Surrounded by a gaggle of vendors, Jeff Wilson fields questions about overnight security, concession spots and beer gardens.
There's not a ball or flag in sight and it's a full seven days before the first whistle is blown, but tournament president Wilson is very much in Nations Cup mode.
When the thousands of players and fans swarm through the Hugh Boyd complex this weekend, they'll have scant sense of the forethought and eagle-eyed attention to detail that's been poured into the soccer show that is the 34th Nations Cup. as the actual FIFA World Cup, the annual feast of the beautiful game is served up over just one night and two days every third weekend in July.
Planning for the 2013 Nations Cup, however, got underway as early as two weeks after Germany swigged champagne as 2012 men's open victors. "We get together for a bit of a debriefing, just to get a sense of what worked and didn't work and what we might change," said Wilson, who took over as president in 2008 after the loss to cancer of one of the Nations Cup's founding fathers, Geoff Penniston.
"After that, we usually wait until maybe November to really start planning for the next year.
"It seems like a long way away for that, but things like budgets, city planning and corporate support need to be taken care of early on.
"Basically, we have to have our ducks in a row before (the organizing committee) start having monthly meetings around spring time."
Wilson admits pulling everything together every year is a lot of work; but very rewarding when it all comes off on the third weekend of every July.
And this year, he's been ably assisted by three new bodies and minds on the committee, after the departure of long-standing stalwarts Doug Wooton, George Roberts and Eileen Campbell.
"Those guys have been amazing, but there are limited human resources and many things need a lot of manpower, so it's exciting to have new people come on board," added Wilson.
"With the 'beauty' of technology, we're pretty much on this for six weeks or so before the tournament, with emails and such going back and forth all day every day."
