
“The staff we had onsite were amazing. They were polite, professional, and always willing to help. They made a meaningful impact on the success of our event.”

TempGuru · Clarksville, TN · Local planning guide
Staffing the garrison market: a hundred-thousand-strong military community, a brand-new downtown arena that changes floors weekly, and gates where the credential comes before the call time.
Scroll. It gets specific.01The Ground Truth
The newest big room in Tennessee sits at Main Street - F&M Bank Arena opened for the 2023-24 season and now swaps between hockey ice, basketball court, rodeo dirt, and concert floor, sometimes in the same week. Twenty minutes northwest, Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne shape everything else: a third of Austin Peay's record 11,185 students are military-affiliated, the median resident is barely 30, and any event touching the installation starts with a gate pass, not a call sheet.
Fort Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), sits adjacent to Clarksville on the Tennessee-Kentucky line; non-DoD event staff and vendors need a visitor pass — REAL ID-compliant credential and security vetting, passes valid up to 90 days — obtained online up to 10 days ahead at pass.aie.army.mil or at the 24/7 Gate 7 Visitor Control Center, with extended access via Fort Campbell Form 190-5.
02The Map
Downtown finally has its anchor. F&M Bank Arena - 250,000 square feet, 5,500 for basketball, 6,000 for concerts, 5,000 for hockey - is county-owned, operated with the Nashville Predators organization, and home to APSU basketball on a 30-year lease plus the Ford Ice Center's public-skate and league calendar. Three blocks away, Austin Peay's Winfield Dunn Center handles commencements for the university and area schools at close to 6,000 seats, and Downtown Commons runs free Friday concerts, Thursday music nights, the first-Thursday Artwalk, and movie nights from May through October.
Then there is the employer that makes this metro what it is. Fort Campbell straddles the Tennessee-Kentucky line at the city's northwest edge, and events connected to it inherit federal access rules: REAL ID credentials, security vetting, visitor passes good for up to 90 days, and in-person credentialing for commercial drivers at Gate 7. The staffing plan starts at the gate.
"At most venues the constraint is the dock schedule. Next to a garrison, it's whether every name on the roster clears the gate."Local planning note
F&M Bank Arena. The 2026 slate runs arena football, the Black Rodeo, MMA, comedy, and family shows back to back - each configuration change (ice, court, dirt, floor) is its own overnight conversion call.
Fort Campbell access. Visitor passes clear online up to 10 days ahead (pass.aie.army.mil) or 24/7 at the Gate 7 Visitor Control Center on Glider Road; extended access uses Form 190-5. Rosters lock early because names have to vet.
Downtown Commons. Open-lawn civic venue with a May-October outdoor season. Small recurring crews - gates, beverage, crowd - with weather calls built into every date.
APSU campus. Dunn Center commencements and Governors athletics run on the university calendar, and the student labor pool is a third military-affiliated - deep, disciplined, and used to early call times.
03What We Staff
Arena dates lead now: concerts, rodeo, MMA, arena football, and family shows at F&M Bank Arena, each with its own conversion and show-day crews. Military-community events - ceremonies, homecomings, base-adjacent functions, and the vendor work around them - run on the credential-first timeline all year.
The civic layer holds the summer: Downtown Commons' concert and Artwalk season, APSU campus events and commencements, and corporate functions from the Hankook-LG-Bridgestone manufacturing belt, plus brand activations working the Wilma Rudolph Boulevard retail corridor and one of Tennessee's youngest consumer markets.
06The Rate
Published Clarksville role rows are planning inputs, not a quote. Accepted terms control duties, the minimum shift, rate, and approved charges.
| Role | Rate | Min shift |
|---|---|---|
| General labor / setup | $32.50–$38.50/hr | 4 hrs |
| Registration | $32.50–$38.50/hr | 4 hrs |
| Warehouse / logistics | $32.50–$38.50/hr | 4 hrs |
| Brand ambassadors | $49–$56/hr | 4 hrs |
| Team leads / supervisors | $42.50–$48.50/hr | 4 hrs |
| Specialized (bar, AV) | $53–$69/hr | 4 hrs |
09A Sample Plan
This illustrative scenario, not a historical TempGuru order, models Arena conversion week at F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, TN, 6,000 concert / 5,000 rodeo planned attendees, over 3 events, 5 days. The planning roster totals 24 workers across 8 Conversion crew, 5 Load-in crew, 5 Guest services, 4 Concessions support, 2 Team leads.
24 billable, staggered by arrival window: 2 leads oversee about 11 each. No one clocks in before there's work to do.
Commercial and third-party drivers supporting Fort Campbell events must obtain passes in person at Gate 7, Building 7199 Glider Road — on-base load-in crews have to plan around this credentialing step, not discover it on event morning.
F&M Bank Arena, opened downtown for the 2023-24 season, is a 250,000-square-foot building seating 5,500 for basketball, 6,000 for concerts, and 5,000 for hockey; it is owned by Montgomery County, operated with the Nashville Predators organization, hosts APSU basketball on a 30-year lease, and houses the Ford Ice Center of Clarksville.
F&M Bank Arena's 2026 calendar swings between arena football, the Clarksville Invitational Black Rodeo (August 22), LFA MMA (August 28), touring comedy, and family shows — fast turnarounds between ice, court, dirt, and floor configurations that each need their own conversion crew.
Austin Peay State University posted record enrollment in fall 2025 — 11,185 students, more than 3,700 of them military-affiliated (about a third of the student body) — a labor pool and event calendar shaped by the base next door.
APSU's Winfield Dunn Center seats nearly 4,500 in volleyball configuration and close to 6,000 for commencements and concerts, hosting university and area school graduation ceremonies.

“The staff we had onsite were amazing. They were polite, professional, and always willing to help. They made a meaningful impact on the success of our event.”

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“You delivered excellent service from the very first contact, and Emmanuel was also great during the installation: very attentive, knowledgeable about the subject, and my team praised him highly.”


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