Episode 4: A Day at the (Conte) Forum

This episode is an excellent example of how excited this job was to me at the time. This isn't even about an event. It's about learning about a future event. It's funny how lost I was in BC's Conte Forum, a building I now know inside and out. From a writing perspective, I'm getting looser with my style, a bit warmer voice along with more anecdotal stuff instead of just a straight-up description of events. This was originally written on August 23, 2007.


I had orientation for Boston College the other day. No, I’m not going there as a student, I’m working there! HAHAHAHA! Man, I focus way too much on making myself laugh.


Anyway, TeamOps, which is owned by Bob Kraft (the Patriots owner) handles sporting events at BC, as well as Harvard. I think this is a really good way for a sports team to make some extra dough, outsource your employees, who have experience handling events, to other local events.


I was excited when I found out that TeamOps does Boston College events. It’s funny, I hate BC kids (their sense of entitlement combined with the arrogance that comes with any large/good school), but I love BC sports, particularly hockey.


Getting to Boston College is no picnic. It’s about 20 miles from my house, but it took about 40 minutes, most of which were spent meandering through Newton and Chestnut Hill on Route 30, which is just a delight at 5 PM on a Wednesday.


The orientation was supposed to take place in the Shea Room in the Conte Forum (BC’s hockey/basketball arena), but was moved to the Media Room. I got inside the Conte Forum with ease (every door was open, anyone could have gone in and played hoops in BC’s court), and realized quickly that I had no idea where the Media Room was. After a lovely tour of the building, I found someone who directed me to the orientation.


A few fun facts about Boston College’s athletic facilities:
The Conte Forum and Alumni Stadium are connected. The Media Room we met in is accessed by walking under the basketball court in one direction, or walking off the football field in the other direction. The visiting locker room for hockey teams is also the training room for visiting football teams.


For some reason, they place their student section right next to the sections allotted for the other team’s fans. That’s why you’re not in the Ivy League, BC.


Alumni Stadium is all aluminum seating (they should call it ALUMINI Stadium, HAHAHA!). The Event Manager at BC (the guy in charge of TeamOps there) described this. “It’s a gigantic lightning rod.” The Stadium has evacuation procedures in place, because there are literally acres of aluminum out there. Once again, we see just how smart BC is.


The sections of the Stadium are lettered, not numbered. So they go A, B, C, not 1, 2, 3. In the upper deck, they are double lettered, AA, BB, CC. There is no section I, but there is a section II. There are no sections M or N, but there is a section MM. Confusing things even more is that the gates are also lettered, but have little to no correlation with the seats. Section letters go up counter-clockwise, gate letters go up clockwise. Gate A is outside Section H. Gate B is outside G, Gate C is outside A, Gate D is outside Z, Gate E is outside W, Gate F is outside O. Seat numbers also go higher clockwise. This poor (and easily fixed but somehow ignored) design is the complete opposite of Gillette Stadium. At Gillette, the gates are named, not lettered or numbered. Also, the sections get higher in the same direction as the seats. Gillette is easy to navigate, Alumni Stadium is not.





There is no alcohol allowed in the Stadium, except in the luxury boxes. Luxury boxes are not exclusive, and a luxury box owner can let in anyone he/she wants to. Anyone can drink as much as they want in the box.


BC uses its adjacent baseball field as a tailgate area. To curb student drinking, alcohol is not allowed to be carried in. However, cars can bring in as much alcohol as they want to.


A ticket is required for the tailgate area. Friends and family of players get their tickets inside the Stadium. There is no readmittance to the Stadium, so friends and family cannot go to the tailgate area, because they get their tickets once already inside the Stadium.


The Boston College police handle all security at sporting events. We’re there to provide customer service and be the eyes and ears of the BCPD. Last season, the BCPD found themselves a bit too thin to handle security at big games like Virginia Tech (a Thursday night game), and this year we’re hosting Miami and in state UMass, so I wouldn’t be shocked if the BCPD once again begged us for security assistance.


The head of Homeland Security will be inspecting Alumni Stadium during an upcoming game. He’s going to love the fact that the parking garage lies underneath the grandstand, and that the BC Police do not search bags at the gates.


The weirdest moment of the orientation occurred when the Event Manager asked a strange question. See, he was in the Army, and was from Louisiana. He was kind of an “Anything can and will happen” type of guy. He used to work for the Saints until Katrina. When talking about lightning striking the Stadium, he asked us “Who here fears death?” Oddly enough, nobody raised their hand. Apparently, I’m working with a very brave and heroic bunch of ticket takers and ushers, that will gladly look death in the eye, laugh, and say “Excuse me, may I please see your ticket, sir?”