Special Event Management students go behind the scenes on gameday

Students in the Special Event Operations class PRM 423 were given a behind the scenes tour of Mountain America Stadium at the ASU Sun Devils home opener on Thursday night.  They were given a tour of most areas of the stadium that your average attendee does not get to see.  These included learning about the check-in process at Desert Financial Arena for the more than 2,000 people working the game.

After check-in, students then headed over to the stadium to watch ingress through security then met with staff from ASU 365 Community Union to learn about the San Tan Ford Club, ASU Police’s Sub Station, Stadium Security Video Operations, Press Box, Command Center and how the stadium is used for non-athletic events.

While touring the stadium the students were encouraged to look at all the stadium operations through the eyes of an event coordinator -- specifically, ingress, security, crowd control, concessions and the various areas of the venue. They also were instructed to try to determine how the guests were being engaged, if there were events within events. And, finally, they were tasked with pointing out potential problem areas and noting if these areas were meeting their overall goals of the operations for a football game.

Shortly after the game had started, students were released from Stephen Potter's class to enjoy the game, all the while still viewing through the eyes of an event manager. Those who stayed also had a unique opportunity to see how stadium operations handled an evacuation of the stadium due to the major storm and lighting that began at half time.