Planning, Teamwork Make Mackey Magic

This story is part of the Persistent Pursuit series which features the best stories at Purdue.

It mirrors Coach Matt Painter’s renowned men’s basketball program.

The behind-the-scenes crew that makes the Mackey Arena experience unique for Purdue fans through its thoughtful game presentation follows the exact credo of the 20-year Boilermaker coach: Build a great team with experience and youth, trust one another, dare to be creative, communicate and, most of all, DO YOUR JOB.

“You are surrounded by creative and innovative people that do their jobs at the highest level,” says Marlee Thomas, game host for the past four seasons. “It makes you always want to be at your best.”

Being at one’s best is an everyday task. And for the award-winning team of dozens of video, audio, musical and graphical talents that help make Purdue’s 58-year-old facility vibrant and fresh, it is a challenge accepted with an eye for constant improvement.

And there’s more.

“We have learned to be the owner of our space,” says Andrew Stein, director of photography services, who travels with videographer Andrew Bay to all road games. “Trust is a big word that helps us perform as a team.”

Painter is a master delegator

Much like with his coaching staff, Painter is a delegator. He has no interest in delving into the details of the marketing and presentation of Boiler Ball.

“Coach Painter doesn’t want to be involved in the minutiae of what we do,” Bay says. “He knows it matters. He sees the value. For example, he is comfortable letting me in the huddle to shoot during a crucial timeout, letting me do my job while trusting I will always have the best interests of his program at heart.”

As Purdue’s associate athletics director in charge of marketing and fan experience, Chris Peludat is the ringleader of what the Mackey faithful see, hear and feel. He says Painter doesn’t say much about the job his crew does, but when he does, it makes an impact.

“There’s a recent quote that says it all,” Peludat says. “He said that in the past 10 years, our team has been able to make every game in Mackey at a level like only big games in the past used to be. The coach knows that is what we’re shooting for and how we base every decision on how we proceed.”

And the coach couldn’t be more spot on.

Like Painter’s team, it’s all about the process for the game-day folks. Director of men’s basketball operations and administration Elliot Bloom, who is attached at the hip to Painter, has been integral in setting the vision and tone for the game-day experience. A Purdue graduate, Bloom saw the best of the best men’s hoops environs with stints at Kansas and Duke before returning to Purdue 23 years ago, spending the first seven in a sports information role. Bloom knows it when he sees it and has seen it from the Boilermaker bench for the past 16 years.

We never take for granted that attending games is a time and financial commitment for our fans.elliot bloom

director of basketball administration and operations

“Winning at an elite level is the most important thing,” Bloom says, “But nearly as crucial is creating an atmosphere where fear of missing out for people is real.”

“You have to create magic in that building and do some things that people think, ‘Do I want to go to that Wednesday game that tips at 8:30 p.m.?’ When they pick up social media the next morning, we want them to say, ‘I knew I should have gone. What was I thinking?’”

Purdue will complete the 2024-25 season on a streak of 88 consecutive sellouts, dating to 2019, so it works like a charm on all fronts. The process of creating and cultivating is both planned and organic.

‘A tight family’

It starts with preseason meetings involving Bloom, Peludat, Bay, men’s basketball strategic communications director Chris Forman, director of in-venue production Brad Sommer and others.

“Coach Painter has a tight basketball family, and in the planning process we don’t need too many cooks in the kitchen,” says Forman, who leads much of the planning process with his weekly notes that provide key statistics for team storylines to the group.

The group is often around one another, and they talk and brainstorm. It is how ideas like the “Elf” video featuring senior Caleb Furst, bobblehead night and various video themes are hatched. But many of those ideas first come from students involved in video production, the Boiler Brass (Purdue’s pep band) and other areas surrounding Purdue basketball.

“Our Boiler Brass band members are always suggesting songs,” says Matt Conaway, who directs Purdue’s 90-member musical group and sits at the table in the preseason planning process. But that is only part of the story, as the common theme among all the Purdue students involved with the Mackey game-day production is that they are always thinking about improving things. For example, there are about 90 songs in the Boiler Brass repertoire, but a dozen or so get retired yearly.

The key to all facets of the game-day production is that everyone must be ready immediately. The backbone of marching orders from Peludat and the entire crew is “no dead air.” Something must be happening at all times. There can be growing pains early in the season as the rhythm of game day is crystallized, but it is a well-oiled machine by the end. The Boiler Brass is just an example of the diligence that permeates the operation and the need to stay focused despite being a fan of the team on the floor.

“They can’t be high-fiving each other and be ready to play,” Conaway says of his band members who are also part of the student group The Paint Crew. “I was most proud that we didn’t have a single misfire in the IU game, which was a heated environment. Everyone knew their job and where they had to pivot from being a spectator to being a very important part of the atmosphere in less than a second.”

It comes down to winning

Ideas emanate from every level of sports, including the NBA. The expectation is to have a pro-quality level of entertainment.

“We have high expectations, and that comes from studying what the pros do,” says Sommer, who has been part of the video production in Mackey for 20 years and directs the content on the video board. “We are always looking for cool ideas that we can incorporate.”

Yet, in the end, it comes down to winning games in Mackey.

“We want our fans to feel that they are part of the game and helping the team,” Sommer says. “We need to do everything we can to make them feel part of it.”

Public address announcer Carson Tucker concurs with Sommer. Since Tucker is courtside at the scorer’s table and Sommer is in a studio in the bowels of Mackey, Tucker is an essential set of eyes and ears.

“Naturally, I am very aware of how things are going, and I will tell Brad we need to get the crowd going if things are dead,” says Tucker, who has been handling the public address since Painter’s second season as head coach.

Tucker knows that a long-drawn-out “threeeeeeee’ following a Boilermaker triple is just one of the ways he can have an effect.

“My duties range from crowd safety to public information, but if I can get in the opponent’s head a little bit, I will do that,” says Tucker, who does PA work for numerous sports at Purdue. “But I always try to remember what (former Purdue athletics communications director) Jay Cooperider told me when he hired me 19 years ago: There is always someone in the stands that is experiencing their first game in Mackey.”

Forging a forever bond

The Mackey experience isn’t complete when the game is over. For Bay, it means hours of work for him and his staff breaking down video. It is an extra challenge when he is the lone videographer when the Boilermakers are on the road, but it can be like putting a puzzle together for home games with a handful of videographers.

“Fans can be at the game and see everything from the stands, but they can’t be in the huddle or the locker room,” Bay says. “I always talk about parasocial relationships; when you watch and listen to someone, you create a different bond level.”

The hype videos posted on the @BoilerBall social media account a handful of times per season for “big games” take planning and storytelling. The video postgame recaps are much more than highlighting the game action; they are also about forging a strong alliance with fans.

However, that partnership with the team and coaches comes from strong faith and freedom by the coaches. And it makes the 16-20 hours it takes to put some of the videos together worth it for Bay and his staff.

“The confidence our coaches have that we know what we’re doing is evident because they let me show some of the inside stuff, and we know where the line is,” Bays says. “The videos are for our fans, our ticket holders. And we want those videos to convey, ‘Hey, look at this team. You love this team. Keep coming back. Follow us to Detroit. Follow us to Phoenix. Follow us wherever we go.’”

But in storytelling, the main thing is the main thing. The players also must have trust in the work. A case in point was when junior guard Braden Smith agreed to have a little kid slide across the conference table to represent Smith in the “Elf” video poking fun at Smith’s boyish size and persona.

“We always tell them we’re gonna have fun with this, but we’re not going to embarrass anybody,” says Peludat, who said it didn’t take much, if any, convincing Smith to have some fun at his expense. “We have great players to work with.”

Chris Johnson, a graphics guru who is part of Paul Sadler’s crack creative services staff, starts by being a fan in the stands. When the final buzzer sounds, it morphs into using images and texts to tell the story.

“I sit in the stands and cheer as loud as I can,” says Johnson, who started with Sadler and company in his undergraduate days nearly a decade ago. “I feed off the photographic work of Andrew (Stein), and his work makes my work come to life.

“I want people to see the graphics and want to be part of it all. It can be about stats and records, but a key is to put it in a way that impacts our fans.”

Yet, in the end, it is all about building relationships with fans and each other. And Painter leads by example, always going the extra mile to make everyone feel important. A case in point was when he presented Tucker with a Big Ten championship and Final Four ring at the end of last season.

“The rings came in late, and Carson wasn’t available when they passed them out to the team,” recalls Peludat. “But Coach called Carson down to the locker room so that he could present the ring himself.”

It meant a lot to Tucker, and Peludat believes numerous examples of such moments make the difference and keep this group working so hard together.

Trust, freedom and fun all come together, building an experience for fans and players alike that isn’t replicated any better in any sports venue in the United States.

And if history is a teacher, it will be bigger and better in 2025-26. After all, that is the expectation.

Written by Alan Karpick, publisher of GoldandBlack.com