Volume 3, No. 15. August 8,2003
Hot dog
Ron Gustafson went surfing this winter, got hooked on Frisbee and consequently
his park went to the dogs. And it was all good.
The director of public relations for Quassy Amusement Park was looking for special
events he could stage at the small Middlebury, Connecticut, family park and
surfed the Internet for ideas. He came across a dog Frisbee demonstration team
based in New York City. Of course, the demonstration team would charge the park
to make an appearance, but through further surfing Gustafson discovered the
Unified Frisbeedog Operations, a national competition sponsored by Royal Canine
Dog Food.
After Gustafson engaged in a few E-mail conversations with this group, Ed Jakuboswki,
a member located in Salem, Connecticut, visited Quassy and determined the 3-acre
(1.2-hectare) grass field the park uses for large picnics, laser shows and gospel
festivals would be perfect for a UFO-sanctioned tournament. Suddenly, Quassy
was the site July 26 for one of UFO’s six national tournaments in which
competitors earn points toward the national championship held annually at the
Rose Bowl in California.
About 50 frisbeedog competitors from as far away as Dallas, Texas, descended
on Quassy for the Irv Lander Memorial Canine Frisbee Championship, a continuous
day-long competition. “I’d never seen anything like it in the 20 years
I’ve been involved in fairs, festivals and amusement parks,” Gustafson
said. And he doesn’t just mean the athletic dogs doing choreographed routines
with their disk-throwing owners, like reigning two-time national champion Bob
Evans. The UFO organized the whole event for Gustafson, from marking and roping
off the field to handling registration, from bringing in its own sound system
to providing a portable pool for the dogs to splash around in after their routines
on the hot, muggy day. The competitors also cleaned up after their dogs.
“Being a first-year event, you never know what to expect,” Gustafson
said. “This was a first-class operation. It’s one of those groups
you’re just glad to have an association with when they come in and do it
all and do it right.”
The only cost to Quassy, financially and in terms of personpower, was marketing,
and for that Gustafson merely inserted photos of disc-catching dogs in his advertisements
and sent out press releases with photos. The park got strong coverage before
and after the event, he said. The tournament also generated traffic to Quassy
in the form of local novices—kids with their dogs allowed to use the tournament
field before the pros came on, all part of the UFO program—and fans of
the sport who traveled to Quassy for the event. Guests already in the park frequently
crowded under the shade trees around the competition field to watch the action.
Both parties were happy with the day's outcome, giving Gustafson hope that this
will become an annual event. “We didn’t have to invest thousands and
thousands of dollars in a first-time event to see what the potential may be,”
he said. “I think this is one of those things that will be a huge event
in a short while. And UFO is thinking this could be a site they could settle
into for an annual event.”
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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