I think Annie said it best when she sang, “Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow.” Ok, maybe she had a different meaning behind it, but for me, tomorrow is officially the start of baseball season with pitchers and catchers reporting to Surprise, AZ  and therefore, I love tomorrow!

It’s only a day a-waaay!

To celebrate the eve of this glorious day, we’re going to start our “Pre-Season Preparations” series today. We’re starting this eight-week tour in the stadium operations department with David Powers, the Express’ Senior Director of Stadium Operations.

When did you start planning for the 2013 season?
We usually start planning for the next season half-way through the current season, but with a huge project like the new HD video board, we actually started making preparations back in March of 2012.

In preparing for the upcoming season, what is one of the first things you look at?
We start with quotes on different projects, looking at what needs repairs or updates.

What was the biggest project on your list this off-season?
The new LED scoreboard and video board was definitely the biggest size-wise and most noticeable. Having to take down the entire scoreboard to completely replace it with a main board, two side panels, the auxiliary board and the outfield ribbon boards was a big project in itself. Installing the premium seating (behind home plate and the 4 Topps down the first base line) and the safety railings down the isles are more time consuming than anything. There’s just a lot involved.

Every safety railing has to be welded together.

How did you go about deciding to install the premium seating this off-season?
The whole stadium is on a 2-7 year facility plan where we look at upgrading or replacing things as needed in that cycle. To make the final decisions, I meet with the department heads, management and the ownership group to find out what projects take precedence over others. We make that final decision by committee. We have to take everything into consideration, look at the implications of the project and breakdown what’s involved. It’s a process and it takes time, but it guarantees our facility is always state-of-the-art.

What do you do on a daily basis to prepare for Opening Day?
We do a lot of preventative maintenance, including a lot of cleaning and refreshing the paint in different areas. Every year, the suites get reworked. We touch up the paint in there, wax the floors and just make sure they’re up to the highest standards. We also update the United Heritage Center every offseason. It might be a new coat of paint or new shades on the windows, but it always gets something new. We basically go from room-to-room and see what needs to be done to get the stadium ready for Opening Day.

The area behind home plate is cleared and ready for the new premium seats to be installed!

When do you start realizing Opening Day is just around the corner?
Typically 30-40 days out, it hits me. This year it hit me early because we’re hosting so many high school games out here. I want to make sure everything is ready to go by the time those start. I started the hiring process for all of the day-of-game staff already which means we’re getting close.

What is one pre-season project that people might consider smaller, but really is a complicated one?
Managing the game-day staff is really overlooked as a project. You have to make sure everyone is on the same page, from day-of-game staff to the front office. We instituted a program called “Express University” last year as a way to get everyone together and make sure we all are on the same page before Opening Day.

What is one thing you do in your job that would surprise the average fan?
I think just the number of things I have to deal with…everything from scraping off gum stuck on the concrete to making sure every single part of the facility is in working order on any given day. It’s a daily grind more than anything. My job is very much a behind-the-scenes job, until something goes wrong. I have to deal with a lot of things in different areas of the stadium that the average fan would never see, but it impacts the fan experience so it’s really important.

The new HD video board and the ribbon boards look great in the outfield!

What is your favorite part about your job?
For me, having a background in construction, it’s the fact that this whole stadium is my office. I’ve really gotten to know the facility through the years. I know all of the nooks and crannies throughout the entire stadium; I know when something is wrong or out of place. I also truly enjoy working with the staff here. The entire operation is a team effort and I’m glad to have not only great people in the stadium operations department, but throughout the entire front office. It’s easy to do my job when you have the support and backing of management and the ownership group in all of our projects and the ultimate vision of the facility.

I know there’s still so much work the great people in stadium operations have to do before April 4, so I appreciate David taking the time out to give us a little glimpse into what goes on in his world to prepare for the season.

We’ll be back next Monday with week 2 of “Pre-Season Preparations” when we’ll check in with some of the party areas at Dell Diamond!

Until then, happy baseball thoughts!

Jill

P.S. – If you have any questions about some of our pre-season preparations or just want to know more about what it takes to get ready for Opening Day, send them my way! We might even do a mailbag just before we open the gates on April 4! Email: jcacic@rrexpress.com