Big Red Debuts at the Pfitz
Big Red made its debut at Pfitzner Stadium over the long 4th of July PNat home stand. The "old" tent set up was moved to a new location near third base and will be used on most weekends for the remainder of the baseball season. Big Red will continue to occupy space in the Cafe.
The first game for Big Red was Wednesday. And, it was a pretty normal mid-week game except a lot of fans stopped by to see the new addition to the stadium. Unfortunately, they didn't buy a lot, but it was still an OK game.
Thursday was $1 beverage night and the Pfitz had Billy Clements and the Pickups as pre-game entertainment. They were a country group that featured many of the old country classics so for an old fart like me, it was enjoyable. Also, Big Red's sales went up.
Friday, was the first night using 2 locations plus Justin hawking lemonade in the stands. Overall, it was a disappointment as the Friday numbers just weren't there. Poor attendance and poor sales. But, at least my whole crew got in some practice and ready for the big weekend. And, Uncle Slam got in on the act, stealing our hawker tray and going up in the stands to sell some lemonade. The crowd loved it.
Saturday was incredible but had a near major disaster. Early in the pregame, one of my juicers burned out leaving only one at Big Red's location. That put some additional pressure on Christina who then had to squeeze lemons for both locations. I'm not sure how she did it, but we went through 63 gallons of lemonade. The old record for one day's lemonade sales at any event was 34 gallons.
Sunday started off good with Big Red rolling as that location does every game. Unfortunately, the second location near third base, does almost nothing during the pregame period. From near gametime through the game, its sales are nearly equal to Location #1 in the Cafe Area, but, a major storm whipped up and rained out the game. Still the day wasn't a total bust as Big Red had an awesome pregame, especially with lemonade. And, yes, folks, Stand #2 had a new juicer.
The 4th was a sellout but rain was called for, and we even had an hour or so of light rain during the conclusion of Sunday's game and the start of Monday's. Both locations did well but my total sales for the day were down slightly from last year.even with the two stands. That was not unusual as there is always a major difference between a Sunday holiday game, like in 2010 and a Monday like this years. Still a huge day for us.
Tuesday was the last game of the home stand and the first game back to one location. I wasn't expecting much and was pleasantly surprised with our totals. All in all, a great week for Big Red at the Pfitz.
For the home stand, we did 191 gallons of lemonade using 1,146 lemons. Which means my staff (a majority of it done by Christina) squeezed 2,292 lemon halves. No wonder a juicer died. Also we used 477 cups of sugar.
We also get to welcome in three new folks to the Big Red family as Casey, Erin and Nigel all put in some time over the week. All three will be used in the future as they did a great job.
This week is an off week and I hope to put in some quality pool time. I'm back in Woodbridge on the 13th for an 8 game stretch. Rumor has it that Jason Falls and family will be in attendance for a couple of those games. That will be a treat for me.
