I know this has to do more with football than baseball, but I have always wondered what it is like to work at a stadium. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to work at M&T Bank Stadium where the Ravens were playing. They were hosting regional rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles in a sellout game.
My day started at 8:00 when I left College Park with a few others on our way to Baltimore to get into the stadium. We arrived at the employee lot, the Blue Lot at Montgomery Park, which is about a 30 minute walk away from the stadium. At the parking lot we boarded a bus (school bus) with other people working M&T stadium for the day. It was about 9:00 when we finally reached the gate where we were supposed to enter, and I where I got my first taste of the system. During check in, my last name was misspelled on my “badge” (a blue paper in side a baseball card holder with a clip) and I was told that when I was filling out forms for the rest of the day, that I had to use my new name. After signing in and getting checked by security, we were handed a clip on tie and told to go down to the changing rooms. We were all shuffled to the side of a ramp as we entered the underbelly of the stadium where we were given our dress shirt, jacket and hat for the day. The only part of the uniform we were required to bring was khaki pants and dark colored shoes. So now we all look the same, in the same color pants, purple dress shirts with the M&T logo on them, ties, jackets and hats.
Before going on, its important to note that most people there were like us, if they were not a supervisor, it was their first day on the job and they were working the game for fundrasing for different organizations (7 to 7.50 and hour per person for 7 hours of work brings in a lot money) but there were also a good number of people who do this as a job on the side as well.
Anyway now that we were dressed we had the chance to buy coupons that made food half off. Each coupon was 3 bucks, and it acted like 6. We looked at our time cards, my friends and I were all assigned to promotion hand out, giving out the promotion of the day which was a team photograph. We were briefed at Gate A where we also unpacked the boxes of photographs and programs and spread them through each terminal (For those keeping track of time, this was at 10:00, when we were officially on the clock). We were then split up and sent to our separate gates to hand out the promotions. At our stations, we were provided with hand warmers as it was about 28 degrees and dropping.
Handing out the photographs started slow, picked up and then dropped off. I have always treated people that work at the stadium with respect, but I know there are people out there who don't. Consider this, while you might be handed a program you don't want, if you decide to put it back, watch where you do it. It was frustrating as people kept putting their programs they didn't want in my boxes while I was trying to get photographs in them. It also makes cleaning up a bit longer. After the gates closed, which was about midway through the second quarter, and all of the photographs and programs that were left were taken care of, We got to take a 20 minute lunch break and then had to meet back at our gate to be reassigned.
In the next segment, I will be discussing my reassignment for the rest of the game, which basically made me a security guard for Eagle Fans in the upper deck that were getting into fights with the Ravens fans. It was probably the most interesting segment of the day.
