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8-02-2007 By Jim Austin and Michelle Miller Chamber of Commerce Director John Bullis said he wasn't sure what to expect for his first Induction, but said that it wasn't as arduous as he thought it might be. He said he had heard from a number of Chamber of Commerce members who were very satisfied with the weekend. He said he believes one of the keys was that businesspeople had been anticipating the weekend for some time and had done their planning and were ready. "They planned for years and their planning paid off," he said. Bullis thinks everyone learned a lot from the weekend and this year could serve as a framework for future Inductions. The Chamber had a display of smart cars in front of their office and officials from the company called him from Los Angeles Monday morning to say how happy they were with the weekend. Vin Russo, of Mickey's Place, is a veteran of many Inductions including the last two big ones in 1995 and 1999. He said the crowd was what he expected and the weekend went very well. Saturday was overwhelmingly the strongest day, Russo said. Closing Main Street was the right thing to do because there were too many situations which created long lines of people waiting for autographs. "Having the wide concourse available to handle the crowd was great. It made it easier and probably safer as well," he said. "It was an excellent weekend." It's hard to compare this year with 1999 or 1995 because those years had a strong Monday when the Hall of Fame Game was still part of the Induction weekend, he said. "Friday was not as strong in those years. The dynamic of the weekend has changed," Russo said. Russo also operates a paid parking lot on Chestnut Street next to the Chamber of Commerce and things went very well there also. Saturday the lot was sold out by 8:15 a.m. and on Sunday the lot was filled up by 7:15 a.m., he said. Russo charged $30 per car. He also made some money for the village. When he realized the village's lot behind his was being underutilized, he told Mayor Carol Waller he would sell the parking and give the money to the village. He ended up giving the village $750. Russo said he doesn't know when the village can look forward to another Induction crowd this large. "There's no one out there who is retired that could create this event. We'll not see a weekend like this for awhile," he said. This is the 26th year Don and Sharon Oberriter have owned the Cooperstown Bat Company and Don said he has never seen as many people in Cooperstown as he did this weekend. Don agreed that Saturday was the busiest day on Main Street and said it was the best weekend his shop has ever had. He and his wife added extra appeal to the shop by dedicating a portion of it to a Cal Ripken, Jr. marketing team, which Don said helped traffic flow in the store for his own products as well as for their products. Don said the shop concentrated on selling mostly Ripken merchandise because the marketing team was set up in the shop. He said the shop was prepared for the crowd and they had the right amount of inventory. "It met our expectations and I think we had it figured out pretty well," said Don. Although Saturday was a good business day, Don said Friday and even Thursday was a bit of a surprise to him because there were more people than in the past. "Collectors and shoppers came in early," he said. Don does not believe Inductions were the only reason why so many people came to Cooperstown this weekend. He said it was also during the peek time when people go on vacations. Sharon said this year's Induction drew a great crowd and she mostly heard good things about the weekend. "Everyone was happy," she said. "The customers were happy." Sasha Gagarin, owner of Extra Innings, said the weekend was unbelievable and her expectations were exceeded. "We had more people than we have ever had," she said. Gagarin said she had a lot of inventory purchased in advance in preparation for the anticipated record breaking crowd, but said she still ran out of Ripken stuff by Saturday afternoon. "Looking at the number of people in print is totally different than seeing them all in person," she said. Extra Innings is located on 54 Main St. right across from the Hall of Fame and Gagarin said it seemed like everyone came straight over to the shop after they were finished walking through the museum. Gagarin said her best sellers were anything Ripken and a 2007 Cooperstown t-shirt. Moni Abbasi, manager of Heroes of Baseball Wax Museum and Cooperstown Baseball & Souvenir Shop, has been in Cooperstown for two Inductions and said there were more people than what he had expected for the weekend. However, Abbasi said he was well prepared for the crowd because he had friends from Long Island come up and help work. Abassi said he had about 15 people working at a time for the weekend. Abbasi said his best sellers were sweatshirts, funny t-shirts and sandals with baseballs on them. "The ladies go crazy over them," Abbasi said |
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