Presentations a go for metal detectors at football stadium

In this Thursday, May 28, 2015, photo, metal detectors stand at a gate at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Beginning June 1, 2015, metal detectors were used to check people attending events at the stadium. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

— Bidders offering metal detectors for athletic venues at the University of Arkansas will move forward with presentations.

But a UA spokesman, Kevin Trainor, said in an email Wednesday "inviting presentations still does not imply a commitment on our part to act."

The university last spring asked for security product bids and received four responses, Trainor said in August. Before UA's home football season began in September, Trainor said the equipment was not a part of stadium security plans at the time.

In a Jan. 8 letter, the university said an evaluation committee "is proceeding with on-site presentations" and "selected bidders will be contacted."

Kansas State University in 2017 paid about $382,000 for metal detectors and related equipment, Casey Scott, an executive associate athletics director with Kansas State, said last year.

In November, the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa tested metal detectors at its final home football game of the season. Monica Watts, the university's associate vice president for communications, in an email said no decision had been made about future use of the equipment.