Newly renovated Sun Dome offers 200 jobs

With its ribbon-cutting ceremony in late May and first event earlier that month, the renovated USF Sun Dome is looking to fill about 200 part-time positions with students and the general public.

Sarah Webster, director of marketing for the Sun Dome, said Sun Dome officials will begin hiring soon for all departments for a re-opening that is 10 months and $35 million in construction projects in the making. These include jobs in guest services, box office, parking, custodial, marketing and “change-over” — altering the venue for events.

“We are going to hire sooner than later, but because students go away for the summer applications will always be accepted because we’ll need to fill the shoes (of departing staff) for the events we’re going to have over the summer,” she said. “So anywhere from now to throughout, we’re going to be acquiring a full staff of what’s needed.”

Applications are not yet available online, nor are wage figures, but for now, interested students are being encouraged to contact Arena Events Coordinator Lavar Smith at USFSunDomeArena@gmail.com, who said wages will likely be near minimum wage.

“We haven’t talked about it, so I have no idea where we’re at with that,” he said. “It’ll definitely be around that point of minimum wage.” None of the 200 positions have been filled yet. Smith said he is unsure if they would retain that many employees in following years, but the total is more likely to go down than up.

“It’s kind of hard to say, because we haven’t opened the doors yet,” he said. “Typically, guest services fluctuates, so that can go up or down, it depends. Whatever we hire this year could be half next year.” While a date has yet to be finalized, Smith said the Sun Dome will host a job fair sometime in April that will likely be located at its facility, allowing students and the public the opportunity to inquire about positions and potentially complete the entire hiring process.

Webster said spring graduation ceremonies, scheduled for May 4 and 5, will be the first events held at the Sun Dome. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place later in May and the first commercial events will begin in June.

“The first concerts and stuff are going to be in the summer,” she said. “But the first actually attended event is going to be graduation, which is a very, very important event for us, so we want to make sure it’s the best it can be — which it will be. There’s going to be a lot of people through the doors so it’s going to be a busy event.”

Security positions may become available, too, but the Sun Dome may choose to hire from an outside security agency instead. Webster said such an agency would provide the Sun Dome with “professionals that are well-trained in event management sort of security.”

Unpaid internships will also become available, Webster said, but there is nothing “concrete” to offer at this time. Internships would only be offered to juniors or seniors applying the internship to earn class credit and likely only in the events and marketing departments, she said.

The USF Sun Dome is managed by Global Spectrum, an outside firm that manages the day-to-day operations of public assembly venues.