Editor's Note: On Saturday I received an email from TKPer LWatson1689. Based on his work experience, I wanted to share his opinion on Friday night's ballyhooed delayed Lane Stadium opening because of the weather. In his own words: from 2004 to 2011, Lee Watson worked for NASCAR as part of the Track Services Team. He was directly involved in managing events in NASCAR's Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Camping World Truck Series. For many races in that time span, he was either on the track in NASCAR's Chase Vehicle or in NASCAR Race Control. He has a unique perspective on what it is like to bridge between broadcast television, a host facility, competitors and emergency personnel — especially when it comes to weather. Lee currently works for Virginia Tech, but he is not part of the game operations staff and has no role in Virginia Tech Athletics. On game days, he's a ticket-holding fan just like everyone at TKP. — Joe
On Friday night one of our most beloved traditions, the Hokies' entrance to Enter Sandman, was completely derailed by a fast-moving storm system that happened to cross the New River Valley just prior to game time. In a simple statement issued by the athletic department, Virginia Tech took the brunt of the responsibility for what happened Friday night.
The safety of both teams and all fans is our always our utmost priority. Per ACC protocol in pregame meetings, both teams were advised of the potential for a weather delay.
At approximately 7:15 p.m. a lightning strike was confirmed and ACC and Virginia Tech lightning policies went into effect. Fans were subsequently advised to shelter.
A combination of the head referee, Virginia Tech Office of Emergency Management, campus safety officials, Virginia Tech Athletics game management officials along with weather service experts were involved in the decision-making process to proceed with kickoff at 8:05 p.m. after a warm-up period mutually agreed upon by both teams.
Once weather service officials confirmed that the threat of further lightning strikes had passed, stadium gates were opened to fans.
We appreciate our fans' patience throughout this weather delay and while weather can pose an inconvenience, ACC and Virginia Tech protocols were followed to ensure the safety of participants, teams and fans while attempting to minimize any game delay as much as feasible.
That hardly tells the story. Game decisions, especially those that are weather-related impact everyone and are among the toughest to make.
Those of us in the New River Valley won't argue that Friday night's storm was fairly violent though short-lived, and the decision to have fans seek cover and safety rather than opening the gates was a wise one. Several real positives were visible Friday night, including a Hokies win.
The "Beamer Barn" proved to be a serious home-field advantage, an aspect ESPN actually discussed. The Hokies stayed loose in the indoor athletic facility while N.C. State was stuffed into the visitor's locker room, and quarterback Jacoby Brissett took practice snaps in the adjacent tunnel next to turf equipment.
The gates opened at 7:45, with only 20 minutes until kickoff, and that's when things got bizarre. Kudos to Virginia Tech's social media accounts. They were clear throughout the process that the game would kick off at 8:05 PM unless there were more lightning strikes. There were no bands, very few fans, the Star Spangled Banner and a highly-abbreviated Sandman after the Hokies were ready to play. The coin toss and initial kick took place in a comparatively quiet Lane Stadium.
Every sanctioning body, sports team, and venue operations group has a foul-weather plan. NASCAR's is one of the more well-practiced. Every weekend, even if weather is not considered a serious hazard, there are plans in place. NASCAR's David Hoots holds court in his conference trailer with other NASCAR officials, broadcast partners, weather gurus and the track each week so that they know the exact broadcast window, including clearly laying out a "hurry up" plan. They know what the latest possible start time can be, what alternate networks are in play, and what happens if it runs long or has to be postponed. The "hurry up" is implemented after a weather delay, track drying, etc... and it condenses the normal pre-race festivities down to five minutes or so.
Contrary to what many might think, the game operations staff at Virginia Tech wasn't just winging it. They were following their own version of the hurry up script. In fact, the game operations staff was functioning on a pretty high level if Whit Babcock wasn't directly involved — which his statement to Andy Bitter indicated, "But in hindsight, if I could go back, I might have inserted myself in the process to delay it a bit." And even though we didn't get a normal entrance, the game operations staff did their job – they kept people safe and still pulled off the event on schedule. Whit Babcock's statement to Bitter also included, "We just got locked in on football..." To fans, that may sound odd but to Whit, his staff, and even Coach Beamer and the team, the actual football game and VT athletics is their job. Fans are a beloved, wonderful, and essential element — but the game itself is the actual job. You cannot overstate the simple fact they kept everyone safe; weather fatalities can and do happen. Lightning killed one fan and injured nine at Pocono Raceway in 2012. And to someone's credit — our team came out to the third quarter with a very rousing Sandman.
We love our entrance. We love Enter Sandman, and jumping. We didn't get that opportunity to show our love for the team in the usual way Friday, and it was frustrating and disappointing for Hokie Nation. Social media was aflame; many fans wondering why they couldn't delay the start 20 minutes. Simply put, it wasn't part of the plan. The fact the kickoff occurred on schedule made it, in a word... weird. Had there been lightning at 7:45 PM, and the kickoff pushed to 8:35 — would people have been as upset that our usual entrance was trumped in lieu of the hurry-up? In any televised sporting event, there's a schedule. In NASCAR, a David Hoots schedule almost carries the weight of law. We sometimes forget that there are business agreements, contracts with advertisers on television, legal obligations, and even noise ordinances that can come into play. There's a budget. Those police officers, parking attendants, and ushers from all across southwest Virginia are being paid; multiply all those game-day employees by an extra 45 minutes and you have a major increase in expense.
Universally, it is in everyone's best interests to pull the event off as close to on-schedule as possible. That's reflected in the final line of the statement from Virginia Tech, and it is a very telling one, "...while attempting to minimize any game delay as much as feasible."
Initially I was quick to point the finger at ESPN. Historically, they've found it hard to make everyone happy with everything from kickoff times to swapping games around between networks at will. ESPN sets college football games in a 3 hour, 30 minute window according to ESPN Vice President of College Sports Programming Ilan Ben-Hanan. Friday night's game was set for a three hour window, with ESPN's SportsCenter playing in each subsequent hour from the end of the game until 3:00 AM when the N.C. State–Virginia Tech game re-aired. So although normally quick to throw their broadcast weight around, this time they were innocent.
ESPN spokesperson says the network was not involved in the decision on when to kickoff tonight's #Hokies game vs NC State.— Mike Barber (@RTD_MikeBarber) October 10, 2015
ESPN leans on an internal "Guidelines and Conditions" group to make a lot of these decisions. The Guidelines and Conditions team has a wealth of tools at their disposal, including moving games between traditional broadcast channels, ESPN3 and WatchESPN as needed. They also have a small degree of latitude with kickoffs, in conjunction with conference officials. That latitude is usually somewhere around five minutes or so, but almost never more than that. Why so short? Because the game needs to finish somewhere close to on time so it doesn't disrupt further scheduling.
The bad news? The early forecast for Saturday at Miami shows a better than 60 percent chance of the Hokies playing their fourth consecutive game in poor weather.
Comments
I think they might adjust their planning a bit. I don't know about a half-hour delay, but 15 more minutes and most fans would have been in their seats.
This comment from Whit tells me that he's listening: "But in hindsight, if I could go back, I might have inserted myself in the process to delay it a bit."
Whit's all about the fan experience.
That's what gets me. Being at the game is an experience. Everything about the gameday experience is why you choose to go to the game not watch it on TV. Why would you rush it for no reason. Really, what is 15 mins. 15 mins let's Lane enjoy the Night game experience. Even Drunk Mack was surprised it was so fast
Wonder if this was leftover from Weaver's Policy book. That book only has plans for football on Saturdays at noon and there is a lot to consider going in to 330 football TV delay.
Also in less than important questions, How much in pregame concession stands revenue was lost? That is another revenue source for the school clubs and the football program
With no other games and no live events scheduled after a few more minutes would not have hurt. It looks like someone just took a plan and didn't think about things outside that sheet of paper. I've worked in public safety for 11 years and emergency management for 2 in particular, if you can't go off script you have an issue with personal leading.
Edit: To clarify my disappointment with the timing is not because of missing enter sandman, while not ideal is something easily cut. But to start a game with the majority of fans still outside the stadium for another 10 plus minutes of game time is not acceptable.
I was wondering if the script sticking had to do with communications.
With 70,000 people at the stadium environs and the normal inability to use cell phone communications, if changes in schedule are difficult to get to everyone in time to pull off such an event.
So, stick to script.
Thanks HokieFireman, and yes - adapting and overcoming is a serious skill when it comes to most things in our public safety world. I disagree with you on one count, respectfully. Starting before fans arrive is pretty common practice in any situation where the original script goes "out the window" for many sports and venues, especially when weather holds are involved. I can't speak specifically for ACC football, but more than once NASCAR rolled cars or trucks off when people were still arguing whether we'd even get a race in. We knew in Race Control (usually by walking out the back door and looking) and honestly felt bad that the fans were going to miss it but we had to go anyway. Often, that was also because we knew more weather was headed our way and we wanted to get as much of the event in as we could.
The game Friday was a pretty unique experience, all that aside - one of the rare cases where a broadcast partner was able to give a lot of latitude, and there were no weather concerns after the squall line. The fact they hit the original start time makes it even stranger. My point in the article was primarily to show there's a lot to these decisions, and I can say I've never seen them made lightly at any level. One of the hallmarks of a good people and a good organization is that they'll look at things and add what they learned this time into the plan for next time. Based on Whit's comment to Andy Bitter, I'm sure they'll do just that.
I've worked in public safety for 11 years and emergency management for 2 in particular, if you can't go off script you have an issue with personal leading.
To be fair, this was a fairly complex situation, and they handled it pretty well.
I have to say yes and no, to the fact it was complex. As Lwatson as so well spelled out, there are plans in place for this type of thing. VT hosts 5-7 football games a year, the college, local and state agencies that assist in this have amazing planers that have everything not only written out and backup up plans but they practice it. While running the football games is in itself complex it should not have been beyond the ability of the staff to make on the fly changes( which honestly were not in the fly the weather was known about for some time prior).
They DID make on the fly changes.
That you're not happy with those changes is the issue you're bringing up.
They got the job done without major incident, the game was played, and as far as I know everyone was kept as safe as possible.
I'm sure they're always trying to improve their plan, and they'll do it even better next time.
I wonder what the size of the at-home audience was? For the TV viewer, it was great not having to wait another 45 minutes for everyone in the stadium to buy refreshments and take their seats. I'm just saying that there are tradeoffs that I'm sure they're considering.
That's why I was and am an advocate for kicking off at 815/820. That gives a half hour from open gates to kickoff.
Hindsight is always 20/20 it was a squall line by all accounts it was going to pass by game time and we still got it off in time. Squalls are typically very fast moving but very violent storm systems. I would've pushed the pregame stuff back like 10 minutes to get the fans up there first but whatever safety first. Not mad at all at whit and that decision was the right one.
I think I'm in the minority here, but I enjoyed the third quarter Sandman enough that this game will be more memorable because of the odd turn of events. I'll be remembering "that game where we didn't jump until after halftime" a lot longer than I'll remember who we played.
I think playing Enter Sandman both places would be great especially if fans keeping singing when kickoff happens.
We could, but then it will be the norm. This was a surprise and very memorable.
Like the spontaneous Sandman against Miami during their timeout.
I remember sitting in the stands in 2000 before the GT game, watching the storm rolling in behind the west stands. It was terrifying not being able to get off those bleachers fast enough.
I wasn't there Friday, but to me it looked like it was handled properly!
I have yet to see a person say the weather delay was not necessary. The issue I in particular had was how little time they left for fans to get inside the gates. Gates opens at 745 pm kickoff was 804 pm.
I had a pretty awesome time at this game. It was strange, yes, but I will never forget it. When we were informed the gates weren't open to fans, my friend and I went to Cassell and we had a ton of fun in there with the fans chanting and the band playing. They kept the fans in there updated and as soon as they came over the speakers saying the stadium would be opening at 7:45 everyone got up to leave. Of course with this announcement, there was chaos with the crowd, but it was okay. There were lines to wait to leave Cassell and enter Lane due to the announcement and by the time I had just walked in, Enter Sandman was playing. I was disappointed I couldn't be in my seat for that, but understood. At the time I was just hoping that ESPN didn't make it seem like fans just didn't show up. Overall, I think the delay was handled well and it didn't really take away from my game experience.
And I absolutely LOVED when Enter Sandman played after halftime. The best part was getting to see the players react and when the whole crowd kept singing after the music had stopped. I would love to see them start playing Metallica before kickoff and after halftime every game!
1:26:48 is where the halftime Enter Sandman starts. Thanks to Hokietapes for the video!
We were in Cassell as well and it was a great way to spend the delay, all things considered. Unfortunately due to the lines outside Lane we didn't make it in and up to the top of East until about 8:00 was left in the first quarter.
Definitely agree that seeing the players react to halftime Sandman and the crowd singing was something I won't soon forget. And its always nice to leave Lane with a win.
I loved how we squashed any attempt NC State fans had at a "WOLF-PACK" chant while waiting in the Cassell.
Am I the only one who thought it was immensely disrespectful when the handful of NCSU fans replaced "brave" with "wolfpack" at the end of the Star-Spangled Banner? I mean, I know I hate how the student section does their "OH" thing (I know, I know, get off my lawn), but at least there they aren't changing the wording of the anthem to bring it down to just their school.
Yea... this seemed weird to me as well.
I did a double take when I heard them do that. It's the national anthem. Show respect to your country.
I remember Mack and the other commentator seemed surprised that the game was actually kicking off and hadn't been further delayed, but don't know how much to attribute this to the weather itself.
For those at the game, how long did it take for the stands to fill after kickoff? I'm thinking a fifteen minute delay would have solved most of the problems. If it took a half hour to get everyone in, though, I think that would have been an excessive delay.
The stadium was pretty much done filling up near the end of the 1st quarter.
I work as an usher on the west side, and I can say with absolute certainty that 15 wouldn't have been enough to fill the stadium. A significant amount of people would have been in their seats, but people weren't totally in their seats until about the 3:00 minute mark in the 1st quarter. I'm not exactly sure how much time passed from the kickoff at 8:05 to the stands being full, but it was definitely closer to 30 minutes.
I think ultimately the right decision was made regarding kickoff time and gate opening. I don't think it would have been safe OR fun for all those fans to be packed into the concourse (in an emergency situation yes, as in game had already been started and THEN storm blew in leaving no choice). It made my job very crazy for the first little bit of the game, but again, the decision was most certainly not taken lightly (listening to radio communication made this very clear) and IMHO, they made the right decision.
You're absolutely correct. I almost included some additional info in my original write-up, but it was already long enough. To fully populate 60,000 people through the gate would've taken far longer than 15 minutes, as the comments have shown. Department of Homeland Security, along with National Center for Spectator Sports Safety & Security (NCS4) have lots of great models about evacuation, etc. that essentially pin any activity this size at 45 minutes or more just "through the gate" with an additional gate-to-seat time of 1-10 minutes. So, let's all just say #GoHokies and be thankful for the win and that the VT Game Ops staff, in conjunction with all the other individuals involved, pulled off the "show" and kept everyone safe.
I would like to commend the gate staff for the *South end (not sure if it was all gates) for doing a good job getting folks in. The gates were mobbed in part due to all the buses, and they moved folks in quickly. Its the 1st time I remember since they started scanning tickets where they just had you hold up your ticket vs scanning them so that people could get in quicker. And kudos to the fans at that end too, folks were orderly and polite to both the NC State fans (which there were a lot), and to the older folks and the slower moving fans (that is where the ADA buses let out).
My one gripe is a small one, but they held the buses until 7:45 which was when the gates were supposed to open. Since the weather had moved thru and all things appeared to be good for 7:45, it would have been nice for the buses to roll out around 7:30 so that we were at the gates around 7:45 vs getting there after kickoff.
Edit* Why oh why do I always call that the West end....
It took them 30 minutes before they moved people in quickly. I waited through the whole thing until a woman came by and told the scanners to stop scanning and just let everyone in. Had they kept scanning the tickets there probably would have been some fans who would have missed almost all of the first half.
Great write-up, Lee Watson. Now that there has been a scenario like this for the first time, Whit has something to go on next time. I had no issues with anything & was seated for the Anthem & Sandman. As for missing some or all of the first quarter, it was a dud!!!
My experience at the SEZ gate would have been better if the VT cops weren't total dicks and actually helped communicate the delay and plan forward.
You sure they were VT officers? Usually they are working outside the stadium since they still have to patrol the campus outside officers usually are at the gates ipand inside the stadium.
BPD, VTPD, Staties, whoever the cops were who decided to yell at fans who were getting dumped on in a lightening storm. I don't care who pays their checks, they were there as representation of VT and did so poorly.
That sounds like the kinda thing Whit would appreciate a communication.
He is very open to communicate with.
I just don't understand this mindset. Fans are the bedrock of big time college football. Without fans, it is modified club rugby.
He means that nothing else happens without the football game.
It must happen and it must happen safely and within parameters or, everything falls apart.
It is the core around which all the other actions revolve. It is how they are planned and the various tasks are executed with its events as their cue.
I "sheltered" in Litton-Reeves during the storm and had absolutely no idea there was an issue until Saturday morning. I thought the late arriving crowds were due to people sitting in their car waiting out the rain.
Two cadets informed us the gates would be opening at 7:45 and we headed straight to the North/West entrance. As soon as we got there they opened the gates and moved people in quickly. My sister's ticket was ruined (it started pouring as we started our walk from Lot 9 and her waterproof jacket pocket held water) and they just smiled and said they understood.
We were in our seats with 10-15 minutes until kickoff. Multiple people were there before us as well. For us, everything went smoothly (besides getting soaked).
TL;DR - not everyone had a bad experience and the plan worked well for my group of 6 and most of the people sitting around us. Just trying to show that it is hard to manage the entire situation for 60k people all coming from different directions.
I was there , SEZ gates when the message was given about the game delay, very polite Sheriff gave the message. I went to the Cassell and stayed till they said Gates would open at 7:45 . We where in line early , got In with no problem. It looked like most fans didn't show up when the time was given for the gates to open. We never had a problem, VT did what they had to do, the weather was in Charge . I have seen 3 weeks of Rain Games , the ECU game was the worse !! And it sounds like VT will be playing Saturday in the rain, Again !
You bring up a great point. It sounds like everyone was told "Gates open at 7:45" and decided to show up at 7:45. I look at gate time in a situation like this similar to a flight departure: if you show up at the posted time, you will not be happy with the outcome. If gates open at 7:45, unless it's a hurricane outside, I'm in line by 7:30 at the latest, probably 7:15. I noticed when the game kicked, the stands looked like they were perhaps at 30% capacity, and I'm guessing those are the fans who decided to show up before gate opening.
For a lot of us, we were going by what the VT Football account was tweeting:
Basically, we were told the next update would be at 7:45, so one would assume that the gates would open some time after 7:45 - but at 7:40, they tweeted out that the gates would open at 7:45 leaving those out in the lots little time to get to the stadium in time.
It was not a huge deal - but it explains why a lot of people were not even at the stadium when the gates opened.
Gotcha. Makes total sense now. Wasn't aware you only got five minutes heads-up time on the gates opening. You guys were pretty much hosed from the get go.
Watson great post sir, I'd enjoy the chance to converse about your job for Tech outside TKP.
I was in my seat by kickoff, because the rain was light enough that my guest and I just decided to wait at the gate.
Why I got irritated is that when leaving the cage parking lot, the staff person there told us, "gate opens at 7:45, kickoff is at 8:15, they delayed it 15 minutes." That line was repeated to the people in line at Gate 4 as well. Imagine our surprise when we entered the stadium after getting a drink and saw 4 minutes left on the clock.
Honestly, they created a pretty dangerous situation by not delaying kickoff. We're pretty lucky that there wasn't a mad rush/stampede of people trying to get into the stadium for kickoff. The situation could have turned ugly, fast... especially after the game started and people started realizing they were only going to get about 3/4 the value of the ticket they purchased through no fault of their own.
Game should have been delayed 30 minutes. In reality, there needs to be a policy adopted where gates must be opened for at least 40 uninterrupted minutes within the last hour prior to kickoff before the game should be allowed to start.
You don't need fans to play the game. And that's really the end of the discussion regarding it. It sucks as a fan to miss out on parts in the games, but they have no obligation to make sure you're in your seat before the game starts.
Yeah... its one thing to bar fans from a game in professional baseball where there are 81 home games a year and there's sport-wide revenue sharing that keeps its low performing franchises afloat. Its another thing altogether to bar fans from a collegiate football game where there are 6 home games a year and most programs operate on a budget that loses money annually despite revenue sharing.
Fans are necessary to college football. They pay the bills.
Yes, necessary to fund the program, but not necessary to start the game. Everything they did was in line with the emergency protocol for foul weather. Priority 1 is safety of everyone, priority 2 is getting the game going, and then priority 3, or lower really, is getting fans in the seats. LSU lost out on money this year when they had to cancel their first game of the season. USCe definitely lost money when they just moved their game to LSU this week, even though LSU is giving them a lot of the revenue from the game. The enjoyment and experience of the fans does not come over the first 2 priorities.
We're not talking about a game that has to get canceled or moved because of weather and flooding. We're talking about delaying the start of an already scheduled game where the fans are already on campus and in the lots.
It was a really stupid decision to open the gates and only give 20 minutes to get 50k+ (assume 10k were already there) fans through security and into the stadium. In a situation where you have that kind of volume of fans already there and waiting to come into the stadium, you have to give time to get a majority into the stadium prior to the event beginning. They're the ones that pay to keep the lights on, so you have to look out for them, but at the same time, you can't create that kind of a strain on the security process, else you are setting yourself up for a very ugly scenario at the gates.
If this had happened for the Ohio State game, or this had happened when we were a Top 10 team, and we went into this game with a ton of hype, multiple people would have been injured in the stampede to get in before the game.
You should ask the players how they liked that game. If I remember correctly they didnt. And that's baseball a game not as determined by the crowd
Well of course a player isn't going to LIKE playing without fans in attendance, but fans are not a necessity to play the game. My point is that the top priority is safety and that was executed properly Friday night. As someone who has assisted in the training that the Athletics Department does in preparation of extreme weather, I can tell you that what happened is standard protocol. First get everyone to a safe location. Once they get an all-clear, open up gates and resume game as quick as possible, allowing for necessary warm up time and such. Nothing in the policy other than opening the gates upon the all-clear is about the fans because they are not the top priority.
The teams agreed to shorten the warm-up period, just wonder if it was asked or said.
And I, and I'm pretty sure no one else, has said anything about the safety issue. The entire issue is that the game started to fast. Why not delay it 15 mins? It's a friday night game there's nothing else to follow it. It doesnt affect the game but it doesnt affect anything else either. I'm sure the players would not have minded an extra 15 mins. The coaches barely had on the headsets
I think Whit is basically going to enact something similar to the delay. He got enough messages about people not able to get into the stadium in time to address it.
wasn't there, but this is just a minor blunder IMO. There's a lot of moving parts, the fans being one of them. Being off by 15 minutes isn't perfect, but it's not disastrous. Like Whit said, learning experience.
Now, if we have lightening storms for another home game this year, and the same mistake is made, then we have an issue.