Before most Tiger tailgaters have set up their tents or heat up a pot of gumbo, workers are beginning what could be up to a 20-hour work day in Tiger Stadium.Tiger fans only see football concessions for the seven or eight home games in a regular season. But Tiger Concessions Director Larry Wallace and his staff have prepared for this season for the past three months.While the concession work runs throughout the school year for different University sporting events, the summer months are spent preparing for a new football season. And Wallace said the first action he takes toward a new season involves a little bit of prayer.Seventy stands in Tiger Stadium and on campus are stripped, cleaned and restocked. Inventory is made on all equipment and groups of workers are organized. The first order of 100,000 bottles of water is delivered by July 1. An 85-ton order of ice will be delivered before gameday and takes about six hours to distribute.Wallace’s 12 full-time workers work throughout gameday to serve Tiger fans.”We’ll arrive at the stadium between 6 and 7 a.m., and we’ll leave the stadium at about 4 a.m. Sunday,” Wallace said. “At about 10 a.m., the 15 to 20 supervisors that work the stadium will arrive.”Those supervisors will prepare concession stands and await their groups, Wallace said. The 1,500 volunteers that staff concessions will arrive around 12:30 p.m. and receive their tasks. At that point, the stands will open 2 1/2 hours before kickoff.”Every stand will be ready and stocked,” Wallace said. “We’ve got to do a significant amount of sales. You don’t have the opportunity to miss one sale because you’re only doing this seven days out of the year.”And sales aren’t missed — a fact Wallace prides his concessions on. He recognized the concessions as an important part of the entertainment on gamedays.”People aren’t in Tiger Stadium to stand in my concessions line,” Wallace said. “The real entertainment is on the field. We just add to it.”The numbers reflect the success Tiger Concessions has in getting the product to fans. Last season, 124,000 bottles of water, 325,000 fountain drinks, 95,000 hot dogs and 34,000 hamburgers were sold. Fans can also choose from a variety of foods including barbecue nachos, ham sandwiches, muffalettas, crawfish pies and alligator sausage. Tiger Concessions recorded its highest revenue game last season when 92,910 fans attended the LSU/Florida game. Revenue from that game reached more than $700,000, according to the Tiger Concessions office. By comparison, Tennessee’s highest revenue game brought in 106,311 fans and $698,000 against Southern Miss in its season opener.”We knew what was about to hit us, and we were ready,” Wallace said. “It was all 1,500 people having the passion to pull off what we did that day. It was about five solid hours where we couldn’t let our guard down.”Concessions has been under the watchful eye of Wallace since June 2004. Under Wallace’s predecessor, the concessions celebrated a half a million dollar game, but since Wallace became director, reaching that mark has become common, said LSU Dining Director David Heidke. “[Wallace] averaged more than half a million each game last season,” Heidke said. “So he’s done a tremendous job.”But Wallace won’t accept complete responsibility. He praises his staff for making everything run smoothly, and even though many of the people he works with have families, they have a similar relationship with their coworkers at Tiger Stadium.”This is our family too,” Wallace said. “I don’t have to ask them. They’ve got my back.”Wallace evoked the word “passion” to describe his staff’s commitment to success.”You can’t do this job if you don’t love it,” Wallace said. “If you don’t, you won’t be successful at it. If you don’t, you’ll only be mediocre, and we’re not going to deliver mediocre at LSU.”Lois Guillory, a concession stand supervisor, said she loves to work and sometimes has to remind herself to slow down. “I just have that drive to get everything,” she said.Sonya Watts, Guillory’s coworker and another supervisor, oversees seven to eight stands that can vary in size from 15 to 30 workers. The gameday atmosphere is what she said keeps her working. But Guillory and Watts said they don’t get to watch the games.”We’re probably the only people who go home and have to ask who won the game,” Watts said laughing.Watts admits the two share a guilty pleasure before each game. “Believe it or not, we will try to get our work done as fast as we can so we can get that two minutes to watch the band run down the hill,” Guillory said.The Athletic Department works closely with the concession stands — another relationship Wallace called “second to none.” Former Athletic Director Skip Bertman was a large part of what made for a successful relationship. Wallace remembers all the support he received from Bertman and how the support continues with new Athletic Director Joe Alleva.”Skip took the time to talk concessions with me, even letting me know when he didn’t like something,” he said.Receptive to those concerns, Wallace said he strives to make sure everything is perfect in his job and balance his priorities with work and family.”When I get home at 5 [my wife] will let the kids in our room at 8 [a.m.],” he said. “So I’ve got to be a dad on Sunday, and I want to because it’s a balance.”Heidke said the reason Tiger Concessions does so well is because Wallace can balance all the different aspects of his job and life. Wallace said he and his staff “will do whatever it takes” to get work done by relying on each other.”There ain’t no ‘I’ in this place,” Wallace said. “It’s like that saying, ‘When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.’ When the fans are ready, we’re going to be ready.”—-Contact Sean Griffin at [email protected]