University of Tennessee Athletics
POWERING THE T
November 30, 2011 | General
Nov. 30, 2011
BY JOHN PAINTER
UTSports.com
The surest way to know the real Tim Reese is to see him at his managerial best -- at one of his cookouts.
Reese is the only manager in the 25-year history of Thompson-Boling Arena. As such, he handles scheduling for UT's basketball teams and volleyball squad, plays host to university commencement and a number of high school graduations, and also books concerts, circuses, monster trucks and the Globetrotters in between.
"Whatever we can fit into the calendar," Reese said.
But Reese's most valuable asset is his relationship with people, from the more than 1 million who walk through the arena turnstiles each year to his modest but able staff working night after night making sure the building's events are first-class affairs.
And that's where the cookouts come in.
Reese is the well-known host of a number of small but private cookouts in conjunction with Tennessee sporting events. His most popular are before football, volleyball and baseball games, and Reese takes seriously his appreciation of staff and volunteer workers.
"Sodexo, our food provider in the building, has been gracious enough to provide us with items we are able to cook for folks coming straight from work into a game or on Sunday straight from church into a game," Reese said. "We like to have fun, but the thing is we're able to say a small `thanks' to our folks who are working in the building for us."
Reese has a staff of five in his arena management office and is supplemented by the facilities services department, which has about 14 members counting custodial and maintenance workers. And then on event days, the basketball staffs have their own event management teams.
"The personnel it takes to manage an event of that nature is ramped up pretty substantially," Reese said of home basketball dates.
"It depends on whether you're counting camps and those sorts of things," he said. "We're doing about 50 event days a year for volleyball and men's and women's basketball -- maybe a little bit more than that. We're probably up a little higher in event days for special events because we have multi-day activities that go on like Destination Imagination, which is a week-long event, and some of our other conferences are multi-day.
"The last time we looked at it, we're in the 60- to 70-percent usage days out of 365 (days in a year), not counting practices and camps."
Which means UT and the City of Knoxville welcome more than 1 million fans and conference attendees annually.
"We're a smidge over a million for each of the last three years," Reese said. "I don't know that we've gotten to 1.1 yet, but we're close."
Reese also says you notice different types of fans at the different events.
"There are fanatics for each of the events we do," he said. "There are fanatical men's basketball fans, fanatical women's basketball fans and even some fanatical volleyball folks. And there certainly are some fanatics when we get into the concerts, wrestling and tractor pull events."
Any favorites?
"Not really," Reese said. "We've just had a lot of special events. The NCAA activities and some of our basketball games have been really special. When you do a Garth Brooks or something like that -- the events where there are large crowds, those are always special."
"When you've been here 25 years and you've seen the time and energy that our athletes spend just in this building on their sports, to be considered with those folks was really a special moment for me," Reese said. "And when you look at even the honorary lettermen's list, folks like Dr. (Robert) Rubright, Bud Ford, Bill Higdon, guys like that -- it's tough for me to envision I've put in that much time and energy.
"But it was a great honor and really a very special weekend for us."
A native of Manheim, Pa., Reese graduated from Lebanon Valley College in 1976 and added a master's degree to his credentials from Penn State University in 1977. After graduation, he accepted a student activities position at Wake Forest, where he worked from 1977-81.
In the fall of 1981, Reese came to UT as director of student activities under Phil Scheurer. Six years later with the opening of Thompson-Boling Arena, Reese was named to his current position.
And in 2011, Reese remains the sole arena manager. He's the list.
But he doesn't take it for granted, and neither does he overlook the help he gets running one of the nicest college basketball arenas in the country.
"I've got a great staff and we have a good time," Reese said. "And I'm lucky. I get a front-row seat."
