The team behind the magic of Bud Walton Arena

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) – In the 32 year history of Bud Walton Arena, it has a reputation for being versatile.

When fans fill the arena, they are ready for the event ahead whether it be a concert, basketball game, or even a gymnastics meet. Yet going from set-up to set-up isn’t as straightforward as the outside world believes. It takes blood, sweat, and tears to manage the Palace of Mid America for the Arkansas Event Operations team.

“These students, they literally gave their all,” director of event operations Arek Olson told Pig Trail Nation. “We have about 30 students that make up our event operations crew. They’re the ones that do the heavy lifting.”

To get on the team, the students go through different application process throughout the years. Olson says it’s the right fit that matters when constructing his team.

Olson, who landed the job back in 2021, as well as his staff of Erin Cox and Nick Grevas look for candidates who are selfless and check their ego’s at the door. Once they have their crew, it’s go time to make sure the changeover’s at the arena are flawless.

“Going from basketball to gymnastics, we call that a strike,” Olson illustrated. “That entails picking up all the courtside chairs and getting them pushed to storage… then we have to carpet the floor to protect our basketball floor from all the gymnastics apparatuses that we bring out.”

In total, the process can take anywhere from three to four hors to strike basketball and gymnastics, and anywhere from five hours to set up gymnastics and three hours to set baseketball.

As Olson highlighted, each strike is different and has it’s own unique set of challenges. The staff likes to keep the team in high spirits adding themed weeks, such as “Opportunity Week,” to challenge his team to be the best they can be.

With gymnastics playing every home meet in Bud Walton Arena for the 2025 season, that added to the challenge of coordinating events on campus. Olson knew his team could do it.

“Ultimately my boss called me up and she was like, can we do this?” Olson asked himself. “I’m like, let’s roll, let’s do it. There’s a couple of nights where we are here… till 6 a.m., and our students had to turn around and go to class at 8 a.m.”

It’s a selfless job. One that requires a person who put’s their team before them while understanding that the credit is about the experience of the fans.

“We’re fighting for national championships just as much as our teams are that we do this for,” Olson added. “People show up and they may take for granted, you know, how this got to where it got. We’re the ones that tell people not to worry about that. We got them.”

For the student team, it’s not just about the ability to get hands on experience, it’s about being in situations that will set them up for their future careers.

Olson’s team helps students with their resumes, cover letters, and they host webinars for the students hosted by the staff’s peers from around the country. That’s what Olson and his staff do it for, giving the students a start, while being the backbone for Arkansas athletics.