It is almost a guarantee every student at UF will walk through the glass doors of the Stephen C. O’Connell Center once a semester, if not more.
The O’Connell Center is the Swiss Army knife of UF’s campus. The arena is home to five Gator sports teams – men’s and women’s basketball, gymnastics, volleyball and men’s and women’s swimming and diving.
It hosts the new student convocation each August and university-wide fall and summer commencement ceremonies. Many colleges host their spring ceremonies there as well.
It is also the venue for concerts – such as the 21 Savage performance last April – shows – like the live taping of the Price is Right, scheduled for August 23 – and other popular events with students – including the career showcase, held once a semester, and Dance Marathon, held the last weekend of March.
Holding these events and doing it well require quick and timely transitions.
Cami Stincer, Assistant Director for athletics at the O’Connell Center, oversees event transitions.
She said it’s hard to identify the biggest challenge of the transitions.
“It’s hard to give one specific answer because it is going to depend a lot on the event or the situation,” Stincer said. “When we have a sold-out event and then another event the next day, that will be more challenging.”
In the spring, there were four weekends – Jan. 10-12 and 24-26 and Feb. 7-9 and 21-23 – that saw a gymnastics meet along with a basketball game. On the weekend of the 24th, the gymnastics team hosted No. 8 LSU in front of a capacity crowd and the next night, the men’s basketball team welcomed No. 1 Baylor.
Stincer was grateful that this season there were no basketball games tipping off at noon the day after a gym meet, which she said is the hardest event turnover and requires employees to work all night.
She continued by saying gymnastics and basketball setups are handled by two different crews, which means it isn’t one crew working the whole night.
November through February are the busiest months of the year, according to Stincer, with January and February shouldering most of the load due to basketball and gymnastics being in season.
“We start to get busy in September, and basketball starts in the middle of October and we are going full steam ahead,” she said. “November is very busy because we have football and a lot of our staff helps with that.”
She said there are segments in those months where the space holds a different event every single day.
Doing all of this obviously requires major cooperation from the student workers at the O’Connell Center. Some may wonder if getting students to work late nights is difficult, but Stincer said it’s painless to find people.
“Students have the opportunity to select what shifts they want and one of those is the changeover shift,” she said. “We have a lot of students who are night owls and don’t want a daytime shift.”
Students don’t get any extra benefits from working the changeover shift considering they get to pick their shifts.
An important skill is to learn to adjust quickly, she said, like in 2019 when 21 Savage’s concert was moved last minute from February to April.
When asked what event is the most arduous, Stincer’s answer may be surprising to some.
“Swim meets,” she said. “They are in a smaller space and the overall number of staff working is fewer. They are also multi-day events as opposed to basketball or gymnastics.”
Stincer's favorite memory of the O’Connell Center was senior day for the 2014 men’s basketball team, a win over Kentucky.
“We went undefeated at home that season and we had such a great group of seniors,” she said. “Seeing them walk off the court was memorable.”
All events at the O’Connell Center have obviously been put on hold during the COVID-19 outbreak, but Stincer is already electrified about coming back.
“I think the O’Connell Center will come back and be better than ever when we can host events again.”
Follow Noah Ram on Twitter @Noah_ram1. Contact him at nram@alligator.org
The Stephen C. O’Connell Center originally opened in 1980 and is named after the sixth president of UF. The building underwent a $64.5 million renovation in 2016. In the renovation, the entire interior area was demolished and rebuilt with the addition of a large hanging scoreboard and luxury suites. Gymnastics and swimming areas and locker rooms were improved, and a new entrance was built facing the stadium.
Noah is a third year journalism-sports and media student from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He has been with The Alligator since Spring 2019 and has covered men’s and women’s tennis, gymnastics and volleyball. When he isn’t on his beat, Noah is usually sadden over his beloved South Florida sports teams, such as the Heat and Dolphins.
