ORLANDO, Fla. – College basketball fans are ready for some March Madness fun and the crowds are electric in Orlando for the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament.
Gina and Shawn Nelson flew in from Las Vegas to watch the Cougars from College of Charleston.
“A dream come true-- bucket list check off. We’re super excited,” Gina Nelson said. The couple’s daughter is a student at the college and since then, they’ve been supporting their sports teams.
“We’ve been here a few times with our kids for Disney World, but this is the first time we’ve been here for basketball,” Shawn Nelson said.
It’s not just the fans that are ready, so are businesses in downtown Orlando.
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“We’ve got security staffed up,” Katie Fazenbaker, marketing and events manager for the Wall Street Plaza bars said.
“We’ve always had officers on the street while we do our block parties. We’ve always had safety as a top priority. So we have recently added metal detecting wands so that’s a bit of a change,” Fazenbaker said.
She recalled last year’s July 31st shooting near Wall Street that left several injured was scary and it affected businesses in the aftermath, but they’ve been able to rebound since then.
“They have amped up patrolling since then,” Fazenbaker said. “It definitely affected us it was scary for everybody downtown. We did see a little bit of a drop the months following it.”
In statement to News 6, the Orlando Police Department said:
The Orlando Police Department takes the safety and security of our residents and visitors very seriously and are working with our law enforcement partners to keep our community safe. While we don’t discuss specific security measures, we always plan and staff each event appropriately to provide proper public safety and assess the needs of the event to make any necessary security modifications.
Orlando Police Department
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