Off-season Has Been Anything But Off

In September, many full-time staff members of the Altoona Curve have heard the question: "So, what do you do now that the season's over?"

The answer: "Get ready for next season."

It used to be that Minor League teams had smaller staffs and that relatively little went on for the first few months after the season concluded. That's no knock on how it used to be, but simply the nature of how our business has changed. People expect more than baseball when they come to the ballpark these days.

As a result, as a front office, we have to work to develop new, creative promotions, attractions, food offerings, kids' items, merchandise, ticket offerings, and more for next season even before the final pitch of the previous season is thrown. On top of that, we have to figure out how to afford the new things we want to offer. So, our sales staff is busy talking to individuals, groups, and sponsors constantly during the calendar year trying to make it all a reality.

Of course, that's where the fans, sponsors, and media come in with their terrific support of the ballclub. We're going into our 13th season and while it becomes tougher to maintain and attract new interest, we're the eternal optimists who know there are new fans at each game. If we do our jobs right while they're here, hopefully we have a fan for life and we'll see them multiple times.

It's been an amazing and fast-paced "off-season" to follow up a truly special 2010 campaign that ended in our first Eastern League championship. It began with our annual staff retreat in late September at Seven Springs. While there, we reviewed what worked and what didn't in 2010 and brainstormed about what we wanted to do in 2011 and beyond.

In early October, the Minor League Promotional Seminar in Las Vegas was followed by the Eastern League Meetings in New Britain. At each event, the Curve were able to hear about the successful, creative promotions of other minor league teams while sharing some of our own. We were very flattered that several executives from the industry talked with us about our promotions - especially our "Curve, Pa." marketing campaign.

In November, we unveiled the franchise's all new logos and uniforms after months of development. The response has been overwhelming and our merchandise with the new designs flew off the shelves at our mall store in the six weeks that followed. While some fans - including us - still love the original logos, we felt it was time for a new look. Judging by the response of most fans and our colleagues in the industry, that feeling was shared.

The Winter Meetings took center stage in early December in Orlando and we plucked some more ideas that we could implement for the coming season. While at the Meetings, we announced our plans for the Spring Training Festival - our annual charitable event in January. That celebration of the 2010 championship with four members of the team and special guests Tunch Ilkin and Craig Wolfley of Steelers' fame, and new Mets' manager Terry Collins, was well received by 400 fans at the Blair County Convention Center on Jan. 28. The result of the festival was raising over $8000 for the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum - a true gem in our community.

In February, we continued to develop new ideas to finalize our promotional calendar for the 2011 season. The result was a week's worth of detail-packed news releases in late February and earlier this month about the creative concepts, giveaways, and special appearances we have coming up at Blair County Ballpark. The Rudy Owens Perm Hat giveaway, Summer Cruise Series giveaways, and the "What We're Watching Wednesdays" theme nights even garnered some national publicity.

Late last week, we confirmed the appearance of Steelers' linebacker Lawrence Timmons on April 15 and announced it in Sunday's Altoona Mirror. Now, we're getting ready for our annual Baseball Bash this Friday which will be filled with activities to celebrate the new season ahead.

Whew...37 more days left in the "off-season" and plenty more to do. I think we need to rename the time when games aren't going on!