Villanova Students, Radnor Police Preparing For Possible Celebrations Saturday Night
VILLANOVA, Pa. (CBS) -- From the Big Easy to the Main Line. Around Villanova's campus, officials are preparing for the possibility of a big celebration.
Anywhere from 10,000 to 12,000 people are expected to be partying around the Villanova campus on Saturday.
"We're gonna watch from the Pavilion. If we win we're all gonna storm the campus," Elizabeth Pawlik said.
For students heading to Saturday's Final Four game in New Orleans, Villanova's provost gave them the green light to miss Friday classes. And if the team makes it to Monday's final, students supporting the team in Louisiana will also be excused. They just have to make sure their classwork is made up.
"A lot of excitement, a lot of talk about the basketball in our classes," Grace Gately said.
There's a lot of planning that goes into events like this weekend's Final Four watch party.
The Radnor Township Police Department created a command center, teaming up with local, state, and federal agencies to monitor every aspect of the weekend.
"We'll utilize all the outstanding cameras that are in the area and then there's some special things we're doing to monitor stuff, which I can't get into. But we will use every bit of technology, monitor social media, what we call people on the ground," Radnor Township Police Superintendent Christopher Flanagan said.
Learning from previous March Madness celebrations, they want to be ready for anything that may happen at the pedestrian-friendly event along Lancaster Avenue.
"We've had some accidents, people trying to go through barricades," Flanagan said.
"We're so excited. We're seniors and this is our first time having them go this far," Pawlik said.
If you'll be celebrating in the area, authorities want you to come out and have a good time but remember to stay safe.
They suggest you plan ahead. Get here early, find parking, so you can avoid any snafus.
With titles in 2016 and 2018, Villanova has been there and done this before. And they hope to do it again.
