity M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. That alleged drone operator is facing multiple Federal charges.

Continued Cotton, “Many drones around the large athletic events are hobbyists or enthusiasts or practical jokers. But we can’t take the risk of fan lives because some of these drones can be equipped to carry explosives or most chillingly can be equipped with some kind of biological weapon.”

The new Bill would apply only to sporting events that already have temporary flight restrictions including stadiums and ballparks with more than 30,000 people and outdoor gatherings with more than 100,000 people. That would include all NFL, MLB and NCAA Division I football games, NASCAR, IndyCar (the highest class of American open-wheel car racing), and the Champ Series races.

The NFL Chief Security Officer Cathy Lanier told the Congress in December that the intelligence agencies continue to warn that the terrorist groups could target the stadiums and other mass gatherings – “Earlier this year, the Islamic State propaganda specifically encouraged attacks on the stadiums including referencing the Paris Summer Olympics. The social media posts recently threatened drone attacks at the Cricket World Cup on Long Island (New York State).”

The Bill would require the eligible law enforcement officers to complete counter-drone training and mandate the Federal agencies to create a list of approved drone mitigation technology.

The drones can be disabled a number of ways, according to Michael Robbins, President and head honcho of the Association of Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, a trade association that represents the drone industry.

Remarked Robbins, “The most effective way, the way that is used in most cases, is to find the operator and ask, or demand, that the operator land the drone. If not, law enforcement can jam a drone’s radio frequency, grab it with a net, ram it with another drone, or shoot it out of the sky. Most commercially available drones are programmed to land or return to their point of origin if they lose their link to the operator.”

While it’s not yet clear what opposition this Bill will face, Senator Rand Paul (Republican-Kentucky) blocked a Bill last year that would have provided the State and the local law enforcement the ability to track drones after several sightings alarmed residents in New Jersey and New York.

In a speech on the Senate floor in December, Paul said, “History has shown us time and time again how fear and manufactured urgency are used as pretext to expand Government power at the expense of freedom.”

He expressed concerns about surveillance powers potentially violating Americans’ privacy rights “in the name of security”.

The leagues have been lobbying Congress for a number of years to expand the law enforcement’s ability to disable the drones.

Underscored Tim Buckley, the NCAA’s Senior Vice-President of External Affairs, “For several years, the NCAA has expressed concern for the threat that the unauthorized drones pose at the NCAA championships and college sporting events. The safety of the competitors, the fans and the staff that work at the NCAA events is our top priority.”

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