воскресенье, 23 сентября 2012 г.

MARINERS OFFICIALS LEARN ALL-STAR LESSONS IN ATLANTA.(Sports) - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Edgar Martinez, Aaron Sele, Alex Rodriguez and Lou Piniella weren't the only Mariners to take away some lasting impressions from last week's All-Star Game in Atlanta.

Team CEO Howard Lincoln, president Chuck Armstrong, executive vice president of business operations Bob Aylward, vice president of communications Randy Adamack and several other key front-office staff members returned from Atlanta with first-hand experience to begin preparations for the 2001 All-Star Game to be hosted in Seattle's Safeco Field.

What they learned was that the game and the surrounding festivities have gotten a whole lot bigger since Seattle held the 1979 All-Star Game in the Kingdome.

Planning for the event is not something the Mariners plan to take lightly.

'The one thing that we kept hearing from our counterparts in the Braves organization is to push the decision-making process forward much more than they did,' Aylward said.

'I think they found out that hosting the All-Star Game is a little different than the post-season play that they had been used to gearing up for.'

Typically, the All-Star game draws more media interest as well as fans from all different parts of the country.

The game itself is just one part of the event, which is compacted into three days of showcasing all the best elements of baseball, from its history to its future.

'The crush is even greater in a shorter period of time than even the World Series,' Aylward said. 'It's just a much different animal than the Braves thought it was going to be.'

Armstrong noted that with Safeco Field turning 1 year old this past week, the Mariners made a conscious decision not to celebrate too early. Rather, the team is pointing to next July's All-Star Game as a time to celebrate Seattle's place among the elite baseball cities with new stadiums.

'One of the reasons we wanted to have the All-Star Game in 2001 was that it's the 100th anniversary of the American League,' Armstrong said. 'It will give us a chance to show off Safeco Field and Seattle in all their glory.

'It will be a nice counterpoint to what happened at the World Trade Organization.'

As opposed to the WTO riots that drew international media attention, Armstrong said the All-Star Game and the festivities that go with it are 'four, five or six days of fun for everybody. But we still have a long way to go.'

Aylward spent 17 years with the Orioles and helped usher in the modern stadium movement with Oriole Park at Camden Yards as vice president of business affairs in Baltimore.

With a year under his belt in Seattle, he finds Safeco Field to be ahead of the curve.

'People have a hard time believing me when I tell them that the opening and operations here were actually smoother than at Camden,' Aylward said. 'When you open these places, they are almost like a living organism.

'You have to kind of learn how to make things balance out, and it just takes time.'

Although the first year at Safeco had its troubles with concessions lines, crowd movement, food safety violations and staffing, Aylward contends the Mariners aren't resting easily now that those issues seem to be problems of the past.

'We ask ourselves after each homestand: What did we learn? What can we do?' Aylward said. 'It's something we have to do on an ongoing basis.

'As we get into planning for next year, some of the things we want to do require an off-season to implement.'

Perhaps the biggest lesson of all was how to run the $517 million facility from the operations standpoint. In the past, the Kingdome was operated by King County, and all the Mariners had to do was field a ballclub, pay the rent and move in as one of several primary users of the facility. Now, the team is responsible for all operations, concessions and maintenance year-round.

The Mariners have had to hire their own electricians, plumbers, parking coordinators, security staff, roof supervisors, guest relations staff, and marketing department for non-baseball events, as well as 400 to 600 seasonal employees working at the stadium. There are now 38 people employed full-time in the front office working on stadium operations.

'Essentially we have gone from two people interfacing with the county on the operations of the Kingdome, to hundreds of people who are either part-time or full-time employees,' Aylward said. 'All that had to be built from scratch and it's a huge job.'

By the time the All-Star Game arrives next year, the Mariners hope that Safeco's first-year experiences will lead to an even greater national and local showcase for baseball.

'Once we've proven that the basics work, we want to build on those things and find out how to do more,' Aylward said.

'Last year with food concessions, we had some real issues with the lines and things like that, but most of those seem to have been addressed.

'Now, how do we take it to the next level? What type of capital improvements do we need to make prior to 2001 to make that better? It never ends.'

GIRL POWER: The Seattle Storm and the Women's Sports Foundation have teamed up to sponsor 'Take a Girl to a Game Night' on Wednesday, when the WNBA's Storm hosts the New York Liberty at 7 p.m. in KeyArena.

Proceeds from tickets will help benefit the foundation and its girls' sports program. Foundation supporters are invited to attend a special post-game question-and-answer session with Storm guards Sonja Henning and Charmin Smith.