The University of Dayton Arena was scheduled to be ready for March Madness on March 15, 2020. But COVID-19 has changed that. By that evening, a flurry of text messages sent to UD Arena Executive Director Scott DeBolt set in motion a transformation unlike anything in UD Arena’s history. Until March 17, 2020, when the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament was due to tip in Dayton, the arena became southwest Ohio’s first mass public COVID-19 testing ground.
In a conversation with DeBolt, he looked over two decades at how the arena has helped the region manage the pandemic.
During the 120 days between mid-March and early September, Premier Health, CompuNet Clinical Laboratories, Fidelity Health Care, and UD Arena hosted people from across the Midwest for testing for COVID-19 and flu – nearly 100,000 tests in total. Arena staff worked 12 hours a day.
DeBolt, who has been in this role since 2013, said, “When we were at our first meeting, we were thinking of doing this for a few weeks. “We didn’t think we’d be doing this all summer.” “But the way Premier Health, CompuNet Clinical Labs, Fidelity Health Care, and faculty, staff and students from many corners of the University, not just in the arena, stepped in, really made the operation successful.”
When vaccines for youth and adults became available, the arena changed from testing ground to vaccine space. Premier Health delivered nearly 60,000 vaccines in 40 days in the first half of 2021. DeBolt said that once children ages 6 to 11 are eligible to be vaccinated, teams “turned our facility into Dayton Children’s Hospital at the UD Arena,” bringing in signs, setting up sensory rooms, and playing Disney on TVs for vaccine clinics, totaling 3,000 children. “There were a lot of grateful, tearful parents,” DeBolt added.
“During an unprecedented public health emergency like this, everyone has stepped up to make this community service a reality as soon as possible,” said Nick Lair, vice president of laboratory services systems at Premier Health, who has an office in the Boesch Lounge in the arena. during the pandemic. “We realized we couldn’t wait for someone else in the community to set up a test site. We needed to take action and the UD Arena staff and many others at the University saved the day. It was the perfect place for mass testing and vaccines.”
Among them, DeBolt said, are the corners, turns, and shifts in layouts, how to guide people through clinics, staff, and the air. For example, Premier Health’s vaccine clinics started outside until the weather forced them to go inside.
“After a day and a half the cold was just too much for the staff and their computers,” DeBolt said. “But by getting in, we were able to handle more people as well.”
In addition to the pandemic and the clinics, arena staff still had their day jobs. This included getting the operational arena for the 2020-21 UD men’s and women’s basketball seasons under the constraints of COVID-19 protocols – transitioning to being a cashless facility, with attendance limited to 300 fans at the 13,000-seat facility, and digital ticketing. The First Four moved to Indianapolis with the rest of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. But there were still boys’ and girls’ Ohio High School Athletic Association state basketball championships in the arena. As the basketball season came to an end, arena staff had to contend with six, not the usual three UD kickoff ceremonies, to comply with COVID-19 restrictions.
“For the first few months, COVID-19 activities replaced the events we lost in the arena, and that bought some time,” DeBolt said. Said. “However, we faced new challenges in managing staff, managing our athletic facilities outside the arena, performing normal summer maintenance and preparing for our fall 2021 sports. When our fall and winter sports started to accelerate again in 2021, we had to manage everything.” “Changing COVID-19 protocols and concerns, as well as the transition to digital ticketing and cashless. At times, it was more difficult to manage 300 people than to manage 13,000 people in the stands.”
The secret sauce to achieving all this is the arena’s philosophy that prioritizes partnerships and that the arena is a community presence, not just a place for basketball.
“We don’t just rent our building, we engage in partnerships to make their effectiveness as good as possible,” DeBolt said. Said. “All of our partnerships are making the most of this opportunity. We don’t often do one-off events because we prefer to partner with an organization to provide the best service and build relationships for future events.”
Arena partners will find staff willing to customize spaces for best use for partners and event type. All staff are cross-trained and can enter the field to do any job.
“It’s not like other places where marketing and operations don’t talk until there’s a conflict between the contract and what the facility can deliver,” DeBolt said. “We have a great arena team and a great community within a great UD community. We work together from start to finish.”
Despite still being a pandemic and arena staff always putting visitors’ safety first, DeBolt said it’s late summer and early fall 2021 when he feels things are back to “normal”.
“The Basketball Tournament was the first tournament we felt was ‘normal’,” DeBolt said on ESPN about the $1 million winner-takes-all tournament that featured many former college basketball players. “Then the Fan Fest in October and the exhibition games in November to kick off the UD men’s and women’s basketball seasons. But we still haven’t had more shows than usual due to concerns. It wasn’t until February and March 2022 that we really were. UD games are back to near full capacity with high school tournament games, NCAA First Four and Winter Guard International competitions.
As UD Arena looks to the 2022-23 season—hopefully in full force—DeBolt said the arena will continue to be completely cashless and all tickets will be digital. Along with increased water and air quality controls, DeBolt said, “While we are proud to have a clean building, we will maintain cleanliness at ‘pandemic level’.”
While he hasn’t succumbed to the pandemic and he and his team have always kept the building ready for the next step, DeBolt took some time to reflect on UD Arena’s role in this chapter of Dayton’s history.
“I think about my 30+ years in this industry and some of the great things I’ve been a part of. The pandemic wasn’t ‘cool’, but it was ‘cool’ for what we’ve accomplished and plus giving back to them. It was challenging but really rewarding,” he said. “UD Arena was built in 1969 as an asset to the community. We will always remain that resource and open our arms for people to use our building.”
In Numbers: UD Arena during the pandemic
48: Hours from being asked to stand up for a COVID-19 test site to implementation
120: COVID-19 / flu / COVID-19 antibody testing days
100,000: Number of COVID-19/flu/COVID-19 antibody tests performed
40: Days of vaccination clinics
60,000: Vaccines made
For interviews, please contact Shawn Robinson, Deputy Director of News and Communications. [email protected] Contact at.
