As soon as the NFL schedule was released in April, Spencer Treadwell, the Falcons’ director of logistics and team facilities, started making phone calls.
The team, faced with trips to Oakland, Los Angeles, Seattle and Denver, had requested that two of the games be played in consecutive weeks.
The Falcons had to determine if they were going to stay in Denver or Seattle for the trip.
“We investigated the potential of staying the week in Denver and compared it to the logistics operation for the week in Seattle,” Treadwell said. “In the end, what we chose to do was a lot of the heavy lifting on the front end. Play Denver, beat the Broncos, get on the airplane and set roots here so that we had a seamless operations for the week.”
Treadwell and Brandon Ruth, the logistics manager, were quick to note that it was an organization-wide effort to move the team’s equipment and personal items across the country and that executive assistant Beth Auer played an important role.
The Falcons received their biggest break early in the process when they found out that the University of Washington’s football team had a bye week.
The next major step was to secure a hotel that had enough rooms, meeting space and the technology to support the football operation for the week.
The Falcons partnered with a trucking company to take all of personal luggage and practice equipment to Seattle on a 24-foot long truck.
The team went to Denver with the game-day equipment via plane.
While the Falcons were playing in Denver, Ruth already was on the ground in Seattle. He worked with the hotel staff to make sure all of the luggage was in the correct rooms.
“We worked with FedEx to get everybody’s week long backs to Seattle,” Ruth said. “We had everybody drop the bags at Flowery Branch and loaded them on the FedEx truck. We had a dedicated truck drive the bags to Seattle.”
This was not the first time that the Falcons stayed out on the road. In 1997, the team played at Seattle and San Diego back-to-back. In 2000, they played San Francisco and Oakland back-to-back and stayed in California.
“This one would probably rival a London-type operation,” said Treadwell, who’s been with the Falcons since 1995. “The only thing missing was the passports. There were multiple movements, we had to play in one city, pick up that operation and move it to another city and set up for the week.”
The Falcons also had team chef Steve Chambers make the trip.
“He’s spearheading that operation,” Treadwell said. “We are adjusting it as we get feedback from the players. We are adjusting times and items to make sure that we have the guys covered as if we were in Flowery Branch.
“Our sole goal in this whole operation is make sure that they can concentrate on winning the football game. That’s our goal, whether it’s a short time to Carolina or a long trip to Seattle.”
Brian Boigner and his equipment staff converted the visiting locker room at Husky Stadium into home for a week. It was not nearly as fancy as the Falcons’ locker room in Flowery Branch, but it had the numbers taped to the stalls and equipment boxes in the hallway.
There wasn’t any room for any big leather lounge chairs.
“Kenny (Osuwah), Jimmy (Hay) and Boigs know that I’m going to forget something so they overpacked, so I’ve got everything that I need,” quarterback Matt Ryan said. “Those guys did a great job of making sure that everything that I have at the facility in Flowery Branch is here in Washington.”
Falcons coach Dan Quinn was pleased with how things have worked out.
“Man, are we fortunate,” Quinn said. “The organization nailed it for us. The advance team that came out and set up. You can just imagine their work. Not just in the hotel rooms and the meeting rooms, but to have access to all of the practice video.
“We’ve got a lot of gratitude for all of the work that went in behind the scenes.”
