KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It took about a month to assemble the NFL Draft, from the stage to the experience. Now that it's over, it all must come down.
"We probably have half a million dollars worth of assets here," said Rocco Mazzella, CEO of Venuesmart, the group in charge of keeping everything clean. "I mean, it’s a big operation."
Mazzella says it takes hundreds of people, trucks, rakes and trash bags to clean up before, during and after the NFL Draft.
"You basically build with the set," Mazzella explained. "As the site grows, our cleaning operation grows, and as the site shrinks after the event, you shrink with it. So hopefully in the next 10 days, we’ll be fully completed and out of here."
Crews are tasked with ensuring the grounds make each day look like the first so when cameras show the World War I Museum and Memorial Lawn and stage, it all looks clean.
"The day shift has to maintain it, but the night shift has to deliver in the dark, making sure that when the sun comes up it’s perfect," Mazzella said.
But this is not Venuesmart's first rodeo. The KC-based group has worked with the Chiefs and Royals for years, as well as national events like Lollapalooza in Chicago and presidential inaugurations.
"I would estimate with 300,000 guests, it’ll be, I don’t know, probably 100 tons," Mazzella said. "We had over 20 dumpsters on site that were pulled regularly and filled to capacity, so there’s a lot of waste and recycling coming out of here."
Looking back, the team agreed it wasn't as hard of a week as expected thanks to a generally tidy, polite crowd.
"I just think it speaks well for the Midwest that people came here and experienced our city and they enjoyed a clean venue," Mazzella said.
Mazella's assistant operations manager Dylan Larson says that because the crew has "worked as a big team, almost a family," the memorial will be "cleaner than it was before."
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