Budgets Heating Up (2/23)

My day on February 23 consisted of a review of the winterization procedure for the Stadium. This involved a walk around the Stadium to locate and document various water shut off valves to the water pipes that run underneath the field to help melt snow during the winter months, locating water spigots outside of the concessions stands, and documenting which bathrooms needed additional attention due to various areas of the Stadium going without heating for the winter months. All of this information is going to be compiled into a Winterization document for future use. This process also included a discussion regarding budget conversations. Specifically, the difficulty of discussing budgets with individuals and departments that do not regularly work within the Stadium. Andrew, my mentor and the Maintenance Manager for the Stadium, shared that, in the past, the budget office required the heat to be turned off to the majority of the Stadium, which made maintenance work miserable and much more intensive as it was more difficult to maintain the various areas of the Stadium without proper heating. Once Andrew was hired for the position, he made the decision to keep the heat on at a low level, but high enough to avoid any freezing issues in the bathrooms specifically. This resulted in very little change to the electricity usage but still resulted in a budgetary discussion in which Andrew was questioned for making the decision to keep the heat on during the winter. He shared with me that it is often difficult to have these conversations with departments that are not present at the Stadium and are only seeing numbers on a screen, but that trying to explain the reality of the situation is the only way to make them understand why certain decisions are made for the betterment of the Stadium in the long run. This was one of several conversations that have shown me that it is necessary to spend money in order to operate a Stadium that will be profitable, and that those decisions will ultimately make the Stadium experience better for guests as well as employees.

(Photo credit: Hall of Fame Resort and Entertainment Company Twitter)