On Saturday afternoon, as he looks out at the crowd of 60,000 he has helped entice to Wembley Stadium, Brian Dubiski’s dream will become a reality.
asserted
dream → look → Stadium
But, as Arizona State and Kansas make history by playing the first US college football game in Britain, Dubiski will think most of his daughter, Madison, who was crushed to death at the age of 23.
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who → make → 23
Madison and nine other people were trampled and suffocated by a crowd at a Travis Scott concert in Houston in November 2021.
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Madison → trample → November
Dubiski now dedicates his life to keeping people safe at sporting events and concerts and, since December, Wembley is one of the stadiums that follows the protocols he introduced.
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he → dedicate → protocols
As the chairman, CEO and co-founder of Union Jack Classic, which has planned and organised Saturday’s game, Dubiski will sit in the Royal Box at Wembley.
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Dubiski → plan → Wembley
His memories of Madison will also be sparked by the sight of the cheerleaders for both teams – for his daughter also used to be a cheerleader.
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daughter → spark → teams
“I think Madison would be extremely proud of our work,” Dubiski says on a tranquil morning in London.
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Dubiski → think → London
The powerfully built 57-year-old, who played college football for Texas Tech, pauses.
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who → build → Tech
“As much as I wake up every day trying to honour my daughter, while trying to ensure she did not lose her life in vain, it can overwhelm you.
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it → wake → you
It’s a hard line to walk because, emotionally, I don’t think I’ll ever heal.
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I → ’ → ?
But everything I do is about representing Madison.
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I → do → Madison
It’s a big reason I did this game at Wembley.”
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I → ’ → Wembley
Before we talk about college football, which is second only to the NFL as the most popular sport in the US, Dubiski revisits the terrible day of his daughter’s death.
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Dubiski → talk → death
As the enthusiastic texts from Madison and her brother, Ty, lapsed into silence and local television began to report on trouble at the Astroworld festival hosted by Scott, Dubiski remembers his “really bad feeling”.
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Dubiski → lapse → feeling
After thousands of ticketless fans stormed the gates and the crowd surged towards the stage, Madison and Ty were separated and, without any coherent safety procedures in place, nearly 5,000 people were injured.
When news reached Dubiski he raced to the hospital where his daughter had been taken.
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daughter → storm → hospital
He stumbled into a catastrophe: “I could hear Madison’s mother, Michelle, screaming.
uncertain
mother → stumble → catastrophe
Your stomach sinks and your heart breaks and it’s like a slow-motion black-and-white horror movie, walking through the hospital halls at 2am.
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it → sink → am
I remember the doctor looking up at me and just shaking his head.
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doctor → remember → head
My knees buckled and I fell.”
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I → buckle → ?
I have already met his hugely likable son, Ty, who survived the tragedy and is now working alongside him on Saturday’s game.
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who → meet → game
But in a quiet office Dubiski shudders: “Ty walks in and all he could hear was me screaming ‘no’ in this horrible, deep cry.
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me → shudder → cry
He knew what it meant before he even saw us in the room where Madison was covered in a white sheet.
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Madison → know → sheet
“ Ty walked up to her, upset and crying, apologising for not being able to help her.
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Ty → walk → her
It’s a traumatic experience that will haunt us for ever.”
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that → ’ → us
Dubiski still imagines the last minutes of Madison’s life.
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Dubiski → imagine → life
“Everyone rushed to the main stage when Travis Scott came out.
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Scott → rush → stage
It created a crowd crush and there’s nothing you can do in that situation.
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you → create → situation
Ten people died and we need to be candid.
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we → die → ?
The autopsy reports all say they died of compressive asphyxiation.
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they → say → asphyxiation
But the coroner would not share the autopsy with me because he said I would never recover as a father if I looked at it that deeply.
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I → share → it
“That’s a haunting thought, imagining what Madison went through and how, as a parent, I couldn’t help her, and how she must have been terrified.”
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she → ’ → her
He explains: “There is a 1,600‑page report from the Houston police department and their conclusion states that all 10 deaths were preventable and what happened was foreseeable.
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happened → explain → department
My daughter, who I don’t ever get to see again, hug, kiss, see her laugh, walk her down the aisle when she gets married, be a grandfather to her children, is gone because the safety protocols were not dealt with properly.”
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protocols → get → children
The concert promoters paid undisclosed amounts to settle the legal cases brought by the families, but Dubiski says: “I was upset the city of Houston, and the state [of Texas], didn’t do more.
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city → pay → more
But we’re working with a lot of those entities now to help prevent another occurrence.
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we → work → occurrence
Rather than surrendering to grief, Dubiski developed his Showstop Procedure course.
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Dubiski → surrender → course
It helps stadiums control crowds safely through a certified framework that enhances critical decision-making at dangerous flashpoints.
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that → help → flashpoints
“Our training covers much more than just crowd crush – it could be fire, terrorism, the weather, anything that puts people at risk.
uncertain
that → cover → risk
“When we began we were floored there was no formalised training and education specific to crowd safety.
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we → begin → safety
That’s why we developed our course and created the certification, which we got approved through the International Institute of Risk & Safety Management.
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we → ’ → Management
…and 30 more, not listed.
The Aporia
