Todd Bosma Enriches The Fan Experience Through Game Operations With The Portland Trail Blazers

1Tell us about your role as Director of Game Operations & Events for the Portland Trail Blazers. What does a typical day look like for you?

Well, my role as Director of Game Operations & Events for the Portland Trail Blazers means that I am responsible for everything that you see and hear when attending a Trail Blazers game...everything except the game itself.

The same holds true for our large fan-facing events. We are predominately focused on delivering an outstanding experience for our fans regardless of the outcome of the game. 

I don’t know if there is such a thing as a “typical day” as far as Game Operations goes which is one of the reasons why I love my job so much.

Game days are obviously the most interesting/complex so here is what looks like: it really starts a few days before game day – prepping videos, skits, contests – figuring out what pieces you have to play with for that game and then putting them in an appropriate order for the flow of the game. 

For a 7:00pm game, I usually am at the office between 8:30am and 9:00am. I spend the first 2-3 hours of my day finalizing the game script, a 40-50 page document that is our guide for that particular game.

I say finalize because ideally, I have the script 75-80% done the day before a game so I can use the morning to see if anything new popped up over the evening, do a final check with our partnership department and then proof, edit and adjust the script as needed.

Once that’s done, I meet with our big screen crew – The Director, Technical Director and graphics staff sit down and walk through the script page by page to ensure we have all the appropriate elements needed and discuss how certain time outs will flow (ex. If we are doing an on-court contest, how the contest will run so they can then inform his camera operators where to be/what to look for since we typically don’t get any on-court rehearsal time).  At the conclusion of that meeting, its time for a quick lunch.

Back in the office, I am making copies of our script for the rest of our crew, ensuring that we have all the appropriate prizes from our partners for any contests or lucky fan promotions we are doing that night.

Then, I get together with our Guest Services team who handle the distribution of any ingress items and lucky row or section prizes we have and do a final collection of any new music that is needed for our game (we let the players choose what they hear during warm-ups so it can be a scramble to track down a family-friendly version or edit it to make sure its appropriate to play in the arena).

At around 4:30pm, I am headed into the arena for the night. We do an audio sound check to make sure all our videos are cued properly and are ready to go.

Once that’s done, it’s time for our pre-game meeting with the entire crew. Consisting of everyone on our “Game Night Crew” who facilitate the on-court activations and in-stands fan engagement/contesting, our Big Screen director and select cameramen, our lighting director, mascot, music coordinator, photographer and PA Announcer, this meeting is our last chance to go over the script before we do it for real. 

Once again, we will walk through the script page by page to make sure everyone knows where they should be and what they should be doing.

That finishes at around 5:30pm which is when doors open, so we make sure music is playing in the seating area, programming is up and running on the big screen before quickly grabbing some dinner. I usually head to my director position by about 6:10pm. We have activations starting at 6:25ish, so once I sit in my chair we are off and running.

Once the game is over, I do some final housekeeping items in the arena and then back to my office to respond to anything that happened during the game, or recap the evening while getting an early jump on the next game which could be in 36 hours.

I usually am leaving the arena by 11:00pm-11:30pm on game nights. It’s a long day but I love every second of it!!

2In Game Operations, there can be a lot happening at once that you have to direct and keep under control. How do you stay on top of everything and also adapt to situations as they occur on game day?

Surround yourself with a great crew, and I think we have the best in the business here in Portland.

Having consistency and quality in your supporting cast, where everyone knows what their roles are and do an outstanding job really makes all the difference and helps you navigate the last second adjustments that need to be made through the game. 

It's especially important here in Portland because I am not only the director of the show, but also serve as the In-Arena Emcee so often, when I am out on the court running a contest, our game night crew have to operate without me in their ear advising them on what to do.

It certainly makes things a little crazier, and it only works because of the amazing staff we have here in Portland.

Back to those last-second adjustments too – that’s the beauty of “the show” – making those decisions in a split-second environment. It can be overwhelming at times but, beyond a great crew, it’s all about organization, preparedness and communication.

The devil is truly in the details, so I review the script over and over. My goal as the director is to know the script inside and out prior to the game so that those elements become second nature which allows me to be nimble and adjust quickly in the spur of the moment should we encounter an unexpected situation.

There are a lot of moving parts that go into putting on a game, and in order to be successful you have to communicate to everyone what’s coming up, where are we going next and if something gets moved off a particular time out, where that element is being moved to. I try to remind our crew 2-3 times during gameplay about what is coming up at the next break because we only have one shot at it.

There are no do-overs and if we aren’t prepared, there is no getting that time back; so we have to be on point and ready to go when the time out hits. Once a time out is over, we quickly move on to preparing for the next one because the game moves fast and while we are working on the presentation during gameplay (music, replays, PA Calls, etc.) it’s during those time outs where we really “get to work”.

As far as adapting to the situations, I would say that leading up to tip-off and early on, we follow the script; but once the game starts, we react to the situation and adjust in order to go with the flow. We take our cues from the fans and the energy level inside the arena. Partnership activations are super important, but the fans’ experience should be the focus once we get into game action. 

For example, say it is nearing the end of the game, and the home team is losing, but then they go on an 8-0 run to take the lead. The opposing team calls time out and the fans are going nuts. We would be doing a disservice to both the fans and our partners if we ran a normal time out promotion at that time. The fans wouldn’t be happy to settle down to watch a promotion and no partner wants to be associated with disrupting or lessening the energy inside the arena, so when in doubt, we listen and feel the energy from our crowd, take our cues from the crowd, and ride the ride right along with them.

3As teams look to attract repeat attendees, season ticket holders and increase their overall fanbase, what is the Game Operations team at the Trail Blazers doing differently from other NBA teams in regards to engagement strategy to address fans’ needs and wants?

I don’t know if it’s different from what other NBA teams are doing but for us variety is key.  Recognize that you have season ticket holders who are coming to all your games, so it's important to mix up what promotions/activations you are doing every game.

We have partners who have 15 activations in their contract, that’s almost 37% of all our games, so we sit with our partners and develop multiple promotions that still deliver their message but keep the activities fresh and different from one game to the next.

That way, while our season ticket holders may be seeing a McDonald’s promotion every 3rd game, it’s not the same promotion and that helps things from getting stale and the promotions from turning into white noise in the arena.

Additionally, it's about recognizing what it is we really are doing - entertainment. It’s expensive to attend games in-person, and there are a lot of other avenues where fans could spend their discretionary income, so our job is to give them a great time beyond the wins and losses.

We can’t control the outcome of the game, but we can control some of the fan experience, so if we keep our games engaging and entertaining then we are doing our job. 

To help us accomplish this, we try not to take ourselves too seriously, you have to have a sense of humor and keep things light and fun. If you aren’t enjoying what you are doing, the fans aren’t going to enjoy watching you do it.

Everything we do should be working towards seeing fans walking out of the arena with a smile on their faces, having had a great time even though the home team might have lost the game – that’s the goal.

One thing that we try to do differently here in Portland is have the city be a dominating factor throughout our presentation. We are blessed to have one of the most passionate and loyal fan bases in the league and while they are fanatical about the team, they are equally enthusiastic and vocal about their love of the city.

So, we embrace that and try to make coming to a Trail Blazers game a true authentic reflection of Portland. Things like leasing space on our concourse to local eateries (Portland is very much a foodie town) so you can get some of your favorite meals instead of generic “arena food”, to our graphics used on the big screen.

All of our graphics have some Portland iconic landmark/scenic shot to it because we don’t want it to be where if you just changed the color scheme and logos any other team could use our graphics in their arena.

We try to highlight some of the local talents we have here too and bring them into our show – Ex. Our Game Night Poster Series: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/sports/basketball/trailblazers-gameday-posters.html We carve out some time during halftime where we only play music from a local upcoming musician. It is with the hope that we can use our platform to elevate and amplify the amazing things and people here in the city while exposing some of our fans to music they might not otherwise ever hear. 

Lastly, we have some pretty iconic landmarks here in Portland so besides them showing up as backgrounds for our graphics, we give them a starring role in some of the most important elements of our show.

For example, there is a big painted wall that has the city’s slogan “Keep Portland Weird." Well in a tight game where we really need the crowd to go nuts and help our defense get a stop, we will roll video of that sign then a sound effect hits and the word “Weird” falls off the sign to reveal “Loud” so now the sign reads “Keep Portland LOUD."

The fans love it because it’s not only a way of showcasing the city but, works into the context of a game in an authentic, motivating (but not cheesy) way. It’s a win-win and one of my favorite elements to use to get the crowd going.

4Fan experience is extremely important – no question about it! In order to improve the fan experience, how do you decipher what ideas, innovations and contests are worth your investment and focus?

Great question! 

We try to be open to any and all ideas regardless of where they come from. Everyone has different opinions, likes and dislikes, so we welcome suggestions from everyone.

In Portland, our Game Ops department is pretty small, so we can’t see everything. We encourage different departments to share anything they see that is fun, engaging and memorable, whether it be a TV show, commercial or something another team is doing regardless of the league they are playing in. 

Once an idea is brought to us, we first look to what’s in it for the fans? How does this improve their experience? Is it funny? Can they win a prize? Why should they care about the promotion? We try not to say no to an idea, but rather explore all options and build onto it and see if we can develop it into something.

Sometimes we can, sometimes we can’t but there have been times where just going through the exercise has led us to a completely different idea – so no idea is a bad idea.

Thankfully in Portland, we have been given permission to fail. It’s okay if a promotion or activity doesn’t go perfectly, as long as we are trying new things. We also tweak as we go along. We rarely get a promotion right the first time out, so after each game, we look at what worked and what didn’t and how can we adjust and get better for the next time.

It's an important process as we strive to create activations that deliver on a partners’ goals while engaging and entertaining the fans.