As Vice President of Stadium Operations for Invesco Field at Mile High, home of the two-time Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos, Mac Freeman '89 oversees everything that goes on in this building, from turf management to parking, security, and fiscal planning. And on game day he coordinates over 4,000 part-time employees. The stadium houses training facilities, emergency services, a pre-cabled broadcast bay, restaurants, and a bona fide jail. There's even a stall for Bucky, the Broncos' mascot. In effect, Mac Freeman runs a small city.

Most independent experts in the industry will tell you that Invesco Field, which opened during the 2001 football season, is the biggest and best out there. The facility boasts state of the art multimedia technology, a heated field, and two 40,000 square foot club lounges, both adorned with an impressive collection of Frederick Remington sculptures. But what really makes the stadium unique is the site design. In contrast to the concrete parking lots that encase most arenas, the landscape around Invesco is more like a park. There are over 1,000 trees, a walking pedestrian mall, public art projects, and-on the south side-a massive sculpture of seven charging horses in bronze designed by Italian artist Sergio Benvenuti.

Freeman began his rise to the pinnacle of the facility management industry during his senior year at Hampden-Sydney, when he took an internship at the Richmond Coliseum. His primary interests at the time were music and sports, so working for SMG, the company that runs the coliseum, seemed a perfect fit. The Monday after he graduated he went to work as their marketing manager. Soon after becoming director of marketing, he moved on to bigger SMG facilities, including the LA Memorial Coliseum (Raiders) and the Pittsburgh Civic Arena (Penguins). In 1996 he was hired as assistant general manager for Three Rivers Stadium (Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers) before moving back to the Civic Arena to oversee a $13-million renovation. In 1998 he was hired as general manager of the old Mile High Stadium. When the Broncos decided to build a new facility, they hired Freeman as a consultant to help with the construction process.

When a new law mandated that the Broncos have a private management firm run the building, they decided to start one themselves. They asked Freeman not only to run the new stadium, but also to establish a management firm. He created Stadium Management Company, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Denver Broncos. SMC is involved not only with football but with soccer, hospitality events, and concerts as well. Freeman, his wife Molly, daughter Lilly, and son James are now firmly planted in Denver.

Now that he is in a position of being a mentor to his employees, Freeman is acutely aware of the value of his Hampden-Sydney education. "There's no doubt in my mind that every school in the country should be running a rhetoric program. It's staggering how poor written and oral communication are in the work place-and that crosses all socio-economic lines," he says. "It's not about rocket science or having a niche degree. The ability to read and write, think analytically, apply common sense, and work hard-that's what matters."

As a student, the free enterprise movement of the 1980s sparked Freeman's interest, and he decided to major in political science. When he first got into stadium management, he assumed there would be little direct connection with his major. In retrospect, however, the privatization movement that he studied about in college has defined his career. In the late eighties, with municipalities ill equipped to handle the increasingly competitive industry, private management companies began running public facilities. When he started with SMG, the company managed 18 buildings. They now have more than 140. Freeman has kept a detailed running total of budgetary expenditures at his facilities compared to the pre-privatization numbers, and he can accurately say that he is part of a team that has realized $20 million in savings to tax payers. "That's a number I'm pretty proud of," he says.

Freeman also finds reward in less tangible aspects of the business. Since his first days in Richmond, when he might have watched rap stars perform one day and country music singers the next, his appreciation of music has grown infinitely more diverse. "In this business you see all slices of Americana enjoying their favorite thing," he says. "If you looked at my CD collection you'd think I had assumed some type of schizophrenia-I've become a fan of every different type of music. Even if you're not into something, if you're in an arena with 10,000 people going crazy for what's on stage, it's hard to fight that energy."

Mac Freeman '89 overlooking "his" Denver Broncos stadium.

At Invesco Field at Mile High, where steel risers turn the cheers of over 70,000 die-hard fans into a deafening roar, that energy is palpable. But to see Freeman on game day, you'd never guess that the responsibility of the entire complex is on his shoulders. As the Broncos prepare to face off against their archrivals the Raiders, a game that just happens to be the 100th anniversary of Monday night football, Freeman spends the afternoon showing the NFL Commissioner around the facility. That evening Freeman double-checks the plans for the highly elaborate pre-game and halftime celebrations. Once things are underway, he makes his rounds, stopping by the Champions Box to greet a few sponsors and grab a quick bite before leaving to check on the Commissioner and his wife. After double checking with food operations and security-on nights like this there's always plenty of action in the stadium's jail-he heads into the pulsing crowd to find his Chi Phi fraternity brother Brad Johnson '89, who lives nearby in Fort Collins.

While game day is always thrilling, what Freeman really lives for are those quiet moments just before the big event when an arena designed to hold thousands waits in repose. Walking down the sidelines of Invesco Field the night before the Raiders game, Freeman is reminded of one of the most poignant moments in his career: alone at midnight before the last game in the old Mile High, spending his final hours in the first building that was really his. He recalls an equally vivid memory from his days in Richmond. It was just before an REM concert and the group was doing a sound check. "I remember walking down into the seventh row and hearing my favorite band play 'South Central Rain' just for me," he says. "I knew then that I had found the perfect business."

While the scene is now quite different, Freeman is still helping Americana do what it loves best. And those uncanny moments-standing alone on Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium on a Sunday evening, a cool Denver dusk settling on waves of empty seats and a freshly painted field-still remind him that his is the perfect job.