This Saturday, Nov. 5, the Fresno State Recreation Administration 150 class, known as RA150, will attend the UCLA Bruins football game against the Arizona State Sun Devils at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. The class will advise the UCLA athletic department as well as Rose Bowl officials on what they can do to improve the overall game day experience at the facility.
A group of 20 students will attend the event and evaluate how the facility is operated. They will observe every aspect of the stadium’s operation, including the flow of traffic, parking organization, crowd control, risk management, ease of access points into the venue, signage and the effectiveness of the venue’s staff and security. The students will then compile their findings into a report and submit it to the UCLA athletic department.
Dr. Michael Mahoney, professor of RA150, said this is the second year that his students will attend a Rose Bowl event.
“We were invited back this year because of the feedback from the report that the students compiled last year,” Mahoney said. “This lets [UCLA] create a better experience for their fans. They invited us back to do a similar exercise this year.”
Mahoney wanted his students to be able to experience a popular event at a large venue in order to understand all the aspects that are necessary to make an event run successfully.
“We can talk about it in class, but when we actually go to a venue, we are able to go in and break it down,” Mahoney said. “Walking through it and coming back, analyzing it as a group and putting it in a professional format ties my students to the industry. It also gives back to UCLA to look at things objectively.”
Tory Ray, a senior majoring in kinesiology and sports administration attended the trip in fall 2010.
“A lot of people think that being a [recreation] major is easy, but there’s more than meets the eye. It’s more real-world knowledge that is utilized in doing this type of thing,” Ray said. “You’re managing a crowd of 100,000 people ”” that’s almost the size of the city of Clovis. There’s a lot of planning, management and execution of these plans in order to have a safe and successful game day event.”
Jestinne Ragsac, a junior majoring in public relations, is attending the RA150 trip this Saturday and is excited to experience what she’s been learning in Mahoney’s class first hand.
“We’re going to go there as a fresh pair of eyes and try to notice things that the stadium personnel would usually look over,” Ragsac said. “We’ve been learning how to operate stadiums, convention centers and big sports complexes, so it’ll be cool to see how it all works. Hopefully we can contribute some good.”
