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F
EW FANS HAVE A BETTER SEAT AT CARTER-FINLEY STADIUM
than Jack Moorman ’01 mpa. He is perched high above the 35-yard line
in a glassed-in booth that provides protection from the rain, cool air on
hot days and television monitors where he can catch replays or check scores. Yet
Moorman pays little attention to the game. As chief of campus police at NC State,
he’s here to work. He uses his seat in the command center on the fourth level of
the stadium to scan the crowd through binoculars. He studies a television monitor fed by cameras that zoom in to take a closer look at potential problems, from
fi ghts in the stands to fans needing medical attention. “Sometimes a couple of
touchdowns will be scored and I won’t even have realized it,” he says.
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photograph by ted richardson
Scores of people work behind the scenes to make
game days a reality at Carter-Finley Stadium.
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u
field is m nd s
o w e d.
photograph by justin cook
g e d. T h e
No detail is too small, either in
the chain of command posted
for those in charge of safety,
left, or for the operations meeting held each Tuesday of game
weeks in Vaughn Towers, above.
Adina Stock ’03, ’05 mr, center,
makes sure any concerns or problems are resolved.
photograph by justin cook
Moorman is part of a team of people—some contractors,
some university employees—who make football games at
Carter-Finley possible. From preparing the field to handling traffic to cooking the food to keeping track of the
messages on the scoreboard, scores of people come together
to make game day happen. Fans don’t see most of it, but
it’s a carefully choreographed countdown where attention
to detail is paramount. And it doesn’t all happen in the
stadium. On game day, there’s even a small group at work
inside Reynolds Coliseum, connected to Carter-Finley by
more than five miles of fiber-optic cable, putting together
highlight reels and other images that will be shown on
the football stadium’s large scoreboard. NC State Athletics
granted NC State magazine full access to a couple of football games last fall so we could tell the story of the team
that works behind the scenes to make home games a great
experience for Wolfpack fans.
Much of the work to prepare CarterFinley takes place before football season
begins. Groundskeepers tend to the field,
1.4 acres of Bermuda grass. Army ROTC
If a scre
members spend two weeks installing
w is loos
padded back seats for season ticket
eo
tightened
. If a sm n a seat, it is
holders who pay a premium for the
a
ll liq
jammed in
a toilet— a uor bot tle is
comfort. Ushers attend a cookout
problem—
n all–too
where they learn about new rules
it is take
com
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are o f. T mon
f golf ca
for each season, such as a new
he fleet
r ts used
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ban last season on smoking and
e s tad ium get workers
umbrellas in the stadium.
is char
and gro
Once the season gets underway, the work for the next
game begins immediately after the previous one. Reports
on everything from arrests to ticket scanner problems to
parking are submitted to Adina Stock ’03, ’05 mr, assistant
athletics director for operations. Stock forwards the reports
to Athletics Director Debbie Yow by noon Sunday. Repairs
are made on Monday. If a screw is loose on a seat, it is
tightened. If a small liquor bottle is jammed in a toilet—
an all-too-common problem—it is taken care of. The fleet
of golf carts used to get workers around the stadium and
grounds is charged. The field is mowed.
SETTING THE STAGE
Every Tuesday before a home game, a meeting in Vaughn
Towers brings together representatives from every aspect of
putting on game day. Most of the nearly 40 people attending are men, but the varying attire—from suits to athletic
shorts and T-shirts–shows a range of responsibilities from
security to concessions to ticket sales. A mural of past NC
State football greats on the wall behind them includes
images from each decade back to the 1920s. Running the
show is Stock, a former NC State gymnast who oversees
operations for athletic events.
“Any leftover items from last week?” Stock asks. She
lets everyone know that a “card stunt” from the previous
week’s game, where the fans used heavy-stock cards
placed on their seats to spell out “THIS IS OUR STATE,”
had been “officially retired.” The stunt had been a hit,
making great halftime visuals for ESPN, but a handful
of fans then turned their cards into heavyweight paper
airplanes and launched them onto the field or into the
stands. One of the cardboard airplanes resulted in an
injury that required stitches, and Moorman and his
officers spent much of the second half watching for fans
www.alumni.ncsu.edu 31
constructing or launching paper airplanes. “The signs
are extremely dangerous,” Moorman says, weighing in
during the meeting.
“It’s retired,” Stock says. “That was the last time.”
This week’s game is against Central Michigan. It’s also
Parents and Families Weekend, an annual event that brings
about 3,000 mothers and fathers to their first NC State football game. “They will have a lot of questions, so help them,”
says Brian Kelly, associate athletics director for ticket sales
and operations. Much of the meeting deals with small
details, like a lock that wouldn’t open at one gate last week.
Of greater concern is that the football team arrived 20 minutes early last week for the Walk of Champions, so few fans
were present to cheer on the players as they walked from
the buses to the locker rooms.
Later in the week, the video boards, the public address
system and the ticket scanners are checked and checked
again. The CO2 canisters, which are used to create a plume
of smoke as the Wolfpack runs out of the tunnel, are filled
and tested.
PICKING UP THE PACE
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photographs by ted richardson
Workers from outside organizations, such as Mary McLaurin, left, and the crew
from LPSC Cleaning Services, below, provide much of the manpower needed
during the days leading up to a game. The grounds crew takes a quick break
from work to get the field ready, bottom left.
photographs by ted richardson
Much of the work getting the field in order is done by hand, above,
while contractors keep the stadium itself clean, bottom right.
Sales of concessions such as bottled water vary according to the
temperature at game time.
The pace quickens on Thursday. By 8 a.m., a facilities crew
member in a golf cart pulls a string along one of the sidelines, the first step in repainting the field markings that
look dull and faded in the morning dew. Workers with a
contracted cleaning service stock the bathrooms. A forklift
unloads 180,000 plastic cups off the back of a tractor-trailer.
Mary McLaurin is getting an early start setting up the concession stand she runs for Crosswave Discipleship, one of
dozens of nonprofits that staff concessions stands in return
for a percentage of the proceeds. By 9 a.m., the tractor-trailer
with the plastic cups has been replaced by a Coca-Cola truck
delivering pallets filled with bottles of water. Four workers
are using leaf blowers to clear the concourse of debris.
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summer 2014
security photograph by ted richardson
production room photograph by justin cook
concessions photograph by ted richardson; kitchen and elevator photograph by justin cook
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The kitchen crew, including executive catering
chef Mark Turner, above left, works in cramped
spaces, even sharing an elevator with fans, below
left, to get food up to the suites in Vaughn Towers.
On the stadium’s top level, Greg Pray ’09, ’13 mr,
above, checks the computers that control what’s
seen on the stadium’s scoreboard and electronic
message boards. Safety, of course, is always a
top priority, below.
Daryl Liles ’98 as is slowly driving the paint sprayer
on the field. Liles is the turf supervisor at Carter-Finley,
and he works on the outer lines first, periodically leaning
over to make sure he’s following the twine line, and then
outlines the numbers and paints the hash lines. It will take
him five hours to finish. His brother, Derek Liles ’98 as,
the facility supervisor at Carter-Finley, is filling
in one end zone with a paint gun. The brothers work with
six other members of the facilities crew, loading and
unloading the wooden boards containing the yard line
stencils, gathering white paint splatter on their legs.
In the kitchen, the prep work for Saturday’s game begins
at noon. The kitchen staff works from an extensive checklist, slicing zucchini, cucumbers, squash and celery for
vegetable trays and honeydew melon, cantaloupe, pineapple
and strawberries for fruit trays. Much of the prep work
must be done in advance because there won’t be time—or
space—to get it all done in the few hours before the game,
says Mark Turner, an executive catering chef with the university’s dining operation. The kitchen is cramped, and
cooks have to be careful not to bump into each other. The
walk-in freezer is stuffed, requiring carts of food to be
rearranged each time someone needs to retrieve something. “We make the impossible possible,” Turner says.
GAME DAY
Kickoff is scheduled
for 3:34 p.m. But
“T he atmosphere is crazy,
Kathy Gardner is
manning her post
but everyone is excited.
outside the Murphy
It’s like controlled chaos.”
Center by 7 a.m. She
supervisor
works for Staff One,
—Dave McLaughlin, kitchen
the company NC
State contracts with
to provide ushers, and
right now her job is to
make sure cars don’t
drive into the Murphy
Center lot, which is reserved for the recreational vehicles
that some fans stay in overnight. Dave McLaughlin, one
of the kitchen supervisors, arrives a few minutes later and
gets to work preparing 200 pounds of sirloin that will be
served in Vaughn Towers. “Game days, that’s what I look
forward to,” says McLaughlin. “The atmosphere is crazy,
but everyone is excited. It’s like controlled chaos.”
Out on the concourse, a contractor unloads crates of
lemons, frozen lemonade and pretzel dough at concession
stands. More cooks and other workers head to the kitchen
after they are dropped off in a van shortly before 9:30 a.m.
In the kitchen McLaughlin brushes barbecue sauce on
trays of beef brisket, while Turner grabs a banana for himself. “You’ve got to eat something during the day,” he says.
Outside, ice is loaded on golf carts to deliver to concession stands. Police officers walk throughout the stadium
to conduct a security sweep, and Stock and her staff are
getting set up in the command center on the fourth level
of the stadium.
For now, though, the primary action is in the kitchen.
“HOT PAN! HOT PAN! HOT PAN!’’ yells one cook as
he makes his way through the crowded space with large
metal pots that will be used to make macaroni and cheese.
Someone else prepares trays of cookies for the suites, barbecue chicken is cooking in the ovens in the back, and a tomato
and mozzarella salad is being made at a table up front. The
staff routinely checks with each other, seeing if anyone
needs a hand. “HOT PAN! COMING THROUGH! HOT
PAN!” They need to get some peach cobblers into the ovens,
but the chicken is taking longer than expected.
Up on the fourth level, Greg Pray ’09, ’13 mr has the production room to himself to make final preparations for the
game. Pray is the director of multimedia for NC State
athletics, essentially serving as the director of the show that
will take place on the scoreboard and electronic ribbons during the game. “What we’re doing is supplementary to the
game-day experience,” he says. “We enhance it. They notice
us more if we are screwing up.’’ He has to make sure what
he has in the computer matches the 22-page script that tells
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the public address announcer what to say and when to say
it and gives Pray and his team direction on when to air
certain promotions or when to capture scenes of fans for
the video screen.
Down in the bowels of the stadium, the Liles brothers
and their crew gather for a lunch of macaroni and cheese
and barbecue chicken. A John Deere mower becomes a
table, while one of the workers sits and eats in the back of
a utility truck. Their work is mostly finished until game
time, when they will break into teams of three to raise and
lower the net behind each goal post for extra point and
field goal attempts. One of those teams will set off the CO2
canisters that mark the team’s entrance into the stadium.
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volunteer staff and 105 minute meeting photograph by ted richarson; justice tent photograph by roger winstead ’87, nc state
Stock’s pregame routine includes a talk with ushers, above left, and a meeting with the game’s officials, center left. For some
games, police use a holding area to help fans who may have had too much to drink, above right, and are constantly on the
lookout from the operations center on the stadium’s fourth level, below, for potential problems.
control room monitor ing and binocular photograph by justin cook
Daryl Liles ’98 gets a kick out of the part of his job calling for
him to man the ropes in the south end zone that raise and
lower the net for extra point or field goal attempts.
Stock, who has been strolling through parking lots and
the concourse, makes her way to Gate 7 to meet with the
ushers from Staff One. Some of them are swapping stories
from last week’s game against Clemson, talking about the
empty whiskey bottles they found in some sections. A Staff
One supervisor has a surprise for Stock. “Is it chocolate?”
Stock asks. It is, as in chocolate chip cookies, and Stock is
appreciative. “This is a funky game because I eat breakfast
and I can’t eat again until 3:30,” she says.
Stock reminds the ushers that it is Parents and Families
Weekend and that some fans may need help finding their
seats. She gets a laugh when she says she hopes students will be better behaved because their parents are
there. “You’re laughing because you know it’s not going
to happen,” Stock says.
Alcohol is not allowed in Carter-Finley Stadium, but it
routinely makes its way in. While ushers check bags of fans
coming into stadiums, they are under strict orders not to pat
down fans or touch them in any way. That makes it easy for
fans to get alcohol into the stadium. The evidence is everywhere. There are “biospills”—Carter-Finley vernacular indicating a fan has thrown up—that must be cleaned up, or the
tiny bottles that jam the urinals. For higher profile games,
such as the one against Clemson the previous week, the
police set up a holding area along the concourse where
they can deal with fans who have had too much to drink
before ejecting them from the stadium (with a responsible
companion). “The later the game is, the more ejections
you’re going to have,” Moorman says. “You’re only going to
be so drunk by noon. By 7 p.m., you can be pretty drunk.”
Shortly after Stock meets with the ushers, Pray’s team
of cameramen, gaffers and sound technicians—many of
them NC State students—gathers in the production room
to go over the plans for the game. Pray reads the entire
script aloud, adding instructions about where cameras
need to be at certain times and what sorts of shots to look
for. “Team will come out,’’ Pray says. “Brandon, you know
where you’ve got to be for that. Get the shot. They’ll head
out. We’ve got a flyover. Team will take the field, and we
will move into position to cover the game. Larry, stay out
for the coin toss. If we’re receiving the opening kick, we’ll
do the KFC Kickoff. In either case, once that kickoff is done,
we’ll do CPI Lineups for our offense or defense as soon as
that gets in. Do you all know who our starting tailback is,
or do we just wait until he gets on the field?”
“Yeah, we just have to wait,” says a voice piped in from
Reynolds Coliseum.
“We’ll play it by ear on the starting tailback, Josh,” Pray
says. “Let’s see . . . so let’s play us some football.”
At 1:49 p.m., Stock, Moorman and others gather with the
referees and chain crew in a room under the stands in the
north end zone. This is an ACC-mandated meeting known
photograph by ted richardson
CROWD CONTROL
www.alumni.ncsu.edu 37
KICKING THINGS OFF
Pray and his crew are hard at work in the production room
as the game begins. When a Wolfpack player returns an
interception for a touchdown a few minutes into the game,
Pray punches a button, causing the word “TOUCHDOWN”
to appear on the scoreboard. Then, speaking through his
headset, Pray tells one of his cameramen to get a shot of
Mr. Wuf doing push-ups to celebrate the score.
As the game moves into the second quarter, the crew
in the command center is dealing with an endless litany
of minor problems. A biospill in Section 123. A medical
situation in Section 113. A young female fan is having difficulty staying on her feet. Moorman turns his binoculars
to some movement in a student section. It’s a student in
shorts and no shirt who is just enjoying the afternoon. “He
had some pretty good dance moves,” Moorman says. By
halftime, the Wolfpack is up 35-0. “Lopsided games are
easier,” Moorman says. “We’ll probably cut our staffing in
the third quarter.”
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fl agpole photograph by justin cook; trash clean up by ted richardson
Midway through the second half, work in the kitchen
has slowed to a crawl. McLaughlin, still wired from a steady
stream of coffee, says they got everything out on time despite
some tie-ups with the ovens. Executive Chef Mack Bell
pauses to take a phone call, then yells out to his staff that
there’s more cleanup to be done: “We need to get dirties
off the club level. Dirties will start rolling down soon.”
trash clean up photographs by ted richardson; satellite production phtograph by becky kirkland, nc state
Much of the work takes place outside the stadium, be
it cleaning up after tailgating, above, or feeding the
stadium’s scoreboards from a room inside Reynolds
Coliseum, below.
as the 105 Minute Meeting—because it takes place 105
minutes before kickoff. Moorman talks about evacuation
plans in case of an emergency, and the referees coordinate
with TV crews about timeouts.
“Five minutes until we open all gates,” says a voice over
Stock’s walkie-talkie. It’s Demar Bonnemere ’03 mr, who
works with Stock in operations, from his perch at the top
of the stadium. Then, a few minutes later, “One minute
until we open all gates. Adina, you good?” Stock, who is
still in the bowels of the stadium, tells Bonnemere over the
walkie-talkie, “I’m great.”
With that, the gates are opened. It is precisely 2 p.m.
Stock heads outside the stadium to check on the flow
through the gates. Gate 7 on the east side of the stadium
has been a choke point at past games, so Stock tells some
fans they can go through Gates 8 or 9. “Everyone’s coming
at the same time,” she says. “We just have to get them in.”
As fans move in, Jonnathan Hernandez and his crew
with CMS Cleaning hit the parking lots to clean up the
trash left over from tailgaters. Before long, Hernandez has
mountains of clear bags—tinted blue from all the Bud
Light cans and silver from the Coors and Natural Light
cans—stacked on the top of his trailer to take to trash
bins behind the PNC Arena. It is nasty work, with stale
beer erupting from the torn bags and spraying all over his
utility truck as the workers toss the heavy bags.
As kickoff approaches, the pace in the kitchen has slowed
down. Some of the staff has moved up into the Dail Club to
tend to the buffet line. “How about some roast beef ?” JoAnn
Rey, who had been working in the kitchen earlier, asks a fan
in the line as the NC State Clogging Club entertains other
fans nearby.
WINDING DOWN
With the game a blowout in favor of the Wolfpack, fans
pour out of the stadium midway through the fourth
quarter. Outside of Gate 11 is a rag-tag bunch waiting to
come into the game—day laborers who are hoping to be
paid $8 an hour to join the crew cleaning up the stadium.
“They can’t get work anywhere else,” says Larry Bell, who
owns LPSC Cleaning Service. “Some of them have drug
problems, some are homeless.”
Once the game is over, Bell directs his makeshift crew
into the stadium and starts handing out dark bags to collect trash and clear bags to collect recyclables. He pairs the
workers off, sending each down a row of seats to work their
way around the stadium. “Don’t get your bags too heavy,”
Bell shouts, struggling to bring order to their efforts.
By 7 p.m., there’s no trace of action left on the field. The
only movement under the pink September dusk comes
from the Liles
brothers and the
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the outer edge of the field, picking up empty bottles and
trash. They mow the field to get rid of anything loose,
then blow the debris off and sweep it. They ascend CarterFinley’s steps to take down the flags of each ACC school
that sway atop the stadium. And with that, the only thing
left to do is power down the scoreboard and lights.
That is until Sunday morning, when Stock, Moorman,
the Liles brothers and all the others who make game day
possible start planning for the one thing they can always
count on—the next home game.
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redandwhiteforlife.com
Read more about some of the people who help
stage football games at Carter-Finley Stadium.
keywords: Game Day
www.alumni.ncsu.edu
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