About 18 days a year the Creighton men's basketball team takes the floor at the CenturyLink Center for another game on their schedule. At one time, that's all it was - another game on their schedule played before a few thousand people at the Omaha Civic Center. In less than 20 years it has transformed into a major event in Omaha, drawing more than 16,000 fans a game and it has become much more than just a basketball game. It's now an event, a place where people want to be seen, a night out, a date that many fans plan their weeks and months around.

Much goes into a Creighton basketball game that the average fan does not see. In this multi-part series, BluejayBanter.com takes a look at the behind the scenes activities that make Creighton basketball special.

To put a game day timeline on the duties of MECA (Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority who oversees the operation of the CenturyLink Center) is next to impossible, since it's pretty much a 24-hour per day operation. With the large number of events staged every year at the CenturyLink Center, the arena and adjoining convention center are always a buzz of activity.

We thought we would to start by talking to Matt Burcham, director of operations for MECA. To find him, you must enter an office to the right of the loading dock. It is one of the many offices, storage and work areas that are underneath the first level seats in the CenturyLink Center. In fact as you make your way around the ground floor of the CLink one is amazed at what seems like a small city that exists underneath the arena.

Burcham's staff deals with everything from day-to-day operations of the arena to staging one of the many events at the CenturyLink Center, including Creighton basketball. For an average Creighton game, an additional staff of about 100 workers is needed to successfully stage the game event (This does not include the associates of Levy restaurants who run the concessions; we will hear much more about them later).

The MECA staff includes ushers, ticket takers, security staff and a maintenance crew. Of course, when we think of a MECA crew we think of the setup of the arena for a basketball game. "It's much easier this year without hockey" said Burcham in reference to the fact that UNO no longer plays hockey at the CLink.

"In years past, there were times where we had to do overnight conversions from hockey to basketball," Bucham continued. "The setup is a little easier this year."

With the many Creighton games that have been played over the years, set up is routine with everyone pretty much knowing where everything needs to go. One change this season is the addition of seats in what used to be an exit tunnel in the southeast corner of the court. This was necessary as seats were lost in other areas of the arena because of additional handicap seating that was required.

Of course Omaha has become home to the NCAA Tournament regionals over the years. That setup is much more exact and much more difficult.

"The NCAA has a 384-page binder," Burcham said. "Everything is in great detail. How many chairs on the bench, how many feet each chair is from the scorer's table, etc. Everything must be done exactly to NCAA specifications, which of course takes more time."

A huge television truck rolls through the large doors on the east side of the CenturyLink Center. Once the doors of the truck are open, one can see an entire television production studio inside. The production crews begin early in the day preparing for that evening's nationally televised game.

Also at work early on game day are the members of the arena's production crew. Gino Meyer, who oversees a team of 10 people who put together all of the videos you see during a game, was been hard at work before the truck arrives. Gino and his team begin the day editing and preparing videos for that night's game.

Gino's office is high atop the CenturyLink Center above section 207 next to the hockey press box. Adjacent to his office is the production room which really is the nerve center of the arena. Not only do they control the videos that appear on the video boards, the crew is also responsible for the advertising and videos on the ribbon boards around the arena, the statistics on the auxiliary scoreboards and they are even responsible for any changes made to the menu boards you see at the concession stands throughout the arena.

The crown jewel of the electronics in the arena is the scoreboard. Only the second like it in the world when it was installed, the scoreboard has four millimeters in between pixels which gives the board its outstanding clarity. And speaking of video boards, the various boards in the production room are impressive. As the crew sits in front of their own individual monitors, a huge board with 30 screens allows them to see all screens in the arena as well as the ability to preview videos before they are queued up for play.

Most of us have an idea of what student managers do for a team and how important they are in the support of the team throughout the season. But their game day contributions are highly unappreciated, especially the amount of time they spend on game days.

Senior student manager John McKew and the staff of 14 managers begin game day early. Their first duties are to greet the opposing team for their shoot-around which generally takes place about eight hours before tip. Depending on the game and the day of the week, Creighton players may get a little extra shooting in before the opposing teams arrive and the managers are there to accommodate them in any way they can. They also lay out the practice jerseys in the Creighton locker room so when the players arrive for shoot-around, all is ready.

Once the one-hour shoot-around is complete, the Jays head to dinner which is served at the arena. The managers then lay out the game jerseys and prepare everything for that night's game, including preparing not only the locker room but also the bench area for everything the team and coaches will need for that night's game. Other managers make sure all is ready for the filming of the game so that the staff and team have game film to break down in the following days.

With the scouting game plan put into place the coaching staff's Xs and Os part of the preparation is complete. The coaching staff then has a little free time before the game is to begin and all have different routines - some take the few hours before the game to relax, others work out and often coaches spend time with recruits and their families if they are here to attend a Creighton home game.

Tipoff is five hours away and Sports Information Director Rob Anderson is hard at work. Even though his extensive pregame previews had been written days before, Anderson's work is far from over. Often during shoot-arounds, national media members - such as the TV broadcast team of that night's telecast - pick his brain and ask questions about the Creighton team and any other facts that will be useful to them in their coverage.

After those sessions are complete Anderson heads to press row to make sure all seating assignments are done and nametags are in place. He then checks to make sure all the electronics on press row are operational and working properly, especially the monitors on press row that give real time stats.

"Better to find an issue now than five minutes before tipoff," Anderson said.

His other pregame duties are pretty much what you would expect a SID to do: accommodate requests from the opposing team's staff, make sure the media and interview rooms are ready and ensure that the scorer's table is ready to go for that night's action.