One of Peter Sullivan’s best moments as a stadium manager came during the 2007 Fiesta Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium.
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Ian Johnson scores the winning 2-point conversion.
Photo by: Getty Images |
Boise State, a 7.5-point underdog, upended Oklahoma 43-42 after pulling off a trick play in overtime. Most fans remember it for Broncos running back Ian Johnson’s on-field marriage proposal to his cheerleader girlfriend after scoring the deciding points. Three years later, ESPN reporter Pat Forde ranked the game as the second-most memorable in college football behind the 2006 Rose Bowl.
“As the game unfolded, it became evident that Boise State [was] not going away,” Sullivan said. “Their fans were taunting the Oklahoma people. For 3 1/2 quarters, OU was getting their butts kicked and they finally crawled their way back into it and scored and went ahead. Then, to see the comeuppance from Oklahoma. You saw what happened next, the Statue of Liberty [play], and the kid runs over to the corner of our end zone and proposes to his girlfriend on national television.”
“We were part of that and people still talk about that here,” Sullivan said. “It’s those kinds of things that make what we do fun and exciting.”
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In 1989 or 1990, the World Wrestling Federation staged an event at the Olympic Saddledome, featuring Jake “The
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Jake Roberts drags his python toward an opponent.
Photo by: Getty Images |
Snake” Roberts. Roberts was known for releasing his pet python, Damien, in the ring, often wrapping it around his opponents after a victory.
On this day, a fan showed up with his own pet, telling the folks at the turnstiles that he just wanted Jake to meet it.
“We actually had to check a snake,” said Libby Raines, who has run the building since it opened in 1983. “And yes, it was a python.”
She put the heavy creature, who was in a canvas bag, in the usher’s office until after the show.
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Every concert creates a lasting memory for facility managers. For Allen Johnson, Amway Center’s executive director, the memory of a country music show in Orlando featuring Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan was for all the wrong reasons.
On Jan. 22, 2012, the singers were performing on a secondary stage on the floor in the middle of the audience when “some guy who probably had too much to drink” inadvertently hit a pressure valve in a stairwell that firemen use to test the facility’s water flow, Johnson said.
“There are only two things that completely shut our venue down and go into emergency evacuation status [and that’s one of them],” he said. “They’re on the B stage and the power goes down. They can’t even talk in the microphone.”
Johnson made a beeline for the arena’s security control room. The other thing that shuts the arena’s power off is an automatic sprinkler system. Officials determined there was no fire and were able to turn the power back on in five minutes, he said.
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One of the craziest days of Brenda Tinnen’s professional career was also one of the saddest considering the circumstances.
As facility managers, “we all have our own unique things that occur that you have to deal with, those unforeseen moments when you have to cancel something as it’s in motion,” said Tinnen, Sprint Center’s general manager.
For Tinnen, that moment came on Oct. 26, 2009. Bruce Springsteen was set to perform before a sold-out crowd at the Kansas City venue. At 5:30 p.m., shortly before concertgoers were to be let inside, Tinnen got a call to “hold doors” and to go to the production office. “That’s never a good call to get at that time,” Tinnen said. “I went down and was advised that due to an unfortunate situation in the Springsteen family we would have to cancel the show.”
The cancellation came after Bruce Springsteen’s cousin, Lenny Sullivan, who also served as the singer’s assistant tour manager, was found dead in a Kansas City hotel room.
Sprint Center officials had no choice but to tell those waiting outside that the concert was canceled. In addition, Tinnen’s staff got the word out quickly through other forms of communication, including Twitter, email blasts, the arena’s marquee and a highway billboard.
“It was one of the best uses of social media that we have ever had,” Tinnen said. “It was very sad and confusing with a lot of things going on.”
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Jim Folk said the shower that White Sox owner Bill Veeck installed in center field at Comiskey Park was often the
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The Comiskey Park shower in calmer times.
Photo by: Chicago White Sox |
site of scuffles.
“Inevitably, on a hot afternoon in Chicago, you’d get a bunch of hooligans who’d grab some pretty young thing and decide it was time for an impromptu wet T-shirt contest. Her boyfriend would, of course, have to defend her honor and would get his ass kicked. Then we’d have to wade in there and our gang was always bigger, so we never lost one, although a few of those got a little spooky. My sunglasses and wristwatches after the first year I worked there all came out of lost and found, because mine were constantly getting destroyed.”
