It's safety first for Newark resident Klima working 13th Super Bowl
Kevin TresoliniMINNEAPOLIS – You think Tom Brady has been to a bunch of Super Bowls, this being number eight for the New England Patriots quarterback?
Ed Klima has him beaten easily.
The Newark resident is working his 13th Super Bowl in succession this week in the field of emergency preparedness. In some ways, that isn’t unlike what the Philadelphia Eagles are dealing with while trying to cope with Brady and the disaster he can wreak on a defense.
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Klima’s concern, however, is much more crucial -- the safety and well-being of the 66,000-plus fans and thousands of others working inside U.S. Bank Stadium during the Super Bowl.
“Obviously, when you bring 70,000 people together, we have injuries and we make sure that we’re taking care of them appropriately and getting the appropriate care,” said Klima, who is a safety officer with the Aetna Hose, Hook & Ladder Company in Newark.
Klima’s Super Bowl run was launched soon after he became the Dover Motorsports and Dover Downs Hotel and Casino senior director of public safety and track operations in 2005. Before that, he’d been serving in a part-time security role at Dover while working as a fireman in Fairfax County, Virginia.
While giving a presentation at a conference, he met Dr. Ricardo Martinez of Medical Sports Group, Inc. Martinez has been senior medical advisor to the Super Bowl since 1988. Martinez invited Klima to join his team for the following year’s Super Bowl at Ford Field in Detroit. Klima left Dover Downs in 2016 and now works full-time as an emergency preparedness consultant.
“It’s all medical and emergency planning, so I’m a certified emergency manager specializing in special events,” said Klima, a University of Delaware graduate who later earned a master’s degree in public safety management at St. Joseph’s.
There are medical facilities within the stadium to deal with issues that may arise. But much of Klima’s task involves coordinating with fire and emergency medical services to “develop local contingency plans,” he said, if more serious problems occur, which is always possible at an event as grand as the Super Bowl. Klima has served on the Governor’s Homeland Security Advisory Council for Delaware.
Typically, Klima will be at the site for two weeks. Downtown, urban locations such as U.S. Bank Stadium do make the job more challenging than Super Bowls situated in more open spaces, he said, such as those at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, or Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
In addition to his experience in NASCAR motorsports events and Super Bowls, Klima has also regularly worked Eagles games at Lincoln Financial Field, the Pro Bowl, U.S. Open Tennis and the Firefly Musical Festival, which is particularly challenging because it’s a 24-hour-a-day event over several days.
U.S. Bank Stadium, which opened during the 2016 season, sits on the site of the former Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, the Minnesota Vikings home from 1982 through 2013.
It’s futuristic, pointed design is meant to resemble the bow of a Viking ship. The exterior is beautifully covered by glass, allowing sunlight – a popular commodity in this frigid city – to penetrate. At night, it allows one to peek inside, where the stadium is illuminated.
Half of the $1.1 billion price tag was covered by taxpayers and the NFL rewarded Minnesota by giving it this Super Bowl.
Like all buildings, it has its challenges for those in emergency planning, said Klima, who isn’t permitted to go into specifics. After all, it was built to pack a huge crowd into a small enough area to provide ideal sightlines.
“It’s definitely a beautiful piece of architecture,” Klima said. “They’ve done a great job putting in a lot of time and energy. It’s unbelievable with the new stadiums what they keep doing making a great fan experience.”
Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.