Crimson and Gold Connection; Mike McCracken

This is the Crimson and Gold Connection. My name is Dustin Triber. Today, our special guest is Mike McCracken, Director of University Police and Parking Services at Pittsburgh State University. And Mike's team has done a great job this year as always. And they're being recognized with a Facility of Merit Award at the 2016 National Center for Spectators Sports Safety and Security Conference and Exhibition set July 12 and 14th in Phoenix, Arizona. See that three times. Yeah, that's a mouthful. But yeah, well, I'm happy to be here and yeah, it's exciting that we get a chance to talk about something positive like that. And like you mentioned, the National Center is it's a long term and for short, we just call it NCS-4. And so sometimes that's a little easier to say. It works for me. And this is for mostly for the work of your work and your team's work at Carnegie Smith Stadium, which is one of the top three division to football venues in the nation. I'm about 9,000 and 10,000 fans every home game. So that's quite an undertaking. Right. And it's really a reflection, not just of our team individually, but the overall team here at Pittsburgh State.

I mean, to put on a typical game day involves so many people and that really speaks volumes for how hard they work and the work, you know, things they've done to improve safety and security. But just the overall game day atmosphere, you know, has really come a long ways just in the time I've been here. And so it's really a reflection on everybody involved with putting on a football game on game day. Yeah. And you rarely hear of any incidents or anything. So you guys have done an excellent job over the years. Can you tell me how things have changed, I guess, over the years? Well, when I first started here, it has been a long time ago. But, you know, and even longer ago than that, there were times where people were bringing coolers into the stadium with them. And, you know, things like that. And over time, things have slowly evolved. But especially when we did the addition to the stadium out of the upper level and the capacity really grew from what it used to be. Those were the times when it was apparent that we needed to really start moving forward. And the university itself was really trying to cultivate the game day atmosphere, drawing in more fans, which they've done a great job.

Obviously, you know, we're one of the top two or three attendants as far as the division two level in the country. So they've really done a good job with that. But along with that comes some new challenges. And that's what we've tried to do is keep up with those challenges as far as making sure that, you know, the safety and security of all the fans and the players and everyone involved is managed appropriately. And that's one of the things that we've been able to try and do. And, you know, so far, it's worked pretty well, but it's never changing environments. So we're always trying to watch and adjust for things like that. Obviously, everybody you've worked with have done an excellent job. But do you think it's kind of testament to the community itself? You know, here in Southeast Kansas, it's, you know, it's not like the big, big city. But most people, a lot of times you get people will come to this area and like, oh, everyone's so nice. You know, does that help? Sure it does. And that's one of the nice things is, you know, the game day experience here is all because of the fans and the people that show up. They're the ones that make it so great and so much fun. And we really try to do as much as we can to help them have fun.

We're all about, you know, everyone enjoying themselves. That's why we wanted to come. And sometimes, you know, there's been times where we've run through a rough spot here and there of things going on. But as a general rule, by far the majority of people there are here for the fun and the excitement and the atmosphere. And they're the ones that have built their tradition and made it so much fun. And so we really think that as far as we know, as far as we're concerned, we work as hard as we can to keep that alive. And at the same time, it's our responsibility to make sure everyone's safe while they're here. And so we do what we can to try and comply with, you know, basically the industry best practices. That's something that NCS4 puts out as a best practices guide. And that's what we use when we're trying to do our policies and things like that. Look at the best practices. What are other places doing and things like that. So those are some of the things that we've done to try and keep ourselves up on things.

NCS4 is coming up July 12 and through the 14th in Phoenix, Arizona. Do you actually get to go to this? Yeah, I'm going to go and receive the award on behalf of PSU. And so I'm excited about that. But again, I'll be receiving it on behalf of everyone that helps make the game experience here such a great thing. Yeah. Well, stay cool when you're out there because they've been hitting 125. That's right. I'm not sure July's the time to go to Phoenix, but that's when I'll be there. I got to ask, how long is your staff? I assume it's different for like a football game versus basketball or any other event that we have. Yeah. Well, typically we hear at the University Police, we have a staff of 13 officers. However, for game day, we obviously need to augment that a little bit. So we bring in officers. We have good partnerships developed with the city with the Sheriff's Department for the county and also with the highway patrol. And so we bring in extra help and call on those folks to come in and they're happy to do it. They don't charge us anything for it, which is really unique. I've found throughout the country.

A lot of places just can't believe that we don't have to pay to get extra help. So that's one of the really advantages and things that we enjoy. A lot of people don't. So we're real thrilled that we're able to rely on our partners and that they're so helpful and happy to work with us. And that's good. And you have, I mean, are there any volunteers? I know there's some people that you that will part timers come in. They'll take the tickets. They'll take the parking. We pay for parking now. Yeah. And in addition to the police officers, we also hire a private security company that comes down and they help us with some gate security and some of the things around the stadium directly. But then we also have volunteers who come and help control access to the parking lots. That's the people that take the money when people are coming into park and try to help people get settled in the parking lot. So like I said, there's between athletics and the physical plant and the police and then our outside partners. There's a really big group of people that works really hard for a lot of hours every time that there's a football game. So it's really exciting. Actually, I wanted to ask you the hell. I mean, describe your day when you start.

Because I see you early in the morning. It's an afternoon game. You're already getting out the barriers and everything. Yeah. Actually, we start the night before getting lots cleared and blocking off areas that need to be blocked off. And then we have the attendance are showing up at about seven o'clock in the morning. Some people are there physical plant folks and some of the athletic staff is there even before that. And then they're there the entire day doing things set up and getting the electronic stuff going. And really, it's just an all day affair, especially when we have a night game, it really makes for a long day. And then the cleanup afterwards too. So it's not just the matter of the time when they were there for the game. It's really a lot of work. Yeah. Well, you guys do an awesome job and congratulations again on the award for the... I don't want to say this again. The NCS4 enjoy a trip out there to Arizona. It's going to be a little warm, I think. But it's excellent recognition. So congratulations again, Mike McCracken. Thank you so much for coming in. I appreciate you having me. Again, Mike McCracken, Director of University Police and Parking Services at Pittsburgh State, bringing home the facility of merit award at the 2016 National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security Conference and Exhibition or NCS4.

There'll be a July 12 and 14 at Phoenix, Arizona. This has been the Crimson and Gold Connection. My name is Destin Trimer. Thank you for listening.