Main Line cops get ready for a Villanova celebration
RADNOR » With Villanova preparing for a run at a second NCAA Championship in three years, local police departments are also getting ready for the massive crowds of fans that are expected to pour into the streets from the campus and bars in Bryn Mawr.
Immediately after the win two years ago, thousands of students and fans poured from campus and area bars and filled Lancaster Avenue in a massive celebration. This year could be just as big.
The first of the Final Four games for the Villanova Wildcats will tip off Saturday at 8 p.m. when the team takes on Kansas in San Antonio, Texas. If they win, the Wildcats will go on to play Monday night against the winner of the Michigan-Loyola game for the National Championship.
“We’re going to have a police force available on Saturday,” said Radnor Police Deputy Superintendent Chris Flanagan. “But with the school on its Easter break that night the crowds could be smaller than in 2016. But by Monday night, the students will be back in town as classes resume Tuesday so a game Monday night would likely lead to large crowds.”
According to Flanagan, with its experiences from Nova’s 2016 win, Radnor will be pulling out the plans from then and retweaking them for this year’s games.
Presuming Villanova gets the win Saturday and with classes back in session Tuesday, the crowds for a Monday night game could again number in the thousands.
“Then it will be all hands on deck if they go to the championship, which we hope they do,” Flanagan said. “You will see hundreds of police officers, specialized units – all kinds of resources – EMS, Main Line Health all of the stakeholders on deck ready to go with a very substantial plan.”
As they did for the game two years ago, the police department will activate its Emergency Operations Center at the nearby township building.
“We’re using that blueprint that was very successful the last time,” he said. “We had very few incidents, the students, visitors and everybody really behaved themselves.”
According to Flanagan, police allowed the fans to celebrate and in his words “they celebrated like champions just like the team.”
Following both games two years ago, Radnor reported at the time about one dozen people who were charged between both the Saturday and Monday night games. Most of the arrests were for minor disorderly conduct citations. There was a DUI and another person was charged after a fight. For the Saturday night game, one person was charged with hitting a police horse.
Parts of Lancaster Avenue in both Villanova and Bryn Mawr were closed for the championship game two years ago. Flanagan said if they go to the championship game, there would be some travel restrictions in the area. He couldn’t say at this point where those restrictions would be.
Two years ago Radnor’s section of Lancaster Avenue was shut down from Spring Mill Road to just past the campus. The ramps for I-476 were also closed.
“Our goal is the keep the community and people safe and let them have a great time,” Flanagan said.
Along with Radnor, Lower Merion is also prepping for the games. Following the 2016 championship win, the Lower Merion part of Lancaster Avenue was shut down from County Line Road to Warner Avenue in Rosemont and Bryn Mawr as students and fans filled the streets.
Lower Merion Police Capt. Frank Thomas said although they will be prepared there are half the number of college bars in Bryn Mawr that there were two years ago.
“What should make this a little easier for us is that we’ve lost two college bars since the last time,” Thomas said.
Last year the Erin Pub and Maloney’s Pub, both poplar bars for Villanova students, closed, leaving Kelly’s Taproom and the Grog as the only two college bars in that area.
Although they would like to be able to keep the roadways open, Thomas said if the crowds do pour out into the streets like they did two years ago they have contingency plans to be able to close them when and where necessary.