HOW FACILITIES MANAGEMENT AND CAMPUS PARTNERS POWER GAMEDAY EACH FALL

It’s 4 a.m. on gameday on the Plains, and the hum of Landscaping’s street sweeper echoes through campus like a quiet drumroll with one final pass down South Donahue leading straight to Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Sure, it’s early, but not nearly as early as when Facilities huddled with Athletics and campus partners to plan for these seven electrifying Saturdays each fall. Long before the fans arrive, before the eagle soars, they’re laying the groundwork for a day that feels like tradition, pride and pure Auburn spirit.

“It’s a 12-month-a-year job,” said Jeremy Roberts, senior associate athletic director of Operation Support Services within Athletics. “We continually work with our campus partners evaluating what went well within Athletics and also campus wide.”

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

For more than a decade, Roberts has worked with departments like Facilities to coordinate the logistics of gamedays, which transforms Auburn into one of the largest cities in the state of Alabama for a few days each year.

Parking Services, Campus Dining, Campus Safety and Security, and Tiger Transit are also critical departments that work together to create a positive fan experience each year.

“Every department in Facilities Management plays a role in gameday,” said Josh Conradson, director of Maintenance within Facilities and last season’s Facilities’ gameday manager.

PRESERVING TRADITIONS

One of those team members is Director of Landscaping Justin Sutton. He and his family and friends have been tailgating on campus for 20 years.

“Tailgating is a tradition and an important part of the gameday experience,” he said.

Prior to any tailgating, Sutton will take a stroll around campus. This is a stroll with a purpose.

“Before each game, I take a walk around campus to check on everything and make sure it’s all running smoothly,” Sutton said. “If I notice anything that could be improved, I make note of it so we can address it before the next game.”

Sutton’s team recently completed two large beautification projects that came about due to his gameday routine, one near the campus green and a second along Wire Road.

“Our work during football season is mixed where we are student oriented and devoted to giving them a great student experience, and then we shift to the gameday experience for the fans on Saturday and safety for everyone,” Sutton said.

The first project included the renovation of several islands along the east side of the campus green. When these islands were originally planted, turfgrass and small trees were installed.

“As those trees matured it prohibited sunlight from getting to the grass below resulting in an area of bare ground,” said Dan Whatley, associate vice president of Facilities Operations within Facilities Management. “We tried using pine straw in the area, but it wouldn’t outlast what had become tailgate locations through the years.”

As a result, the team created a strong landscape design in which they installed a lot of new plants.

“We have been thinking about these landscape projects for a couple of years but put them on hold as we worked with our campus partners to communicate impacts to our fans,” Whatley said.

This project displaced nearly 30 tailgate locations, but Facilities worked with Athletics to find new ones.

“We worked with Jeremy Roberts and his team, and we were able to identify somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 new tailgate locations near Parker Hall and in the Lower Quad area,” Whatley said.

The second project took place along Wire Road across from the Kinesiology Building.

“We’ve completed a large landscape improvement project that includes new turf and new plantings,” Whatley said.

SETTING THE STAGE

Once the projects were completed, Facilities’ Maintenance Department began installing decorative fencing in June to protect the new landscape, and that was just the beginning of its work.

Maintenance begins gameday planning early in the year and puts the plan to work in June and July by setting up restroom trailers throughout campus, installing ropes to barricade inaccessible areas, placing light towers and charcoal bins in popular tailgate areas and much more.

These preparations are being coordinated by this season’s Facilities Gameday Manager Kyle Cordie, a one-year rotating assistant director’s position that oversees gameday, campus events and in-house construction.

“Working as the gameday manager includes a little bit of everything,” Cordie said. “I am working with our campus partners such as Athletics and Parking Services and just about every department within Facilities.”

Waste Reduction and Recycling and Utilities and Energy are two of those departments.

“We quite honestly never stop thinking about football,” said Joan Hicken, manager of Waste Reduction and Recycling. “After the season’s last game, we start working to inventory and clean our recycling bins and ClearStream recycling containers.”

The plan also involves collaboration with Revel XP, the vendor responsible for setting up tailgate tents. Her team places recycling and waste bins out for the hundreds of tents.

In addition, they distribute an additional 550 recycling and 1,375 waste bins for each home game.

Facilities’ Utilities and Energy Department also works with Revel XP. For safety purposes, especially in marking underground utilities, it is essential that the department is informed of all tent placement.

“Our Utilities Services team does a lot of utility locates around campus, not only for the tailgate tents, but also for the fence posts Facilities installs and large event tents,” said Ken Martin, director of Client Relations.

Utilities’ Electrical Distribution team works with Athletics to conduct power loss simulations at the stadium a month out from the first home game.

“Alabama Power also meets with us multiple times leading up to the season,” Martin said. “There is a lot of work on their end to make sure all the transmission lines coming into campus are in good shape.”

IT’S GAMEDAY

The street sweeper is at work. Facilities teams arrive at 5 a.m. to help set out traffic cones. As the sun comes up, more than 110 gameday volunteers from Facilities disperse to monitor restroom trailers, set out cones and barricades that help direct traffic flow, station technicians inside and out of the stadium, and monitor campus for any issues that might arise.

All their planning finally comes to fruition.

“Last year, we received a lot of positive feedback from the fans about how accommodating our teams were and that they always worked with a smile,” Conradson said. “The fact that they are still smiling at 10 o’clock at night after a long day in the sun speaks volumes to the impact Facilities has on the gameday experience.”

DON’T FORGET ABOUT SUNDAY

Hicken’s team returns as soon as the sun rises to begin collecting and emptying all waste and recycling bins to be stored until the next home game, and Landscaping volunteers arrive to pick up litter across campus.

“We will collect tailgate items that have been left behind such as coolers, grills, wagons, satellite dishes and more,” Sutton said. “We’ll store them in our building until they are claimed, and we donate items that aren’t.”

If Toomer’s Corner has been rolled, Landscaping will pick up toilet paper off the ground as a contractor removes it from the trees.

By Sunday afternoon, it’s hard to tell more than 100,000 fans were on campus just 24 hours prior.

“The biggest thing I learned during my season as gameday manager is just how much work Facilities does to truly support gameday,” Conradson said. “It is a monumental effort.”