Powering game day: Coast-to-coast staffing solutions for college football 

CHALLENGE

College football programs face a universal challenge in securing a reliable and scalable workforce for high-stakes game-day operations. These events require precise coordination across guest services, crowd management, concessions and cleanup, all within a compressed schedule. 

Universities and their venue partners must balance service quality and consistency, staffing variability and the need for workers who are familiar with unique stadium layouts. This is compounded by recruitment hurdles in remote college towns and the need for a partner capable of delivering at scale across multiple venues. 

SOLUTION

PeopleReady provides a national staffing solution tailored to the dynamic and fast-paced world of college athletics. Our coast-to-coast support system delivers flexible, reliable workforce solutions for programs of all sizes. We specialize in understanding the unique rhythm of game day and provide associates who are familiar with the specific needs of stadium operations.

Our approach is built on flexibility and local execution. Whether a program requires support for traffic control, concessions or post-game cleanup, our teams adapt quickly to evolving operational needs. By prioritizing the return of the same experienced workers each week, we ensure consistent and high-quality service. This strategic model allows us to meet demand even in challenging geographic locations, ensuring that every fan experience is seamless, no matter the zip code.

RESULTS

Our long-standing partnership with a flagship program in Tennessee exemplifies the scale and reliability PeopleReady delivers. This season, when our long-time facility management partner secured a new, expanded bid for the university, their first call was to PeopleReady. We now provide comprehensive cleanup crews for the entire game day footprint. 

Every game week, we fill between 90 and 130 shifts to service the stadium, parking lots and all campus grounds used by patrons. This critical work extends from the intense post-game cleanup on Saturday night through Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to ensure the campus is pristine. This year, we have maintained a perfect 100% fill rate, successfully filling over 1,300 shifts and solidifying a partnership that has strengthened over 15 years. 

This level of execution is a standard we uphold across the country, as shown in some of our other college football partnerships: 

• In South Carolina, we supported a premier program that shifted its needs from post-game cleanup to concessions. We adapted rapidly, growing from an initial order of 30 positions to 80 associates per game by providing food runners, line cooks and service staff, all while overcoming the challenges of a remote location. 

• In Oregon, we reclaimed the majority market share for stadium staffing by demonstrating superior service consistency. Our team there supports 16+ games with associates working multiple shifts across parking and guest services. 

• In Florida, we received a 45-person order for cooks and dishwashers early in the week, then filled an additional 15 roles when a competitor fell short before the Saturday night game. All 60 workers were delivered on time and ready to perform. 

Overall, PeopleReady’s national network and localized strategy have established us as a trusted partner in collegiate sports. We consistently place hundreds of associates each game day across the country, ensuring that from coast to coast, the show goes on without a hitch.