FAIRBANKS — Sure, Dave Welborn is a sports fan.

But he has little time to watch games these days. He’s too busy making sure other sports fans have somewhere comfortable to watch games live and teams have a nice place to play.

Welborn is the general manager for the Carlson Center. The position makes him top dog among the handful of managers and directors who run the center, which hosts the university’s hockey team, major indoor concerts and other events.

Welborn is quick to credit the entire management team with ensuring things at the Carlson Center, which can seat roughly 4,700 for hockey and indoor football contests, run smoothly. That’s a lot of people to feed and clean up after, but Welborn said employees love their work, a benefit that rubs off on everyone pitching in to keep the lights on and the ice cold.

“They’re proud of the building, and they’re proud of their jobs,” he said.

Welborn estimates the center’s management team holds a collective 23 years of experience at the Carlson Center, working through management contractor SMG. The crew includes a former employee for the Central Collegiate Hockey Association — the Nanooks’ league — and Welborn’s team, said University of Alaska Fairbanks’ athletics director Forrest Karr, has proven tuned to the needs of UAF hockey, the center’s anchor tenant.

Dallas Ferguson, the Nanooks’ head coach, offered similar praise.

“He’s doing a great job over there for us,” Ferguson said.

Karr said Welborn and other managers can easily be found during games, keeping an eye on operations, a management style he said wins the university points with the league.

“It’s been a pretty seamless transition. We were pretty concerned when Kirk (Patton) left,” Karr said, referring to the center’s previous manager, a former Nanook defender. “But Dave’s picked up right where Kirk left off.”

Welborn might be relatively new as general manager, but he’s been working at the center for four years, previously specializing in food and catering services. He’s been in Fairbanks a lot longer, having moved here with his family more than two decades ago. Welborn was the oldest of eight children to an Army sergeant who was transferred to Fort Wainwright just after Welborn finished high school. His father retired and Welborn joined the Army shortly after, serving at posts in Egypt, Korea and Panama.

After leaving the Army, Welborn traveled to Louisiana and Kentucky for work. But he’d been bitten by Fairbanks’ unique lifestyle and soon returned.

“It’s just very comfortable and laid back,” he said. “I’ve never been happy anywhere else.”

Welborn joined the management crew at the Carlson Center in May 2006. (One of his first responsibilities, he recalls, was to prepare for a visit by the Harlem Globetrotters.) He said if there’s one thing that has surprised him, and other people who ask about the Carlson Center, it’s that the center does so much in-house catering. The venue hosts about 250 luncheons or dinners per year, ranging from weekly nonprofit luncheons to major military banquets, he said.

Welborn said it also became apparent when he joined the center that the managers and directors truly want to know what customers and clients think, and top employees regularly survey users to find out how things are going.

The results of those surveys, he said, make it clear that visitors seek “bang for their buck” from Fairbanks’ biggest public venue — they want value in the form of fun events at the best possible price, sometimes a tough combination given travel costs associated with bringing major acts to town.

Welborn said Fairbanks seems to manage that problem largely through locally-organized efforts like popular roller derby matches. He said whenever customers take the time to weigh in with ideas or constructive criticism, managers will respond.

“I try to make personal communication with everyone, whether the comment was good or bad, so they know we care and they know we’re listening,” he said.