This week was the first week I had my first all day experience with the Rock Cats! On Monday I worked from 10 AM to 10 PM. My first part of the day was in the office, and it was most of the same work I was doing before. I was making calls to see if any truck driving companies would be interested in free vouchers to "Commercial Drivers Appreciation Day" at New Britain Stadium. I probably made about 80 calls by the end of the day and was able to organize the vouchers to the companies. Then that night was the game; since I worked in the office Amanda (manager of Client Services) is in charge of our game-day schedules and made sure to give me easier tasks that day to cut me some slack! And I appreciated it much so! Then that Wednesday was nothing out of the ordinary; I was in charge of the Price Rite Lucky Row, the on-field puzzle, and the Dunkin' Donuts Race. Overall, very busy week!
This week was pretty tedious to say the least. In my office day, I spent five hours opening our pocket schedules, putting a voucher for a free game inside, and using a rubber band to put them all together. Nothing more than classic intern work, but hey someone has to do it.
I worked two game days this week; the first day I was in charge of the on-field promotions. This day included the Price Rite Lucky Ticket Row, the potato sack race, the Dunkin' Donuts Race, and the God Bless America Singer. For the second game I was in the merchandise shop working the basketball game they have set up in the stadium called Pop-A-Shot. The Rock Cats invested in inflatable basketball hoops and had a deal; for $3, you would get 5 chances to make a basket, and depending on how many you make determines the prize you receive. The prizes ranged from a Rock Cats Notepad to an Official Rock Cats hat. The few times I worked the pop-a-shot there weren’t many people interested in participating. I would even negotiate deals and let them shoot a basket for free. I believe this lack of participation was due to the fact that there was no notice that there were prizes involved in the game. I mentioned this to Ben (the manager of the merchandise shop), and he just waved it off. This week I spent one day in the office and two working the game nights. In the office, I was making calls to companies that were a part of the "East Hartford Chamber of Commerce" to see if they were interested in coming out to a group outing and buying a package deal. Although nobody bought any package deals over the phone, I got emails from about half the companies for more information to distribute. This deal was exclusively offered to companies who were a part of the commerce. This was probably one of the more challenging tasks I had this past summer, but it was important to know how to make these types of sales calls because you are always going to use sales in your life. I only ended up with one company buying my ticket package deal, a funeral home based in New Britain. However, that didn’t stop me from going into every call as if I was going to make the sale. From that day forth, I decided my motto would be “I can make 99 calls and get rejected, but if the 100th call I make a sale then it was all worth it”.
Then for the game day, I was in charge of the on-field promotions; the kids scooter race, the Dunkin' Donuts Race, and the 7th Inning God Bless America. And on the other game day I worked this week I was in charge of the merchandise shop prize wheel. The only thing very exciting this weekend was that the Rock Cats were playing the Trenton Thunder (the AA Affiliate of the New York Yankees) and I got to see one of my favorite Yankees play who was rehabing! Francisco Cervelli! This week I only worked 10.5 hours, or two game days. The first game was on Sunday, and my parents surprised me by going out to the game! I was going to arrange it so my parents would get picked for a promotion, but I believe they would have killed me if they were picked! For the game, I was in charge of some of the on field promotions, including the scooter race, the dance-off, and the aerosol race. Overall it was one of the shorter games we have had. Then that upcoming thursday it felt like the game dragged on forever; perhaps that was because I wasn't doing anything very exciting. On thursday I was in charge of the stand where people can drop off their donated food, and in exchange I was to give them an Official Rock Cat Glove. However, after the end of the 1st inning nobody was donating their goods anymore so there wasn't much for me to do.
This week I was only with the Rock Cats for two days; once in the office and another on a game day. In the office, I did something that I found very interesting and appealing; I went onto other minor league teams websites and looked up what types of promotions they do on certain nights (ex. Thirsty Thursdays, Dollar Dog Nights, Elvis Night) and find out which of these promotions we can apply to the Rock Cats for the 2015 season. Some of the promotions were very interesting and unique!
Then on the game day I had another first with the Rock Cats; help pulling the tarp out when it started to rain. Being the low-scale business that it is, the Rock Cats need all the employees to help pull the tarp out since there isn't enough to have a maintenance crew do it. It definitely got me looking dirty and unprofessional, but I was happy to help out. Other than the tarp, it was a very busy day at the stadium; I was in charge of the 41 "First Pitches" we had to throw out (it could be anyone from kids birthdays to companies sponsoring the game). It ended up being a very long game, I was there for 7 hours total! Amanda decided to put me in charge of the 41 first pitches that night because she was impressed with my organization skills thus far. However, it didn’t go as well as planned. Since the game fell on a Friday night, there were many people on the field pre-game due to various reasons. It was hard to keep my 41 first pitchers in line with their badges that permitted them to be on the field. I finally had everything in order when the worst possible scenario happened; it down poured. I had to rush everyone off the field, and my list with the correct order of the pitches was completely soaked and illegible. Once the rain stopped, I was under a lot of pressure to get the first pitches back in the right order and not forget a single one! With a little assistance from Amanda, I was able to get the scenario under control and back on track. Deadlines for papers and goalkeeping in soccer taught me about pressure and acting with quality, and I was able to exert that quality in the small amount of time I was given to organize the first pitches. |