“In moments of crisis, the best communities find a way to come together. Over the last 24 hours our community has been fractured by the comments made by former UofL trustee John Schnatter. These comments were hurtful and unacceptable, and they do not reflect the values of our university. I have decided, with the support of our Board of Trustees, to rename our football stadium ‘Cardinal Stadium’ and to remove John Schnatter’s name from the Center for Free Enterprise at our College of Business effective immediately.

“I have stated since my first day on this job that my commitment to the University of Louisville is to make it a great place to learn, a great place to work, and a great place in which to invest. We can only accomplish this if we truly celebrate diversity, foster equity, and aim to achieve inclusion.

“I appreciate your support as we have reviewed this difficult situation. By taking this action, we renew our community’s commitment to speaking up when it matters, doing what is right, and coming together as one team – our Cardinal family – to heal and move forward. The brightest days for this university are still ahead.

Go Cards!”

Such is the case for Taylor Swift’s Reputation Stadium Tour, which comes to Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium Saturday. The showĚý– which kicks off at 7 p.m. with opening acts Camila Cabello and Charli XCXĚý– is expected to bring 45,000-plus highly animated fans to the University of Louisville.Ěý

“I can’t tell you what will be louder, the sound system or the deafening screams. (Swift) puts on a great show and it is loud. I expect the same thing to happen here on Saturday,” said Michael Ortman, UofL stadiums manager.

Saturday will mark the second Taylor Swift show that he has helped facilitate. The first was her Red Tour in 2012, when he worked at Soldier Field in Chicago. Ortman has 21 years of experience working at stadium venues, five of which have been at UofL. He has worked on tours from U2’s The Joshua Tree Tour at Papa John’s Stadium last year to the Rolling Stones’ Bridges to Babylon Tour in the late 90s. His first concert as a UofL employee was Kenny Chesney’s Big Revival Tour in 2015.

“No one show is the same. I think this Saturday will be my 36^th stadium concert. I’ve done eight Rolling Stones shows, four U2 shows, several Dave Matthews shows, Bon Jovi, Kid Rock, Beyonce, NSync,” he said. “Nothing’s ever the same. It’s fun.”

His connections led to a conversation in 2015 with Chesney’s management group, which is the same group that manages Swift’s tour. The team was able to experience the venue and operations, and Swift’s tour manager noted that he wanted to put Louisville “on the route.”

“You never really know until things come into play. We didn’t officially start talking to them about this show until August, September – less than a year ago,” Ortman said.

Of course, with the stadium’s ongoing construction, the conversation had to include some added logistics.

“We were upfront with them about everything, including access restrictions. Same with U2 last year. Nobody came in and didn’t know, but we are still able to provide what they need and so we were able to work through those logistics,” Ortman said.

Swift’s team did a site tour in the end of May, which gave them a glimpse into construction workaround details – storage, trucks, access, dressing rooms, etc.Ěý

Because football operations are now in the building, the event team had to scramble to find dressing room alternatives. They secured five RVs and a 20-foot-by-20-foot tent to build dressing rooms for Swift and her performers. For the opening acts, they set up areas in the press box area.

“Sometimes you have to think outside the box to get them the space they need,” Ortman said.

Ortman has worked 12-plus-hour days along with his team – Andrew McClung, director of stadium operations, Erika Fitzgerald, director of ticket operations, Mike Morris, lead on Physical Plant, and many others – prepping for this show while managing a variety of other events at the stadium and other facilities throughout campus. For the concert, his team staffs medical, police, security, parking, arranges cooling stations and provides the tour team with what they need.

Swift’s stadium tour entails 80 total semi-trucks – 53 for production, including audio/video and lighting; 20 steel trucks to build the stage; and the rest for generators, merchandise, etc. The crew started laying the floor last weekend. The steel structure should be done Thursday, and the specific features for this show – a snake pit, for example – go up on Friday.

“By the end of day Friday, the production will be put together. When it gets dark, her team will run through the lighting and everything else to work out the bugs,” Ortman said. “This is Taylor’s first show since her Europe performances, so they’ll spend until 3 a.m. or so getting everything run out.”

Also on Friday, the 8,500 seats will be set up. About 50 UofL students are helping with this logistic, and the seating provider is making a payment to their student organizations of choice. When the show ends around 11 p.m. Saturday, UofL students will also help take down those chairs.

“The building will be empty by 11:45 to midnight. By 4 a.m., the 53 production trucks will be on the road to the next show,” Ortman said. “It is organized chaos.”

Showcasing UofL

Ortman adds that Louisville’s centralized location is appealing to tour managers because it is close to other mid-major cities, such as Indianapolis, and allows fans an opportunity to see a show without having to travel to a city like Chicago.

“Our location is a big benefit, especially with routing as tours are going from space to space. I’m hoping we can continue to be on that radar,” he said. “If we’re on that radar, opportunities exist for us to be known as ‘UofL gets it. Let’s go there to play a show.’”

The benefits extend beyond location, however. Securing a major act like Taylor Swift or U2 exposes UofL to fans who may otherwise never have that opportunity. On UofL’s official Twitter channel, for example, one fan noted they were coming in from Japan, and another from Canada. This opportunity is not lost on Ortman.

“Especially with Taylor’s demographic – that 12-to-35-year-old age group – this gives us the chance to show ourselves off and maybe put UofL in their minds when they’re thinking about colleges a few years from now,” he said. “That is a benefit you can’t put a value to. If bringing in acts like this allows us to bring in more people and be successful, I’d do it every day if I could.”

Starting Monday, however, Ortman will pivot back to football and getting construction completed by the first home game Sept. 8.

“Once everything is moved out of this building, it’ll be like nothing ever happened,” he said. “And we’ll move on to make sure we’re doing what we can to keep this place busy.”

While the Cardinals begin training for the 2018 campaign, the finishing touches are being put on a $63-million expansion of Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium and the Howard Schnellenberger Football Complex, which began following the final home game of the 2016 season.

Construction crews continue to work in preparation for the 2018 season opener versus Indiana State on Sept. 8 at 7:30 p.m. The seven-game home schedule will be one of the most exciting in recent history, with games versus Western Kentucky, Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State and Kentucky.

Below are some of the highlights included in the expansion project:

• The $63-million expansion of Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium and the Howard Schnellenberger Football Complex began following the final home game of the 2016 season.
• The expansion calls for two new levels of luxury seating above the upper deck, which adds approximately 6,000 additional seats. The expansion includes 800 modern club seats, 68 new premium loge level boxes and 12 exclusive field level suites, while adding 25,000-square feet of distinct space.
• The middle of the field level will feature a special entrance for the team surrounded by supporters. The design provides a connection between the east and west sides of the venue. Stadium seating will continue to feature all chairbacks fans, providing the only university-owned and operated stadium in the nation with that element.
• Two 40-foot by 80-foot LED videoboards will be installed in the north end zones.
• The stadium will possess more than 8,000-square feet of ribbon boards throughout.
• A 24-foot by 92-foot football videoboard will be installed in the south end zone.
• A total of 344 feet of ribbon boards will be mounted on the east and west sides of the stadium.
• The training room will be equipped with five total pools: two plunge pools that will require 12,000 gallons of water, and the hydro-therapy room will be furnished with three pools, including a HydroWorx pool that contains an underwater treadmill, used for low-impact cardio workouts and early rehabilitation projects.
• The training room, which will have four times the amount of rehabilitation space, will be equipped with two adjustable hot-cold tubs that can each hold up to 24 players.
• The training area will house three doctor suites.
• The Howard Schnellenberger Football Complex will contain 13 meetings rooms throughout the facility, compared to the eight rooms in the previous complex.
• Each of the position groups will have its own meeting space.
• The team auditorium holds 150 padded-chairback seats, which is 30 more than was located in the previous complex.
• The defensive unit will have its own meeting area, an auditorium that will have a capacity of 70 seats.
• The weight room, which previously consisted of about 9,000-square feet, will expand to 20,000-square feet.

• The addition of balconies at Cardinal Arena;
• Two field turf replacements;
• A video wall and other technology improvements at three athletics facilities.

Workers are also busy on expanding Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium and building a new eight story pediatrics building in downtown Louisville on the Health Sciences Center campus.

“In total we have almost a quarter billion dollars worth of work that is involved with those four projects” said Jim Sears, associate vice president of facilities management. “And over the course of construction there will probably be the better part of 2,000 construction workers and their families that will benefit from this building investment. It is a very big deal.”

Check out the video below:Ěý

Photo provided by Clyde Paul.