Good point. If you were serious about terrorism, and had an ounce of intelligence, why would you go after a plane at all? There are a huge number of other things you could attack, that are much easier targets. Football games have a lot of people packed in a small space, and if you set off a panic with a bomb or something, more people would be injured. If you sneak into a big party and spike the punch with poison, it would scare the crap out of people -- is nowhere safe? Or sneak a bomb into someone else's carry-on luggage, and set it off when they're waiting in the security line. What's the TSA going to do? Make a security line to get in the security line?
Making people afraid to attend football games or parties is a lot less costly than making them afraid to fly. Shut down the airports and you shut down the economy--look what happened with the Iceland volcano. And they have trains.
Yes and no. Making football games inaccessible to the masses would lead to revolt faster than making life difficult for people who fly. To a large extent, people who fly regularly are rather self-disciplined and have invested a lot of money in getting where they're going. Football-goers can be drunk, are already hyper-emotional and riots and hooliganry is not unknown there hm?
Bread and circuses - flying is the bread, but team spectator sports are the circuses.
