Storm Clouds Hover Over Big Red
Looking at last week's schedule, 3 events including the Richmond Races, JMU football and Liberty football, the largest sales day of the year seemed within reason and the outside possibility of a new one day sales record clearly a possibility. I was excited and spent all week driving around the state getting everything set up.
The last home stand of the PNats ended on Monday (Labor Day). While not a huge weekend, it was another solid effort. For the year, my PNat sales were up 20% mostly attributed to our addition of Justin and Nigel hawking lemonade at many of the games. Hawkers will definetly be on the agenda for next year.
After the last game, Big Red was packed up and moved to Harrisonburg for JMU's football season. On Tuesday, I got her set up and ready for Saturday's opener. Chuck, Ryan and Peggy were slated to handle that game.
Wednesday, I hauled equipment to Richmond for the races and tried to keep from drowning as the second hurrucane--actually a tropical storm by then--dumped about another foot of rain on the Raceway. Due to the weather, I didn't get set up until Thursday and drove back to Lynchburg to set up Liberty on Friday morning, returning to Richmond in time to open at noon.
Friday night was the Nationwide Race. Most of my Woodbridge Crew worked at RIR. Everythng was crammed into two days rather than the normal 3. But, the results Friday were very disappointing. Saturday for the Cup race, things were much better and we were busy. Probably our biggest mistake was underestimating footlong corn dog sales as we ran out about a third of the way through the race.
The bottom line, we were down about 50% both from the Spring Race, which was 3 nights of racing, and about 25% from last fall. Still, a good weekend, just not what I expected. Thankfully, as I was having hip problems, I rented a golf cart which eliminated the usual miles of walking at a race.
Simulateously, the football games were going and both featured record setting crowd, especially at JMU which had over 25,000 in attendance. We should have rocked.
Wrong. Both games were down almost 30% from last years openers.And I have no idea why. Perfect weather, great crowds, in the same locations as in the past, just didn't get the business we should have.
The weekend fell far short of expectations.
While I was in Lynchburg on Thursday evening, sis, and Gene took my out for my birthday dinner. The result is pictured below.
In the meantime, I got some personal bad news as it appears I have to have a hip repacement. I met with my surgeon earlier today and we are going to try a therapy and pain management program through November so I can take care of already scheduled events including 2 races at Martinsville, both football seasons, and several shows. Only, now, I'm going to need more help as I'm walking on a cane and something tells me moving fryers and hauling batter and oil isn't going to help my already destroyed hip. A decision on scheduling surgery will be made on November 9.
This week, JMU travels to Liberty and it should be a huge game. Hopefully, my projections will be a little more accurate.
