Have you ever worked in a sports stadium? Are you curious about all the different moving parts it takes for an event to run smoothly?
Here are just a few of the different stadium event jobs:
- Merchandise sales
- Cashier/Ticket Sales
- Catering (cashier, grill cook, food and beverage runners, order taker, warehouse worker, dishwasher, etc)
- Security
- Concessions
- Suite attendants
- Janitorial services
- Site set up and break down
- Facility maintenance
- Parking staff
- Lighting and sound engineers
- Ticket takers
- Ushers
- And so many more…
Today’s deep dive and walk down memory lane started with, of course, a podcast episode!
Meet Jonah the Vendor
This episode of On the Job Podcast features guest Jonah Fialkow who works as a food and drinks vendor at Wrigley Stadium. Jonah shares behind-the-scenes of his days as a vendor on Instagram and TikTok. Check it out!
Get to know the Wrigley Field vendors
Jonah did a series about each of his fellow vendors. Here’s the first one – “Uncle” Ronnie Blank
On the Job Podcast – Stadium-Sized Ambition
Listen the full interview with Jonah to hear more about his system for deciding which product to sell on any given game day and more!
Get Another Perspective From Beer Man, Howard Hart
Howard Hart spent three decades working as a stadium beer vendor. I really enjoyed listening to how his experiences differ from the current day vending of Jonah the vendor. I teared up twice listening to Howard’s story – once in the podcast and again watching the WP video.
Listen to What It’s Like to Be a Stadium Beer Vendor podcast episode:
Looking for a shorter clip? Watch this feature story about Howard from the Washington Post.
Did you see how heavy those beer buckets looked? Wowsers!
Just For Fun
Charlie Berens has a great beer man skit!
Behind the Camera
Here are a couple peeks into life behind the camera at the stadium. First a sports photographer, working down on the field. Then a camera operator working up in the stands.
Day in the Life of a Sports Photographer
In my research of stadium jobs, I found this video from a sports photographer, Joey Pusateri. He shoots every home game for the Chicago Bears and walks us through what a typical game day looks like for him.
Day in the Life of a Broadcast Camera Operator
Ashton Gulledge walks us through what it’s like to operate a broadcast camera during a Utah football game.
A Walk Down Memory Lane
Selling Sodas at Football Games
Listening to Jonah talk about selling in the stands brought me back to my days hawking sodas at the Air Force Academy football games.
In high school I spent home game Saturday afternoons lugging a very heavy tray of sodas – wet, sloshy, sticky sodas – up and down and up and down through the stands all through the game. When I was selling (back in the late 80s), there was a machine that would place a plastic wrap seal over each filled soda cup on the tray. Needless to say, the seals didn’t always stick so by the end of the day I was covered with sticky soda.
I thought for sure this technology was outdated and no longer used. I went to Google to see if I could find any old photos and apparently cup sealers are still a thing! I couldn’t find any bulk machines (in my memory, it sealed a whole tray at once) but it looks like boba shops and other places use the cup sealers.
You can see a cup sealer demo here.
It looks like they have at least improved the seal quality in the last 40 years. Haha!
Peek into the Day in the Life of a Drink Vendor at Penn State.
Ushering Basketball Games
After selling sodas, my next stadium job was ushering basketball games at Northwestern University.
The ROTC unit received money from the university for providing usher service at home basketball games and each season we midshipmen would take turns working a handful of games. We would be stationed around the arena throughout the game to direct people and answer questions and at the end of the game we would help keep fans off the court.
Did you know that the final two minutes of a basketball game can last forever? We would be stationed in the corners at the two-minute warning but ended up waiting much longer than two minutes for the final buzzer. So many timeouts and fouls and…
After the game we would clean up all the trash left behind.
Can we all agree to pick up our trash on the way out of an event instead of leaving a mess behind? Just one small way to make the world a better place…
This video shows a peek into the post-game cleanup after a football game in Kansas City.
And this article from Nebraska tells about the ROTC post-game cleaning at the university.
Can’t get enough? Students cleaning the Clemson stadium:
I will say that even though the walk to the arena was long and cold (hello, winter in Chicago!), I am glad that we did basketball games instead of football games!
It Runs in the Family!
Not only have I done a few stadium jobs in the past, but it runs in the family! A cousin works in broadcasting and my daughter just spent a season doing game day operations for the local NWSL team.
Behind the Scenes of Sports Broadcasting
Have you ever wondered about what sort of equipment is needed to broadcast games on television? A cousin works in this field and invited us down to get a look behind the scenes before an MLS game.
The kids and I had a fabulous time checking out the equipment trailers and the various broadcasting locations around the stadium!
Now see a broadcast team in action with a look behind the scenes of a cricket match broadcast on Fox.
Game Day Operations
My girls, especially Felisa, have always loved their cousin Tina’s cool stadium job and this year Felisa had the chance to work on the game day operations team for the Washington Spirit. It was long 12+ hour days for each match but she had fun being in the midst of all the action.
Felisa’s duties included things like setting up barriers, prepping locker rooms, escorting kids for on-field activities, and more!
Game Day Preparation Trivia
Here are some fun facts I’ve learned about stadium jobs!
- It takes one person with a push mower about four hours to mow an NFL grass field.
- It takes four people about 10 hours to paint the field from scratch.
- To paint field lines, numbers, hashes, and logos takes 170 gallons of paint.
- The in-house production staff at Lambeau Field is 35 people on game day.
- The video team of an NFL game operates 12 cameras on game day (eight manned, four unmanned).
- Lambeau Field preps enough fireworks for 6 touchdowns each game.
- Fans that volunteer to clear snow at Lambeau are paid $12/hour. They usually need about 600 volunteers to clear the stadium before the game.
- Three days before the game, an NFL team must certify that it’s field meets NFL standards.
- Members of the technology crew where different colored hats to match their job.
- Ushers and Ticket Scanners at the Super Bowl are paid an average of $14.50/hour
- One drink vendor at a Penn State game tracked 11,773 steps (that’s nearly five miles and over 1,300 calories).
(A few of these are specific to Lambeau Field but I’m sure there are similar statistics for many of the NFL stadiums. Check Youtube for other teams.)
Watch Game Day Preparations
This video is a fun walkthrough of all the different preparations for an NFL game. (The NFL has blocked the embedding feature <eye roll> so if you want to watch, you’ll have to go to YouTube directly.)
Every stadium event takes hundreds of people working together to make it a success! See how many different jobs you can spot on your next game day visit!
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Interesting!