Inside the logistical feat of moving OU-Tulane game at the last minute
NORMAN — Patrick Nowlin has had a lot of long days this week. OU's senior associate athletic director for fan engagement hasn't been the only one. Same for those responsible for getting Owen Field ready for the Sooners' season opener Saturday against Tulane, folks responsible for stocking concession stands in Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, and throughout the athletic department as they made a quick adjustment to hosting the game. “It took an army,” Nowlin said. “Arrive very early, leave very late. It's been long. But it's been great. Nothing like college football.”
The game was scheduled to be played at Yulman Stadium in New Orleans, but Hurricane Ida's Sunday arrival on the Louisiana coast and the ongoing recovery process there forced the game to be moved to Norman.
Tulane remains the designated home team for the game and will receive the net gate proceeds. The Green Wave were able to pick which jersey color they'll wear, though Sooners' athletic director Joe Castiglione declined Friday to say which colors each team will feature.
There was some thought about putting the Tulane logo at midfield instead of the interlocking OU that's normally there. Instead, a pair of Tulane “Angry Wave” logos were painted on the 25yard lines.
“For purposes of statistical recordings, this will be considered Oklahoma's home game,” Castiglione said. “But for purposes of our game, in some ways we're considering our role in this as hosting their home games, so deferring in some ways that we can.”
The Sooners will use their normal sideline and locker rooms.
It's not the first time the state has welcomed a team from New Orleans displaced by a hurricane. Oklahoma City hosted the New Orleans Hornets for two seasons from 2005-07 before the NBA team returned to New Orleans.
The wheels began turning on the possibility of the Tulane game moving to Norman nearly a month ago, well before Hurricane Ida began forming. Spiking COVID-19 numbers, especially in Louisiana, combined with the game being scheduled right in the middle of hurricane season, led Castiglione and his Tulane counterpart, Troy Dannen, to begin speaking about contingency plans.
But outside of those preliminary discussions, things proceeded as expected.
The most critical day for the game's viability came Monday, the day after the storm made landfall. Tulane's football team, coaches and support staff left last Saturday night for Birmingham, Alabama.
It quickly became clear the game couldn't be played as scheduled in New Orleans. OU had started ramping up preparations but wanted to make sure Tulane was able to make it to Norman and that its players — including many from Louisiana — wanted to go through with the game.
“We just wanted to give them space,” Castiglione said. “That was probably the one point in time (that the game was in danger of being canceled).”
By Monday afternoon, though, Tulane had decided to go forward with the game, an official announcement soon followed — including ticket details, beginning with sales to season-ticket holders, then students and finally Friday to the general public.
Due to the challenges of securing workers — and supplies — on short notice, the decision was made to limit capacity, closing off the upper decks on both sides.
Capacity for the game is expected to be around 60,000.
“We're trying to get to that 60,000 number,” Nowlin said. “I think we're going to have a good crowd on Saturday, yes I do.”
Nowlin said staffing was the biggest challenge.
“It takes a lot of people to put on a game,” he said. “Lot of trained professionals that work to put the game on.”
The decision to limit capacity for this game — the plan is for full capacity in the stadium this season after being limited to 25% last season — made those issues easier to overcome but there were still plenty of challenges.
Current slowdowns in the global supply chain created an issue as well — and could continue to be an issue moving forward this season.
Fletcher's Corny Dogs, the State Fair of Texas culinary institution that's set to debut a stand inside the stadium, will have to wait another week.
Menus figure to be limited at other stands.
“From scheduling and training, to product and equipment availability, a week makes a significant difference,” Kelly Joiner, director of operations for Levy concessions, said in a statement. “With the schedule change and the challenges of a tight global supply chain, concession stands will offer smaller menus focusing on the most-ordered items to help keep lines moving.
“We'll continue to evaluate throughout the season and hope to add more variety as the season progresses.”
Last winter's heavy freezes took their toll on the playing surface. Jason Faires, OU's director of athletic fields, and his crew aggressively worked to fix spots where the grass had died.
“Once we got that fixed, the Bermuda (grass) was so slow to get going this summer. And I pushed it really hard,” Faires said. “When it took off, it finally took off.”
Faires hadn't made plans to verticut the field — a process that cuts with short vertical blades to cut through thatch and allow nutrients to reach the roots and leading to a more healthy grass with deeper roots — this season, but with the grass coming in so thick, he decided in early August to run the specialized mower through the field.
“I did that thinking, ‘OK, we've got four full weeks before our first game,'” Faires said. “If I would have known that we were going to have this game, I probably wouldn't have done that, or I would have done it and been a lot less aggressive.”
It's led to some extra work on what's already been a hectic week getting the field ready to go by game time.
But as the hours before the game dwindled, Fairies felt good about how the field would look Saturday.
“I can still look out there at it and see a little bit of yellowing and stuff leftover from what I did,” Faires said. “But I don't think the general public is going to be able to notice anything.”
Nowlin said the change might not have been possible before last season, when the program introduced universal digital tickets, with fans downloading the “Oklahoma Sooners” app to log in to their account to access their tickets.
“If we didn't have digital ticketing, I don't know how we would have made this possible,” Nowlin said. “We were able to handle this.”