Employees work behind the scenes to make football Saturdays run smoothly

Football Saturday: You head to campus, find your seats in the stadium, cheer, maybe jump around a bit, then go home. A fun way to spend the day, right?

Well, for these UW–Madison employees, Saturdays and the weekdays leading up to them during football season are packed with action that doesn’t necessarily take place on the field, but that is essential to ensuring the quintessential game-day experience.

Inside UW–Madison talked to three Camp Randall employees: Glenn Betts, stadium operations superintendent; Heidi Richardson, catering manager; and Kay Coleman, custodial operations manager. They provided a glimpse into what’s going on behind the scenes before, during and after the Badgers take the field.

Inside UW–Madison: What is your role at Camp Randall?

Betts: My role is oversight of the daily building operations, maintenance and care of Camp Randall Stadium. My department supports every sport and every department within athletics to ensure we have the best environment in our facilities as possible, both on a daily basis and for our events. My piece is just one out of a large and complex puzzle. I must make sure my staff completes our piece of the puzzle so all the other pieces can fit neatly into place. I like to think of my staff as the group that makes things happen.

I have a staff of 20 hardworking blue-collar people that range from skilled trades to those keeping our main concourses and seating areas clean. They all take pride in their responsibilities and work together as a team to have the stadium ready for each game. We also work with the campus Physical Plant and other outside entities who are just as important in making us game day ready. It takes a massive coordinated effort to host 80,000-plus people. The fans get to watch a great quality football team. Hopefully they can all go home having had a safe and enjoyable experience.

Richardson: I cater all the food for athletic events and outside groups that have meetings or events hosted at an athletic facility. My employees are mostly students here at the UW, though I do have a few employees that are out of school now that have stayed working with us.

Coleman: I oversee day-to-day cleaning as well as event cleaning: custodians, event rovers, restroom attendants, temp custodial staff. It takes two and a half to three hours to clean the entire stadium, with 65 people working on it before the game and up to 175 people working after.

Inside UW–Madison: Describe your typical game day or game week routine.

Betts: Each week and game is unique with its own set of challenges. This for me is what makes my job interesting.

For the most part though my week looks like this: Monday and Tuesday are filled mainly with debriefing my staff regarding facility issues from the previous game, the teardown and resetting of equipment, coordinating and tracking repairs, keeping up with the daily operational needs within the facility, meetings regarding other facilities or sporting events, working on projects and whatever else may pop up. By Wednesday I and the staff are fully involved with our game-day preparations. The staff does an excellent job of rolling with changes and getting things set up. I have more meetings specific to the game and also get more involved with the details of our setups. This involves working with numerous other entities including Event Management, UW Police, security staff, Guest Services, first aid, sports medicine, home and visiting teams, referees, marketing, television and radio media, and much more. Ensuring the field is safe for the athletes and that the stadium seating and concourse areas are clean and safe for our patrons are our first objectives.

Richardson: I go around to all areas to make sure that we are well-stocked with supplies and just make sure everything is ready to go when it’s game day. I also make a timeline for game day so that we know what is happening at what time and won’t miss anything getting delivered or set up. On game day when I arrive I get the staff that takes care of the TV media, photo media and staff feed prepped and ready to start setting up for their meals. I also start opening doors at other areas that my staff work so when they arrive they are able to start working right away. After all that is done I will go around to all of our areas and help staff set up and get ready for when the guests arrive. We have many areas that we cater to around the stadium; depending on the game we could have up to 10 areas that we are working.

Inside UW–Madison: What is the biggest challenge you face in getting ready for a game?

Betts: As I said before about being one of many pieces to a puzzle – the pieces to a game-day/week puzzle are constantly moving. Changes to our game-day plan are constantly being made to improve game day and its atmosphere. I need to reshuffle the staff’s daily work to ensure we keep up with these changes. It’s part of what makes my job challenging and fun.

Inside UW–Madison: Is there anything different about getting ready for a really big game, such as this weekend’s Nebraska game, vs. a lower-profile game?

Betts: To be honest, just like everyone the excitement level throughout the week is more elevated. And the pressure might feel greater, in that there is usually more overall preparation involved due to extra activities in and around the stadium, but that doesn’t change our approach. Our preparation, pride, and attention to the detail in our work is still the same.

Richardson: The only difference between getting ready for a big game like Nebraska or Ohio State and a lower-profile game is the media that comes. When we played Ohio State we had ESPN HD, ESPN 3D, ESPN Game Day, which all needed food throughout the day on Saturday and also on Friday. There is a lot more work that needs to be done to ensure that they also have a great experience at Camp Randall. On lower-profile games we usually just have one TV media group come, which is less stressful. 

Coleman: We have more things going on, so I will bring in more staff to work during the game.

Inside UW–Madison: What change have you made or initiative have you started that you are most proud of?

Betts: I’m proud of a lot of things here, from the people to the quality of our facilities. I think what I am proud of most is something that we as an athletic department have done in recent years that has impacted dozens of schools around the country, that is to treat visiting schools/teams with respect by making sure their experience here at Wisconsin is a good one. By planning and assisting visiting teams with meeting their needs before, during and after a game, we’ve developed a reputation like no other school in the country. Other universities around the country say “Nobody does it like Wisconsin. They do it right.” I’m proud of that.