Pro sports franchises in North America travel arguably more than anywhere in the world, simply because of how large the U.S.A. is geographically. NFL teams travel less than, say, MLB or NBA teams, but they still have at least eight or nine road games per season. While fans simply see away teams show up and play on Sundays, a Tampa Bay Buccaneers exec recently shed some light on the immense work it takes to get a team’s travel itinerary sorted.
Tim Jarocki, the senior director of operations for the Bucs, shared some of the real legwork it takes to get all those players, plus dozens of staff and other hangers-on, set up for a game away from home. When asked specifically about lodging, Jarocki said that he typically contracts “about 200 rooms for one night”, which speaks to the massive scope of these road trips.
“Typically, I’m contracting about 200 rooms for the one night. That includes as many suites as I can get. Get anywhere from five to 15 suites for ownership, or general manager, or head coach. We also need quite a bit of meeting space for our meal room, our offense and defense, all the other breakout rooms. But we also have treatment, recovery and activation rooms.”
NBA execs only have to worry about 12-15 players on these trips. NFL execs, meanwhile, have to look after 50-60 players, plus the dozens of positional coaches. With that many millionaires in one place, they can attract undesirable attention. Jarocki said, therefore, that they are hyper-aware when it comes to security. Teams generally have police officers milling around their hotel meeting rooms and floors.
There’s also the question of where to put the players. Some players have preferences for the location of their room, the type of room, or who they room with.
“We get complete floors for players, so that there’s nobody else on the floor with them. So, I go through and I’ll assign all the rooms for the players. I know which room everybody’s in. Some people wanna be closer to the elevators, other people wanna be further away from the elevators.”
Jarocki—and he’s probably not unique in this—said that he likes to try and do what he can to provide the players with a room or room number that might bring even a little smile to their faces.
“Like Shelton Quarles. When he was playing, he was No. 53, so if I can put him in a room that ends with a 53, I try to do that, give him a little smile. Their rookie year, Calijah Kancey and Sirvocea Dennis, were sharing a room during training camp, so I put them in room 412. Basically, because 412 is the area code for Pittsburgh, where they went to school. So small things like that, sometimes people don’t notice it, but sometimes it brings a little smile to the long days that we all have.”
Location scouting for hotels in an away city can be tough too. Citizens of that city are generally loyal to their home NFL team. There have been many examples of a home team’s fans causing a ruckus at the away team’s hotel the night before a game in an attempt to get their guys a competitive edge. So, it’s safe to say that Jarocki’s is far from easy.
2024-12-14 20:40:06
