For game day this week, we hosted a special guest, the much hated Orlando Predators. Not only is Orlando a divisional rival, but both our owner and GM have ties to the nearby franchise. The owner and GM of our team absolutely despise the Predators organization and want nothing more than to pound the Predators into oblivion, embarrassing them on local television.
The day starts earlier than last week, as we're told to arrive at 10:00 am as opposed to last game's 11:00 am arrival. The reason for this is that last game we did not have to set up banners. This week we did.
The day starts by unloading the trucks, vans and Chum Wagon. Once water, charcoal (a promotional giveaway this week) and supplies are in place we get to work on the banners. The banners come off the Chum Wagon rolled tight, and weigh about five pounds each. There are about 50 of them, so it takes the whole crew to bring them in. Once loaded onto the hand truck, we take them up to the top ring of the stadium and hang them across the home side, away side and both end zones. We use zip ties (which were scarce this week) to secure them in place.
Once the banners were up, Jack, our G.M. calls us all onto the field for a very important meeting. We're told that tonight's theme is Military Appreciation Night, and as such, we've planned our entire halftime show around a patriotic theme. Our mission will be to bring out the flag while a local artist performs "God Bless the U.S.A."
The flag turns out to be 80 feet long and 50 feet wide. Fully folded, it weighs over a hundred pounds. We find it crumpled up and shoved into a plastic storage container. We carefully bring it out of the container, and stretch it out over the length of the room careful not to let it touch the ground. We improvise a system where we have ten interns on each side, and 3 at each end carefully unroll the flag while stepping back in calculated timing. After a couple of walk-throughs, we're ready for a dress rehearsal. We carry the flag, rolled up, onto the field and situate ourselves at the 15 yard line. Arena football fields are only 50 yards long and have no sidelines, so our available space is rather tight. Before we unroll the flag we're told that standing nearby are a group of special forces soldiers who will be part of the halftime show. Under NO circumstances is this flag allowed to touch the ground. We're jokingly told that we could be shot on site. At least, I'm pretty sure it was a joke, though no one was laughing.
After two tries we get a system down and it looks good. We carefully roll up the flag and take it back to the room. There is no plan for storage of the flag until halftime, so it gets shoved back into the plastic container.
Once the flag rehearsal is complete, we funnel into the meeting room for lunch and team meeting. By this time, it's 3 pm.
In the meeting, they once again stress the importance of the flag ceremony. Jack is clearly anxious about this part of the show. We have 10,000 military members in attendance and the game is televised. We CAN NOT mess this up.
I was assigned special tickets again this week, which was a lot easier than last week. All we had were a handful of party tickets, so the task was completed without a hitch. Across from my table we have four interns managing Shark Team Six T-Shirts (a take off of Seal Team Six). We're giving the T-Shirts away free for a $5 donation. Proceeds from the shirts go to the families of fallen soldiers.
After special tickets, I'm directed into the tunnel. This week they had me participate in the T-Shirt toss, a crowd favorite event where we take the loudest section and toss them team free Sharks T-Shirts. We're supposed to be firing them from a T-Shirt cannon, but the cannon never works, so we just hand toss them.
We have a break until halftime, then, of course it's the mad scramble to collect the balls from "fling a football". Once all of the footballs are collected and we're off the field, it's time to bring out the flag. We rush into the room where the flag is kept, and pull it out of the box. Everyone takes up the exact same positions as we did in rehearsal, and we carry the flag out. We begin to unroll it as the singer starts the song. The crowed goes cheers. We unroll the flag and hold it taut, a beautiful site to see, for the duration of the song. We then quickly roll it back up, and carry it off the filed to standing cheers. We nailed it. Jack is pleased. It's the first time he's smiled all day.
Once the flag is put away (shoved back into the container), Nick, the head of sales and marketing pulls me aside and asks me to round up four interns. Once gathered, we're told that we have too many T-Shirts left and we absolutely have to get rid of them tonight. Our simple command: "Go sell T-Shirts".
Like most tasks assigned, this one has no instructions, allowing us to improvise a strategy. The T-Shirts are being held at the booth where the team sells official Sharks merchandise (shirts, polos, hats, etc). We go up to the area where the T-Shirts are held, and I grab as many as I can hold and start walking up and down the stadium stairs of the fans selling them directly to the fans. To my surprise, they sell fast. Before I can even reach the bottom of the stairs, the whole armful is gone.
I make my way back up to the T-Shirt booth and see that directly across from the official merchandise booth, our other interns have set up a table to sell shirts. Not a wise strategy. I redirect them to do as I have, and we all walk the stadium selling shirts. We sell out by the middle of the 4th quarter.
Once the game wraps up, I am again assigned to "chair giveaway". I head downstairs to give away Sharks folding chairs to season ticket holders. This goes pretty smoothly this week, with only two names not on our list.
After chair giveaway, we all head up to the top ring of the stadium for banner take down. We carefully cut the zip ties and roll up the banners. Once collected, we load them into the Chum Wagon and head back into the intern room for "dinner" around midnight while we wait to be released. The day finally ends, and as a group we walk three blocks back to our cars and head home. Today was a good day.
The day starts earlier than last week, as we're told to arrive at 10:00 am as opposed to last game's 11:00 am arrival. The reason for this is that last game we did not have to set up banners. This week we did.
The day starts by unloading the trucks, vans and Chum Wagon. Once water, charcoal (a promotional giveaway this week) and supplies are in place we get to work on the banners. The banners come off the Chum Wagon rolled tight, and weigh about five pounds each. There are about 50 of them, so it takes the whole crew to bring them in. Once loaded onto the hand truck, we take them up to the top ring of the stadium and hang them across the home side, away side and both end zones. We use zip ties (which were scarce this week) to secure them in place.
Once the banners were up, Jack, our G.M. calls us all onto the field for a very important meeting. We're told that tonight's theme is Military Appreciation Night, and as such, we've planned our entire halftime show around a patriotic theme. Our mission will be to bring out the flag while a local artist performs "God Bless the U.S.A."
The flag turns out to be 80 feet long and 50 feet wide. Fully folded, it weighs over a hundred pounds. We find it crumpled up and shoved into a plastic storage container. We carefully bring it out of the container, and stretch it out over the length of the room careful not to let it touch the ground. We improvise a system where we have ten interns on each side, and 3 at each end carefully unroll the flag while stepping back in calculated timing. After a couple of walk-throughs, we're ready for a dress rehearsal. We carry the flag, rolled up, onto the field and situate ourselves at the 15 yard line. Arena football fields are only 50 yards long and have no sidelines, so our available space is rather tight. Before we unroll the flag we're told that standing nearby are a group of special forces soldiers who will be part of the halftime show. Under NO circumstances is this flag allowed to touch the ground. We're jokingly told that we could be shot on site. At least, I'm pretty sure it was a joke, though no one was laughing.
After two tries we get a system down and it looks good. We carefully roll up the flag and take it back to the room. There is no plan for storage of the flag until halftime, so it gets shoved back into the plastic container.
Once the flag rehearsal is complete, we funnel into the meeting room for lunch and team meeting. By this time, it's 3 pm.
In the meeting, they once again stress the importance of the flag ceremony. Jack is clearly anxious about this part of the show. We have 10,000 military members in attendance and the game is televised. We CAN NOT mess this up.
I was assigned special tickets again this week, which was a lot easier than last week. All we had were a handful of party tickets, so the task was completed without a hitch. Across from my table we have four interns managing Shark Team Six T-Shirts (a take off of Seal Team Six). We're giving the T-Shirts away free for a $5 donation. Proceeds from the shirts go to the families of fallen soldiers.
After special tickets, I'm directed into the tunnel. This week they had me participate in the T-Shirt toss, a crowd favorite event where we take the loudest section and toss them team free Sharks T-Shirts. We're supposed to be firing them from a T-Shirt cannon, but the cannon never works, so we just hand toss them.
We have a break until halftime, then, of course it's the mad scramble to collect the balls from "fling a football". Once all of the footballs are collected and we're off the field, it's time to bring out the flag. We rush into the room where the flag is kept, and pull it out of the box. Everyone takes up the exact same positions as we did in rehearsal, and we carry the flag out. We begin to unroll it as the singer starts the song. The crowed goes cheers. We unroll the flag and hold it taut, a beautiful site to see, for the duration of the song. We then quickly roll it back up, and carry it off the filed to standing cheers. We nailed it. Jack is pleased. It's the first time he's smiled all day.
Once the flag is put away (shoved back into the container), Nick, the head of sales and marketing pulls me aside and asks me to round up four interns. Once gathered, we're told that we have too many T-Shirts left and we absolutely have to get rid of them tonight. Our simple command: "Go sell T-Shirts".
Like most tasks assigned, this one has no instructions, allowing us to improvise a strategy. The T-Shirts are being held at the booth where the team sells official Sharks merchandise (shirts, polos, hats, etc). We go up to the area where the T-Shirts are held, and I grab as many as I can hold and start walking up and down the stadium stairs of the fans selling them directly to the fans. To my surprise, they sell fast. Before I can even reach the bottom of the stairs, the whole armful is gone.
I make my way back up to the T-Shirt booth and see that directly across from the official merchandise booth, our other interns have set up a table to sell shirts. Not a wise strategy. I redirect them to do as I have, and we all walk the stadium selling shirts. We sell out by the middle of the 4th quarter.
Once the game wraps up, I am again assigned to "chair giveaway". I head downstairs to give away Sharks folding chairs to season ticket holders. This goes pretty smoothly this week, with only two names not on our list.
After chair giveaway, we all head up to the top ring of the stadium for banner take down. We carefully cut the zip ties and roll up the banners. Once collected, we load them into the Chum Wagon and head back into the intern room for "dinner" around midnight while we wait to be released. The day finally ends, and as a group we walk three blocks back to our cars and head home. Today was a good day.