Quote:
Originally Posted by BobC
Plus, the airport is literally next door to the IX Center. You always hear some people have issues with Atlantic City because there is no major airport close by. That isn't an issue with the IX Center. And I know for a fact that proximity is a plus for guests and people coming to the IX Center. The very first National in Cleveland was held at the IX Center in 1997, and I was there getting some autographs. I asked Sandy Koufax while he was signing a ball for me how he liked coming to Cleveland. He stopped, looked up at me with a sort of faraway look, and after a second said he didn't know. He got off his plane, got picked up and brought right over to IX Center for his signing session, and as soon as he was done, they were taking him right back to the airport for a flight he already had booked to go back home the same day. I'm not sure they can do that for autograph guests at a lot of other places. Atlantic City, definitely not. Rosemont has O'Hare nearby, only about 3 miles away, but it is still a lot easier and quicker to get from Hopkins to the IX Center, than it is to get from O'Hare to the John E. Stephens Center. That isn't necessarily a big deal for most people attending the National, but it is one of those little things that the National organizers may pay attention to, and can have some influence on their decision.
|
I sat next to Eddie Murray on a flight back to LA from the National in 2019 and that is basically the story he told me. The promoters bring them in the day before signing, put them up for one night, then fly them home the next day. They report for duty early in the day to sign mail order and the promoters stuff. It is part reunion with former teammates and fellow HOFers but mostly it is wading through several large stacks of mail order items and stock photos. Then they go onstage at the pavilion and sign their live signings, then they can leave. He opts to go home immediately. I told him about the NSCC from the collector's side: show, dinner party, bar, bed, repeat. I then started running material and jokes about collectors for him. He cracks up and tells me that I should be a comedian. When I tell him I do stand-up on the side, he says that when he first saw me he thought I was Brian Posehn but when I said I was a lawyer he thought I might take it the wrong way, so he didn't mention it. He then was asking me about where I'm from, what I do, etc. I even invited him to the Burbank Comedy Festival where I was going to be performing. At the end he offered me a handshake.