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NEW YORK—It's not hard to see the ways in which MLB ballparks are used today for non-baseball events, whether it's concert tours from megastars like Lady Gaga to Elton John to The Who, or special NHL exhibition games where an entire ice rink is built on a field in the middle of winter.
But what happens when you have multiple non-baseball events (plus baseball!) happening within the same week? This is what the events team at Citi Field discovered last week when the home of the New York Mets hosted an MLB game, followed by an NYCFC soccer match for 20,000 fans, then a Burna Boy concert, and finally a private event for 500 that used a variety of club spaces.
And that's not mentioning the internal activations in the midst of it all, from ticket member programming to a car company using a parking lot to do test drives.
Burna Boy played to a Citi Field crowd on July 8.Photo: Courtesy of Citi Field
"This was a lot for our team, and we were being very strategic with how we were using our event leads and our resources," said Jenny Ice, senior director of event operations for the New York Mets, adding that one key member was out on her honeymoon. "We looked at how we could put new leads on things and divvy up the team and not have everyone working on every single event, but splitting it up."
Ahead of the busy July Fourth week, the Citi Field team said the most challenging of flips would likely be from the soccer match to the concert, where loadout included removing several set pieces off the field like the goals, LED boards, and on-field seating.
"Our biggest concern was getting everything out fast enough because, for the concert, people were already concerned about how soon they could get in," Ice explained.
Another unique challenge? "We're still an office building," said Nikki Romolo, vice president of events for the New York Mets. "While all this was going on, we still had 400 full-time Mets employees around, wanting to conduct their business and give tours for seats or corporate partnerships. It was communicating with them about where they can go, where they were parking that day, and the areas that were off-limits. There were regular business days happening that we also had to make sure we considered."
NYCFC uses Citi Field as well as Yankee Stadium for matches.Photo: Courtesy of NYCFC
Along with staying organized with to-dos and checklists, what was key for the entire team: overcommunication. That meant "communicating both internally and with all the other departments in this building on exactly what's going on, so that everyone's on the same page," said Danielle DeLuna, manager of event operations for the New York Mets, "and overcommunicating with the clients as well, so that each client really knew what they were walking into and what they were prepared for."
The team says Citi Field's versatility helped tremendously, as did the support of Mets ownership for non-baseball events.
"They realize they've got this beautiful facility," Romolo said. "We only play 81 to 100 games here a year, so new ownership bought the team two years ago and are very much making sure we become a full entertainment venue."
When it comes to lessons learned, the team said meeting clients in their creativity goes a long way—as does, of course, clear and close communication.
"It takes a village to make these events go on at a ballpark," DeLuna said.
