(Disclaimer: Ross Gienieczko is a member of the Mullins Center changeover crew. The following story is an insider’s perspective.)

It’s around 1:30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon inside Mullins Center and the clock is ticking down on a game between the Massachusetts women’s basketball team and St. Bonaventure.

In less than four hours, the gates will reopen and players from UMass and UMass Lowell will warm up for a hockey game.

The Mullins Center changeover crew has a mere four hours to transform a basketball court into a hockey rink. But they estimate it will take less than half that time.

It’s a job that’s often goes unappreciated by fans. In fact, some don’t even know the crew exists.

The changeover crew is vital in allowing Mullins Center to regularly host two sports as fundamentally different as basketball and hockey. The job description of a crew member is simple: switch the arena from sport to sport and concert to concert.
In reality, simple may be the last word to describe what they do.
Versatile venue

The Mullins Center, which opened in 1993, is a hub of entertainment for the UMass and Western Massachusetts as a whole. It’s hosted a wide variety of events ranging from basketball games, to rock concerts, to youth wrestling. This March, it is scheduled to host a Cirque du Soleil performance, followed by a monster truck derby. The changeover crew lays the foundation for all of it.

Headed by Operations Manager Jim Barabe, the crew does the complicated work necessary to put on all these events. Between every basketball and hockey game, the entire arena is switched.

The basketball hoops are forklifted away, at least to a distance where it is realistic for the crew to push it into its space in one of several storage rooms under the bowl. The hardwood floor is carefully deconstructed. Each piece is connected to the ones surrounding it and the pins that hold the court together have to be painstakingly removed before the weighted tiles are ready to be lifted.

The heavy and delicate glass panes that surround the hockey rink are fitted into place on the boards. This must be done with caution and precision, as even the smallest contact between pieces can mean one of them shattering. Press row is disassembled and carted off. Hundreds of chairs are rearranged. The fiberglass sub floor that shields the ice is removed, and various rooms around the stadium are arranged for functions and special groups visiting for a game. With a standard crew of approximately 20 people, this process takes anywhere from four to six hours.

Preparing for concerts is a different story. Unlike regular basketball and hockey games, no two concerts are the same. Generally, though, most performers require a large stage built piece by piece and a floor setup with several hundred chairs. The changeover crew doesn’t usually build the elaborate stage arrangements, but it will assist the concert crews with the large amount of wiring that must be run through the arena.

“We have some great workers and an awesome set of supervisors.” Barabe said. “They can see what everyone else is doing while they’re doing their own work, and they make everyone’s job easier. With them, I was confident about Saturday’s changeover.”

Exercise in efficiency

In addition to the 35 changeover workers, 25 other Mullins Center employees were drafted to assist in the time-restricted operation on Saturday. Each person’s role was determined days in advance by Barabe and Operations Supervisor Scott Neas in order to maximize efficiency.

In fact, the changeover really started the night before, when the arena was prepared and organized in order to make the next day’s work as easy as possible.

“I knew if we did a good job prepping Friday night, we could get (Saturday) done in a short amount of time.” Barabe said.

And it was. Working at a frantic pace, the staff hurried to prepare for the hockey game. The swollen workforce was not a luxury the crew receives often, but they made it count on Saturday. It paid off, and the hockey rink was built in approximately 75 minutes – plenty of time remaining for the ice crew to treat the rink.

As long as double-headers continue to exist at UMass – and Saturday double-headers are a constant throughout the winter – the changeover crew will continue to rise to the challenge.

Ross Gieniezcko can be reached at [email protected].