Susie Townsend, senior vice president of visitor experience for Visit Indy, is working inside the men’s NCAA basketball tournament bubble in Indianapolis. Today she shares experiences from her first few days in the bubble, from safety protocols to food service to transportation.

DAY 1

Of all the experiences I have been a part of over the years, this most likely will be the most unusual, challenging and epic. It is truly a once-in a-lifetime opportunity for the city of Indianapolis. If you aren’t into college basketball, you may not know this, but the entire March Madness men’s tournament is being played in Indianapolis. All 68 teams have arrived and are being housed in four hotels that have been bought out in their entirety. Our “bubble” consists of four hotels, the Indiana Convention Center and Victory Field, which was included so the teams could go outside and run.

In addition to the teams there are 120 staffers (NCAA staff, Men’s Basketball Committee, ambassadors, etc.) who are shepherding teams and a few people like me who are helping manage anything and everything that is needed. 

The protocols put in place to keep everyone safe have been incredible. Protocols for keeping everyone safe include daily testing (all set up within each hotel), wearing contact-tracing devices, an entire “outside” system set up to do laundry for all the teams and purchase and delivery of anything that someone may need or want. Items ordered and delivered have been everything from a whiffle ball set to booze (coaches only) to a ukulele. Yes, someone forgot and needed their ukulele. 

Today I have been asked to shepherd teams to get their photos taken with the world’s largest bracket (which is on the JW Marriott) in the background.

DAY 2

Yesterday I had my highest step count yet: 28,000.

I start the day (which is how each day starts) getting my COVID test and picking up my Kinexon contact-tracing device that also flashes when I am closer than six feet to another person.

I thought donuts from Linne’s Bakery in Shelbyville would be a special treat for the ambassadors working in each hotel. The boxes were delivered to the airlock at the Hyatt (there is a system in place for drop off of items and then how they are picked up so there is no contact). The yummy treats were delivered to each of the hotels and were the hit of the day for the ambassadors. One of the ambassadors shared a donut with Oregon’s coach. He loved them so much that he asked how to get more.

A big hit for the teams has been the opportunity to go to Victory Field. Imagine not being able to go outside for days. The NCAA and the LOC were able to add Victory Field to the controlled environment. They can walk, run, play whiffle ball, throw footballs, etc. They are escorted by lucky people like me to Victory Field. I needed to get a breath of fresh air too.

Another thrill for the teams is to have their photos taken on top of the state garage with the bracket in the background. Not only is it another opportunity to get outside but it will be the coolest pic ever for them. Also escorted by lucky people like me.

So you may be asking: Who did I get to escort? Here is the list: Gonzaga, Illinois, Syracuse, BYU, VCU, University of Southern Texas, Maryland, Rutgers, Sooners, Oregon State, Clemson and Drexel.

You may be thinking: What a great gig to stay at the Hyatt for three weeks—pool, sauna, workout facility, room service, daily housekeeping, great restaurants. Spoiler alert: None of the facilities are open at all due to the strict COVID protocol. Living in a controlled environment is quite restrictive. So now are you thinking: Are you using the same towels for three weeks? What are you eating?

More fun facts:

·      Refresh stations have been set up on every floor of the hotel (this is true for all the hotels in the bubble: Hyatt, Westin, JW, Marriott and Le Meriden)

·      A plentiful supply of trash bags, towels, sheets and sundry items are available for us to grab when we need them as well as trash and laundry bins for us to take out our own trash, etc.

·      A laundry service has been set up through the LOC. There are trailers behind the convention center from Lowes that have washers and dryers. There is a schedule for all teams and staff where they can drop off their laundry and then it can be picked up at the ticket windows by Hall J. This was a coveted volunteer shift as you can imagine (not). Imagine washing all those sweaty clothes for 68 teams as well as the staff. Luckily, I have an inside connection should I need my laundry done!

So let’s get to how we are being fed (not the teams, this is for the 120 NCAA staffers, ambassadors, site control and those on the inside)

·      The hotel provides breakfast daily.

·      The Dining team has put together limited menus from over 80 restaurants. We select a menu for lunch and dinner each day using multiple restaurants per day and then send it to the 120 people and they order what they would like. We collect the data, send to the restaurants and then monitor the drop off. All meals are individually boxed and labeled. No buffets or sheet pans of spaghetti. And by the way, there is special drop-off delivery location that is not the usual drop-off spot at the hotels.

·      We have had ordered from Kilroys, Mimi Meatballs, Labor District Café, Union 50, City BBQ, Subway, Bakersfield, The Eagle, Michael’s Soul Kitchen, Tea’s me Café, Barringers, Roosters Kitchen, Big Woods, District Café, Café 251 and District Tap, to name a few.

·      Through the Non Team program over 1,000 meals to date have been ordered and delivered, and the program continues through the end of the tournament. The ambassadors have shared that they can’t wait for their lunch or dinner to arrive as the food has been one of the highlights.

DAY 3

Good day everyone. So happy it is sunny today. Part of my job today will be escorting teams to get their iconic photos taken in front of the bracket. I can’t wait to go outside and soak in some sunshine. 

Yesterday on the team meeting call I was asked about some of the negative press on the dining for the teams. Let me share that now that the teams are out of quarantine the food program has changed drastically and every team that I am talking with are loving the dining program. So here is what happened during the quarantine and you will understand some of the why and how. 

When the 68 teams arrived, they had to do the following:

• Arrive to the hotel
• Get their key packets
• Go to the COVID testing location within the hotel (every hotel has a room where this is being done daily thanks to IU Health)
• Get tested and then quarantine in their room until they receive the results (the nurses do the test, put in the bio containers, they are picked up by a courier, taken to the lab and processed there)
• 68 teams times 34 people = 2,312 tests per day
• When they are in their rooms all food must be placed outside their door, individually packaged in basically a to-go container. 
• Imagine if you are on the 33rd floor of the JW, for breakfast you are getting scrambled eggs, bacon, toast etc. It goes from the kitchen, to the hot box, up 33 flights, then delivered to each room and placed outside their door. That is a long way for scrambled eggs to travel. My eggs are cold when I get them from my stove top to my kitchen table. 

Now that they are out of quarantine they are enjoying food in their meeting room served either by the hotels or ordering from one of the many local restaurants. Today I spoke with the team manager from Eastern Washington. His team has ordered from Michael’s Soul Kitchen three times. He shared that the fried catfish is the best he has ever had. Teams have also ordered from Yardhouse, H&I, Weber Grille, MCL, Steak and Shake and more. 

The NCAA’s corporate partners Wendy’s and Buffalo Wild Wings provided free for all times late-night food for every team. This included a MM Biggie Bag from Wendy’s, which included a double stack, chicken nuggets, a chicken biscuit and fries or 20 wings or an entire pizza (one per kid) and bread sticks. This was delivered nightly starting Saturday March 13th from 8 p.m.-12:15 a.m. to every team. The teams loved this so much that the NCAA extended the program offering this free food to the teams nightly. (Well, someone is paying for it so it is free to the teams). 

You are probably wondering how all those Biggie Bags and food is getting to the teams. This is where the ambassadors come in. They have been an amazing group of young adults who are in Indy because of the McLendon Foundation. They are working countless hours helping the teams do anything and everything. The ambassadors are part of the McLendon Minority Leadership Foundation. The purpose of the McLendon Minority Leadership Initiative is to provide a jump-start to careers through practical experiences, opportunities to build their network and instilling the values of John McLendon: integrity, education, leadership and mentorship. You can read more about the Mclendon Foundation at www.minorityleaders.org. 

I am off to walk teams to get their photos taken in front of the World’s Largest Bracket!

DAY 4

And the games begin. 67 tournament games are being played in six venues around Indiana.

The locations are: Mackey Arena at Purdue University (one hour away), Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall at Indiana University (1.5 hours away), Farmers Coliseum at the Indiana State Fairground (15 minutes away), Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University (15 minutes away), Bankers Life Fieldhouse (downtown) and Lucas Oil Stadium (downtown) set with two basketball courts.

Cities who have had the opportunity to host the Final Four know one of the requirements is a domed stadium. Not an arena, but an NFL football stadium. In a typical Final Four year, Lucas Oil Stadium would be set for approximately 70,000 people with one court. This year as noted above the stadium has two courts. Many of the single-elimination games are being played there along with the national semifinal games as well as the national championship. Fans are being allowed in most venues up to 25 % of capacity.

As the games have officially begun, I am reflecting back to when this opportunity first was bubbling up. I know how difficult the pandemic has been for so many. The NCAA has been affected as well. The city of Atlanta was to host the 2020 men’s Final Four, and after several years of planning the entire tournament was canceled just days before the tournament began. The losses of revenue for the hotels, restaurants, venues and every business that would have benefited from the tournament in Atlanta vanished in an instant.

I regress a bit thinking about our industry and the many losses but being in the bubble and interacting with the teams provides an additional lens into loss of another kind. The loss for these student athletes to compete doing something they love was heart-wrenching for sure. Seeing the excitement as they get ready to compete doing something they love is really very special.

So off they go to play at one of the venues. Due to the protocols in place a team that typically would travel on a 55-passenger motor coach now travel in three coaches. All teams are receiving a police escort to their games as they did upon arrival to Indy.

I won’t be going to a venue where games are being held as they are outside of the bubble. I have however been inside the Indiana Convention Center, which is inside the bubble. The ICC’s exhibit halls have been set up with full-size basketball courts, and the meeting rooms are used as either weight rooms or team rooms for the teams to meet and watch film. There is no food being allowed in the convention center during this time, only beverages. As mentioned earlier, all food is being managed within the hotels.

The games began and the excitement as teams left was electric, however this is a single elimination tournament. So, March “sadness” also begins. When a team loses, they leave shortly after their game or first thing in the morning. As most of the teams have been here for at least a week, while we don’t know them we do get to “know” them. The teams include the team, coaches, trainers and medical staff—and at least some teams bring an academic counselor. They are allowed 34 people in their travel party. Part of the reason is that each team has their own floor in each of the bubble hotels.

After the games are played tomorrow, we will be down to 16 teams—the Sweet Sixteen. Brackets are already being busted. Did you fill out a bracket? It is interesting to learn how some people select their teams. Maybe you study the data, perhaps you picked all the Big Ten teams to win. Did you pick all the teams from Texas—there are seven in the tournament—or did you just pick team names out of a hat?

My two favorite ways to select teams come from inside the bubble. The nurses who are in the Hyatt Regency doing COVID collections all day, every day selected the 16 teams they are testing to fill their brackets.

A Ruth’s Chris Steak House manager (a restaurant in our March Madness dining program) picked the teams that had ordered group meals from their restaurant. As of the first round she was in second place. Not bad!

DAY 5

I hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed some great basketball and/or some beautiful sunny weather!

As you know, this entire event is known as March Madness and it really is. However, as the weekend unfolded at least inside the bubble it became March “Sadness.” With teams losing and being eliminated the tone on the inside (at least for us at the Hyatt) has changed.

It really is exciting when a No. 15 beats a No. 2 team, but then the sadness begins for the teams and for those of us who have been living among all the teams for the last week. They lose a game, they leave Indy without ever having really experienced our great city. They have either been in the hotel, the ICC practicing, on a bus or in the venue where they have played. A quick outside experience of getting your picture taken on top of the state garage or getting to run around at Victory Field is their only glimpse into this great city.

I will share that for one team staying at the Hyatt our friend Mike Fox (former LOS Stadium director) arranged with Kyle Hueston (GM of the Hyatt) for a team to eat their St. Elmo Steak House dinner in the Eagle’s Nest. How cool is that? One of the most famous restaurants in Indy, served from atop the Hyatt with a 360-degree view of Indy. 

Speaking of team experience—last night our mighty crew inside the Hyatt (12 of us) were able to welcome the victorious Syracuse team to their temporary home. We were thrilled to welcome them back!

You may have read about the BYU player who was stuck in the elevator at the Westin. There was video, thumbs-up for the guys who got him out, lots of high fives. Well, let me tell you the other side of the story.

Unfortunately for the Westin and the other 13 teams staying at the hotel, this caused quite a problem. Player Wade shared on social media “you should see the elevator door after the boys got me out.” Well I did see the elevator door and their actions caused the entire elevator system to shut down at the Westin for several hours that night. My high fives go to the Westin team of Kate White, Andy Seal and the engineers who quickly jumped into action, got not only the best Otis elevator fixer on the scene, but also had the owner of the Westin involved and some of the higher ups at Otis.

Kate and I did have a good laugh that evening when she said to me while we were in the back halls of the Westin, “Can you Google how to fix an elevator?” Again, thanks to Kate and the Westin team for their efforts!

Another good story for you. Cluster Truck has been an amazing partner, helping us with our meal program. If you haven’t ordered from Cluster Truck you should. We are using Cluster Truck to order late-night meals for those working the inside the bubble. Many of the site control as well as NCAA staff, photographers, etc., go to the games as part of their duties. With games being played late and them returning late we provide meals for them. Cluster Truck has extended their hours just for this program. We have set up a group ordering system and then they select their meal (from over 100 options), we (the inside dining team) schedule the delivery to arrive when they return to their hotel. Last night we forgot it was Sunday. Late-night hours changed and their kitchen had closed. Uh oh!

Lucky for us, pizza places are open late.

At about 10:30 p.m. we started calling pizza places downtown: one had run out of cheese but could do a small order. No cheese, no thank you. Think about getting this call an hour before closing: Hi, I would like to order 30 pizzas, 30 salads, 30 orders of breadsticks. Can you fulfill this order? Well, Hot Box to the rescue.

Service recovery. All is well inside the bubble and everyone got fed.