Sweep extends to all 53,000 entering venue

? For the record, Chris and Liz Ballard of Haviland weren’t packing heat Saturday at the Final Four.

There’s no question of that because Georgia Dome staff had all 53,000 people attending the game run a security gauntlet worthy of the nation’s busiest airports.

All pockets were emptied. Guards deploying yellow-and-black Garrett wands swept the front and back of each person, all of whom had to extend their arms outward. Purses were thoroughly searched for dangerous objects.

Lines outside the dome ran as long as 50 people deep, but white canvas tents protected patrons from rain. Waits for a search took as long as 15 minutes.

The Ballards, uncle and aunt to KU senior guard Brett Ballard, said they didn’t object to the precaution. It’s appropriate in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, they said.

“I don’t mind, because I know the reason,” Chris Ballard said.

Liz Ballard added: “I feel safer.”

Among a dozen Final Four fans chosen at random for interviews, only one thought the search intrusive.

“I have a deeper trust in human nature,” said Kit Ransom, a Dallas retiree dressed from head to toe in Oklahoma Sooner red. “Why would anyone come here and hurt someone else? It’s a basketball game.”

All fans entering the dome also had to stick their Final Four ticket into a device that determined whether it was counterfeit or legitimate.

“As soon as I saw the machine, I was terrified that mine might be fake,” said Indiana native Jayme Casey as he pushed through the turnstile. “I’m still sweating.”

None of the security obstacles mattered to Maryland students Chris Schmidt and Kim Towner of College Park.

They would have submitted to a strip search to get into the Final Four. Besides, Schmidt said, College Park is too nice a place to get in the habit of carrying a weapon. Atlanta is too, he said.

“In D.C., maybe,” Towner joked, “not so much in Maryland.”

Indeed, the bottom line for KU sophomores Jeff Wyssenbach and Britt DeTienne of Wichita was getting in the dome to see the Jayhawks.

“It isn’t going to take anything away from the game,” DeTienne said.