Only Singles Allowed?

Mar 1, 2007 12:00 PM

Safeco Field, home of Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners, offers sweeping views of the downtown Seattle skyline and breathtaking sunsets over Puget Sound, combined with excellent views of game action from all angles. Safeco Field also offers all the amenities to keep fans happy, including the Children's Hospital Playfield located in the centerfield concourse, a team store, and the Bullpen Market, featuring local food vendors, activities and a terrific view of the game from behind the centerfield fence. In order to provide such a serene and pristine environment, the Mariners were forced to address the unique challenge of security for such a high-profile venue.

In 2005, after six years of operation in Safeco Field, the Mariners had growing concerns about unauthorized key duplication with their previous key control system. Erik Hackmann, security supervisor for the Mariners, contacted Aronson Security Group (ASG) of Seattle, and expressed a desire to have a more secure key control system that they could control and manage. ASG recommended Kaba's Peaks key control system, which would help to prevent unauthorized key duplication.

The system ensures that keys cannot simply be duplicated by anyone without proper authorization. The key blanks are unique to the Mariners' system, and strict legal and procedural controls ensure that only their designated agents can order blanks, cut keys or key cylinders.

With a staff of more than 200 and additional seasonal employees, multiple authorization levels are another necessity for the Mariners. The system's master key capabilities enable managers to limit each individual's access to only those required areas.

“The Peaks system is very easy for me to group certain areas together — giving employees access to where they need to be, but also limit the number of keys they have,” Hackmann says. Like any major college or professional stadium, Safeco Field houses elaborate electronic equipment, scoreboard systems, video systems, ticket offices, retail space and more. The Peaks system only grants access to these areas to those who are permitted.

The system enables the Mariners to retain its commercial lock hardware — including mortise and cylindrical locks, aluminum, glass door locks, and main entrance locks — while improving work environment security. Peaks is designed to retrofit most commercial hardware in use today.

The Mariners also offer daily stadium tours, taking fans to areas of the ballpark not normally open to the public, such as the press box, luxury suites, field, dugout and visitor's clubhouse. “With the tours, our Navigators (tour guides) take their tour groups around Safeco all day long,” Hackmann says. “The nice thing is, rather than issuing them master keys, we were able to create a group of keys just for our Navigators that allows them access to all the designated areas of the tour.”

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