Matt is celebrating his 12th anniversary of opening America’s best amateur jai-alai court. There may be even a big surprise for Matt himself. More details and results early next week. The Pelota Press will be there covering the event.
Here are the details on Matt’s big tournament set for the weekend of April 29-May 1:
Must be signed up and paid for by April 22, 2022.
Please wear white pants for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. However, you may wear sweatpants or shorts – just as long as they are white.
Friday April 29th is The Spectacular 9 Performance and is totally separate from the tournament on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday, April 30th – Frist Round of the Tournament (each group will be an hour TBD).
Fees:
$50 per player all 3 nights
$50 per player for Saturday & Sunday Tournament
$10 per player if playing Friday Night only
$10 per Spectator for Friday Night (kids free)
Free Spectator admission for Saturday & Sunday
Group and times will be determined by number of entries
Your group for playoffs and finals will be determined by Saturday Scores
Loren Harris Tributes:
Each night/day we will remember Loren Harris in different ways and have a collection in his name to benefit the school he helped support in Mexico
Sunday will be the 12th Anniversary of the Amateur Courts Grand Opening! Cake anyone?
Scoring Format:
9 Point Games – Single Point Scoring
3 Fronts – 3 Backs
Game 1
1 Front 1 Back 1
2 Front 2 Back 2
3 Front 3 Back 3
Game 2
Front 2 Back 3
2 Front 3 Back 1
3 Front 3 Back 2
Game 3
1 Front 3 Back 2
2 Front 1 Back 3
3 Front 2 Back 1
You get total point for the game
Win 5
Place 3
Show 1
Playoff for place and show if tied
After 3 Games there will be:
One 1st Place FC/BC
One 2nd Place FC/BC
One 3rd Place FC/BC
This will determine Sunday’s groups.
Be sure to watch on the web – go to Matt’s site for details.
With Roger Wheeler, Jr.’s blessing, Dick Donovan, President of World Jai-Alai signed Martin Fleischman Advertising to a three year contract. I had presented Dick with the same contract used by Hume-Sindelar and Associates, our past ad agency. I, also, agreed to continue handling the corporate public relations duties.
Donovan agreed to let me use my existing office right down the hall from him at a very nominal monthly fee. Also, Lou Ann Dolan, my account assistant, could stay in her office at the end of the hall. She would continue to assist in answering group sales calls, yet she was fully on my payroll now.
Donovan’s generosity in allowing us office space tremendously helped with our overhead expenses. I was not only easily accessible to him whenever there was a problem, but he could quickly summon me for our end-of-day gin rummy games. Still, the beauty of the entire deal was the company saved some significant payroll costs by eliminating Lou Ann and I from the books.
So, I needed to consult my closest friend and ex-roommate Mike Singer, now a CPA in Miami, about how to financially set up and run a small business. He explained to my wife Sue and I how to handle payroll taxes, financial statements, billing, etc. He was invaluable to getting us started.
I have to admit, running your own business can be a daunting task. After Linda Dreyer, our outside graphic production company, drew up a logo for me, we were off and running. Linda and Helen Egan (our Media Buyer) became our independent contractors.
Sue and I would spend our Sundays doing the billing for the four frontons. Then, we would have to print checks and pay the media bills. Donovan made sure that the submitted statements were paid to us in a timely manner. That saved us because we had to pay the newspapers, radio and tv stations directly. I will always appreciate the way Dick looked out for us. Even with World Jai-Alai constantly juggling payments to the vendors, he made certain that we had priority.
Martin Fleischman Advertising was cruising along fine that first year, 1991. At that same time, the state was allowing a percentage of the betting pools to subsidize a major Jai-Alai tournament. They viewed this as a good way to promote the sport. Donovan suggested that I be hired to not only coordinate the “National Championship” tournament, but to produce the handout brochure accompanying it.
I knew all the principles at the other frontons, mainly from dealing with them from past tournaments. Dania Jai-Alai, our closest rival, was run by owner Steve Snyder and GM John Knox. In my limited dealings with Snyder, I found him to be somewhat subdued, yet extremely intelligent. I had heard he was a Yale man. He portrayed this staunch, aristocratic image. (I would later find out he was not that way at all). John Knox, a legendary South Florida radio disk jockey, had always been very friendly to me. He had helped me with some problems back in my early Tampa Jai-Alai days. John was one of the most knowledgeable people in the industry. However, I was unsure whether Snyder and Knox would approve of me running the tournament, since Dania and Miami had been competitors for years.
Hort Soper, owner of Orlando Jai-Alai, was a good friend to all of us at World Jai-Alai. He was a golfer and often joined us for a round before many of the state Jai-Alai tournaments. Arthur Sylvester, Palm Beach Jai-Alai, always wanted to accommodate the group. Milt Roth, who was now in Daytona Beach, was my mentor and I felt he would support the idea.
And so they did. All voted to have me be the Tournament Director. All frontons would send me photos and information on their players for the special printed program. I felt they trusted me to be non-partisan, even though I worked within the walls of Miami Jai-Alai.
I truly liked all the owners and managers, worked closely with most of the Player Managers of each facility. I was going to bend over backwards to make this true “National Jai-Alai Championship” a success. And, mostly I wanted to be fair to ALL the frontons. I didn’t realize how difficult that was going to be.
Getting the player photos and biographical information was not too difficult. Some dragged their feet as deadlines approached. I had to edit many to fit the space and found that leaving certain things out could meet with objection. Each word seemed to carry great importance. But, that was not the toughest issue. The game setup was!
We had previously found a matrix which placed teams in every post position, rotating every game so no team had an advantage. You see, post position is the most important aspect of the round-robin game of Jai-Alai. The early posts have the mathematical advantage. So, it is only fair that all teams play in each post position. Our pre-designed matrix took care of that. All the frontons agreed we would draw the teams for the first game and they would rotate thereafter according to the approved formula.
After the draw, I placed the teams in the matrix and sent it out to all the player managers and management personnel. Within a day, I got bombarded with phone calls. “The rotations are unfair,” came from one fronton owner. “Our team is in front of the Miami team in many games. They will catch the serve and throw a kill shot,” he claimed. More and more complaints came in that the matrix, which had been used for years, was now unfair even though the players did play in every post position.
I soon found out that not only were the Jai-Alai players the most competitive group of athletes I had ever seen, the owners were, too. We tried to manipulate the teams manually in an attempt to appease those objecting. Every change affected someone else. After days, we finally came up with something having the least issues. But, I found out how tough it is for tournament directors… of any sport… to satisfy everyone. Nearly impossible.
The National Jai-Alai Championship was a great success. All of us traveled to each facility for their individual round. Fronton representatives would eat at separate tables. I was amazed at watching the owners react to each point, rooting their teams on. Some slammed their fists down when their players dropped a ball. These intercity tournaments probably did more for the sport than anything else we ever did.
Meanwhile, all seemed to be working out for us. We were producing good advertising, getting it to the media on time, and paying all the bills. It was now summer of 1992, nearing the end of Summer Jai-Alai in Miami. Sue and I wanted to take the kids north for a vacation.
So, we packed up the Toyota Previa and planned a three week trip. We rented a fax machine so that I could still produce and fax ads back to Lou Ann while on the road. On the way back, we were going to stop in Washington, DC, to see Sue’s brother Mike. Our plan was to see an Orioles game in the newly opened Camden Yards. We were all very excited.
On August 24th, 1992, I was sleeping on Mike’s sofa in his apartment. We were going to the game that night. I was awakened early in the morning by a phone call. In a fog, I heard the voice of our next door neighbor, Shawn Post.
“They’re gone, all the trees are gone.” she said. “Your house looks okay, but you need to come home. Miami is devastated. The trees are gone!” While we were sleeping, Hurricane Andrew had made landfall in South Florida. Is our house still standing? Did Miami Jai-Alai survive? All my calls to the fronton went unanswered. We packed up and headed south not knowing what we would find. Camden Yards would have to wait.
Ikeda-Bradley – Winners of 1st Doubles Championship for 2022 at Magic City Jai-Alai in Miami on 4/17/2022
Story by Jabracadabra/Straymar
What a match-up it was Sunday with the Warriors and Cyclones putting it all on the line in the inaugural season of the Battle Court H2H “Battle Royale” Championship. The Championship was a best of 5, winner take all (each match worth 1 point).
Ikeda & Manny of the Cyclones started off with a straight set victory (6-4, 6-4) over the Warriors Inaki & Julen. This match was back and forth with only one 3-point separation by Inaki & Julen in the second set.
The second doubles match went 3-sets with Joseph & Manu of the Cyclones beating Diaz & Bradley (6-1, 5-6, 6-2) with some outstanding play. Joseph & Manu had a 5-point run in the first set, then another 5-point run in the third set to seal the win.
With a 2-0 Cyclones lead in “Battle Royale,” the Warriors were on the brink of defeat with Bueno & Nicolas taking on Jeden & Manny. Bueno & Nicolas took a straight set victory (6-3, 6-3) over Jeden & Manny to keep the Warrior’s hopes alive. Manny exhibited some amazing catches in the match.
The Championship’s only scheduled singles match featured Julen of the Warriors and Carballo of the Cyclones. This singles match-up with the 6-0 singles leader, Carballo; winning in 3-sets (3-6, 6-4, 6-1) to clinch the “Battle Royale” Championship for the Cyclones.
What a day it was with each member of the Cyclones taking home $4,000 and each member of the Warriors taking home $1,000. Joseph even treated the crowd to one of his famous backflips after the victory. This was an amazing season! A new group of matches called Jai-Alai H2H Championship Series with 6-singles games each day will be featured tomorrow and Tuesday, then a short break and the Jai-Alai H2H Championship Series will continue on May 1. Also, Battle Court II is coming this fall! Be sure to check out SayHiLi.com for continuous Magic City updates and more details.
The table below shows the “Battle Royale” Championship point summary by set and match.
Despite not having played competitively on US soil since Dania closed in November last year, the team of Erik-Manu had a strong showing at Magic City in the 2nd World Super Court qualifying event at Magic City Casino & Jai-Alai in Miami today. The team of Erik-Manu (also known as the top doubles team of Erik-Ladutxe from Dania) won all 3-matches in straight-set victories over their opponents to capture the top 2nd qualifier prize of $2,000 along with one of the 8-spots in the $50k World Super Court finals at Magic City on October 13th where the first place team wins $25,000 and second pays $12,000!
Erik-Manu handily outscored the Filipino team of Robin-RonRon 6-0, 6-0 in the first round match and won 6-5, 6-2 against Jairo-Nicolas in the second round. The first set against Jairo-Nicolas was won by Erik-Ladutxe after Jairo lost his footing when they were tied at 5-5. That first set was a 21-minute set which is one of the longest sets in H2H style Jai-Alai matches where there’s 3-sets to a match, with sets to 6-points (first team to 6-points wins the set), and the first team to win 2-sets wins the match.
The Magic City Jai-Alai brother’s team of Inaki-Julen (also known as Goitia-Julen, Goitia the name Inaki played under at Dania) faced off against Erik-Manu in the final match of the 2nd WSC Qualifier after they had beaten Bueno-Nicolas and Carballo-Arta. This was another great match for viewers and did not come easy for Erik-Manu who won the first two sets 6-3 and 6-5, almost going to a 3rd set. Inaki-Julen also advance to the WSC Finals at Magic City on October 13th and won the 2nd place prize of $1,000 for their incredible effort today.
The 3rd match in today’s first round was an outstanding match of abilities between Dania’s Zulaika-Arrieta and Magic City player Carballo paired with Arta and is a must see match for fans around the world of all types of Jai-Alai. The Magic City team of Carballo-Anderluck was initially slated to play, but was changed early in the week to Carballo-Arta when Anderluck scratched for the 2nd WSC event. The 6’3” Arta had played at Dania in both front court and back court positions in early games and in the last month has done judging for Magic City Jai-Alai. The Carballo-Arta team had little practice together and lost a hotly contest first set 6-5 against Zuliaka-Arrieta, both late game Dania players, however, Carballo-Arta won the next two sets 6-3, 6-5, winning the match to proceed further in today’s qualifier. They lost their next match in 2-sets, 4-6 and 1-6, to the Magic City brother’s team of Inaki-Julen. Teams that won their first round sets today are eligible to compete again in future qualifiers if there are open spots.
The Erik-Manu team has vast experience playing together and is considered one of the best, if not the best, Jai-Alai doubles teams in the world. Their late game doubles team record playing in pari-mutuel games at Dania from September of 2018 through November of 2021 is impressive when one considers there are 8-teams in each pari-mutuel game played. The late game team record is 151-53-29-20 for an incredible 35.1% wins while an average team would have 12.5% wins, thus Erik-Manu were 2.8-times better than the average late-game team at Dania.
Today’s two qualifying teams will join the two brother’s teams of Goixerri-Aratz and Douglas-Benny who qualified at the 1st WSC Qualifier event at Magic City on February 16th. The 3rd Qualifier is at Magic City on June 8th at 3-pm EST and the 4th Qualifier is expected to be at a location in Spain in September, exact date/time TBD, at a court similar in size to the Magic City fronton short-court (120’ long x 40’ wide).
Here is a detailed scoring of all the matches for this 2nd WSC Qualifier event, compliments of SayHiLi.com’s Battle Court / H2H Jai-Alai Sports Writer Jabracadabra (aka Joel A.):
Wow, it was great to see live “goatskin” jai-alai again. Rising from the ashes of what appeared to be their final performance last November, Dania jai-alai was open again.
Yes, it was only an exhibition featuring 8 teams and 16 players and held over 7 days between April 1st thru the 10th. And yes, there was no gambling allowed. And yes, an admission fee of $5 was charged to enter the fronton. And yes, travel expenses hindered many from attending (hotels were mostly in the $400 range except for the Motel 6 down the road at a “modest” $268.19 as noted on Kayak). But overall, the event was a big success.
Ownership Pleased
Dania ownership and management was quite pleased with the outcome of the tournament. The largest crowd was on the opening night, and the second largest crowd was last Saturday night. Most of the games were well balanced with down to the final point thrillers, with partido’s going to 21 or 15 points a match in a double elimination format.
The event was put to together to gauge if jai-alai at Dania could make a comeback and eventually see its 70th anniversary. Well, the good news is that it will happen. As we reported here months ago, a two-month season will be held in December and January with a limited roster of 22-24 players and a restructured pay for the players. Its no secret Dania Jai-alai was on life support, losing an estimated $1-$2 million a year. As we have reported in the past, the ownership likes jai-alai and they want to keep it going, but not at a loss running well into 9 figures.
Analyzing the Event
The owners and management will be analyzing everything from start to finish during the second half of April to see if there is anything they could have done differently and if there is value and doing this more often. Benny Bueno, the players manager, was personally content with the turnout for the live audience and the viewership through their live stream. He has noted that while sitting in the audience and watching the crowd reaction, everyone was entertained and that was the purpose of the tournament.
The Pelota Press, who was one of the sponsors of the event, couldn’t agree more with Bueno’s assessment. Everybody in the audience of about 250 or so per performance thoroughly enjoyed it. There were dozens of former players there in attendance from Becky to Mendi. Regulars from Jesus to Al Q. There was even an employee who worked there for several years starting in 1961. She had some great stories to tell including having jai-alai greats like Chimela over to her house for dinner.
The final match was on Sunday afternoon and going great – the French team of Olharan and Etcheto were in an 11-11 tie in the 21-point “win it or lose it” match against Dania stars Barandika and Leke, when Olharan got nailed in the lower leg area on a throw in the front and hobbled off the court after going down. In obviously pain, he reemerged about 15-20 minutes later with a heroes-like welcome from the crowd. For a while it seemed like the tournament was going to come to an end, but the courage and determination of the 22-year-old had no intention of making a flight all the way from France to have it end like this. Unfortunately, the outcome did not end like a Rocky movie. The French team only scored one more point after the injury and losing the tournament to the favorites Barandika and Leke.
Loren Harris Tribute
The event was called the “Battle at the Palace” – Spring Tournament. On Saturday night, there as a nice tribute before the second of three matches that evening to the late Loren Harris, who passed away a couple months ago while teaching kids how to play jai-alai in Cancun Mexico. Dave LaMont did a great job announcing the tribute which included several photos of Loren on the large screen video scoreboard. It is still quite shocking we lost a great guy in Loren Harris who did so much for our sport in keeping it alive for the younger generation. He will never be forgotten.
What Went Good and What Went Wrong
Without a doubt, the event was a success. The true jai-alai fans were attending in steady numbers even though there was no betting allowed. This was the first time I could recall watching jai-alai without having the ability to bet on the outcome since the great Tournament of Champion events in the early 80s before the state allowed Partido betting in a “Win” bet only format. It was also the first time someone had to pay an admission since Orlando started charging for the Citrus events over a decade ago. One blemish was when the power went out on the court and scoreboard on game point last week. After about 45 minutes of darkness, the game called and resumed the next day. It’s obvious the tote system and lighting in there is antiquated – perhaps dating back to 1953! The format was great as well as the pairing of the games.
Dania has been Investing in the Sport
In a sign that Dania intends on keeping jai-alai alive, there were a couple of notable additions. A concession stand was constructed inside the fronton near the far back end that included popcorn, hot dogs and beer. It was a nice addition and put an end of having to look for a server or go all the way out of the fronton and into the casino to get something to eat or drink. We also noted a new trophy stand that took Benny and the refs to drag in and set up for the presentation of the checks to the top three teams in the tournament.
In bigger news, they are looking at upgrading their “1980s” broadcasting equipment. The system they are researching includes HD cameras and a broadcast software that will give them many more capabilities than they have now. Things such as slow motion, instant reply, upgraded graphics and the ability to show highlights and/or commercials during the programming. The implementation of that broadcast equipment will be discussed in the following months. This is an important step Dania MUST do to move forward.
What’s Next
Beginning in the month of May, Dania jai-alai will start to put a list of players together of who they would like to recruit for the December-January season. They will start talking to players during the summer and hopefully have a roster finalized by October. They also want to incorporate some more Partido playing during the months of December and January and probably have a competition similar to the “Fall Challenge” they had last year.
Holding a two-month season will create a demand to show up at some point; there will be no direct competition as Magic City is closed at that time of the year and it will be held during the two busiest tourist months of the year -including traditionally the two busiest weeks of the year – Christmas and New Years’.
Of course, the Pelota Press will keep you informed.
World Super Court 2nd Qualifier is April 13th: Here’s the Matches!
The $50K World Super Court 2nd qualifying event will be held at the Magic City Casino Jai-Alai fronton on Wednesday, April 13th at 3-pm. Here are the teams for the first 4-matches which were drawn today for the first round of the qualifier event on Wednesday:
Erik-Manu vs Robin-RonRon
Jairo-Nicolas vs Jeden-Ben
Zulaika-Arrieta vs Anderluck-Carballo
Inaki-Julen vs Bueno-Kubala
These matches will be played using the H2H format and can be seen on watchjaialai.com. There will be a total of 7-matches on Wednesday. The top two teams will advance to the WSC Finals where they will join the teams of Goixerri-Aratz and Douglas-Benny who qualified at the 1st WSC Qualifier. The 3rd Qualifier is on June 8th at Magic City and the 4th Qualifier is slated for a date TBD in September overseas. The World Super Court Finals featuring the top 8-teams is October 13th at Magic City. The World Super Court Finals first place team wins $25,000 while the 2nd place team wins $12,500. World Super Court can be viewed on all platforms except YouTube’s The Jai-Alai Channel which is reserved for Magic City Pelota (pari-mutuel games).
Another incredible week of Magic City pelota games concluded on Tuesday, April 5th at Magic City Jai-Alai at the Magic City Casino in the Magical City of Miami, Florida. The exciting Jai-Alai action keeps getting better and better!
Carballo won the Golden Cesta Award for week 8 for the most singles wins for the week, scoring wins in 3 of his 8-singles games. This is his 7th GCA in his Magic City Jai-Alai career and that secures him the spot of 3rd most GCA’s right behind Douglas with 34 and RonRon with 16. Click Here to view the Golden Cesta Award history for Magic City Jai-Alai.
The team of Carballo-Kubala also scored victories in 3 of their 4-doubles games for week 8 in the first doubles tournament of 2022. This is significant as they now have 6-team wins in this big money tournament and are only 1-win behind the teams of Ikeda-Bradley and Juice-Manu which have 7-wins each. Since this tourney ends on Sunday, April 17th there are only 4-days left in the tourney which means each of the 12-tourney teams has only 5 or 6 chances left to win a doubles victory. The first place team wins $10,000 while the second place team splits $5,000. Click Here to view the complete doubles team chart for the first tourney for 2022.
Carballo leads the 2022 singles championship for the player with the most singles wins for the year. He currently has 15-singles wins and Bueno is on his tail with 14-wins. Third place with 11 wins is Goixerri. Click Here to view the complete singles wins chart for 2022.
The combined singles and doubles records is shown below for those fans who like to mix the talents of the Magic City roster. This chart also shows Carballo, Carballo and Carballo for most wins, top % Wins and top % ITM, plus an amazing 48.2% in-the-quiniela!
All Games 2022 thru 04-05-2022 at Magic City Jai-Alai
What another exciting week of Battle Court H2H action at Magic City with the Cyclones clinching first place and the Warriors going 7-3 (earning 8.5 points) to clinch second place. The Championship match will take place on Sunday, April 17 at the Magic City Fronton. The Cyclones play the Renegades on Sunday, April 10 to finish the season with another 6 points up for grabs, but the standings are “locked” as the Renegades with 31 points cannot catch the second place Warriors with 37.5 points.
Standings Through Week 8 (1 match remaining: Cyclones vs. Renegades)
Team
Points
W-L
Pct
Cyclones
42.0
34-20
0.630
Warriors
37.5
32-27
0.542
Renegades
31.0
25-29
0.463
Chargers
27.5
22-37
0.373
Note: W-L does not include forfeitures in weeks 3 and 7, but are included in the points totals.
The Cyclones went 4-1, earning 4.5 points with singles wins from Carballo, Manny and Manu. Carballo went undefeated with a 6-0 record. Carballo was on fire in the Pelota matches and it continued with a straight set (6-3, 6-1) win over Benny (Chargers) on Sunday. Jeden & Manny earned a 6-1, 6-2 straight set doubles win over Correa & Roque (Chargers).
The Warriors went 7-3 to earn 8.5 points with singles wins from Bueno, Diaz and Nicolas. Diaz bet Vuelo (Renegades) in straight sets (6-2, 6-3) to finish with a 5-1 singles record. Inaki & Julen picked up their first doubles win in 3 sets (3-6, 6-3, 6-5) against Douglas & Benny (Chargers). Inaki teamed with Nicolas to take a 3 set win (5-6, 6-2, 6-5), handing the 5-0 Goixerri & Aratz (Renegades) their first loss of the season. Bueno & Nicolas finished doubles with a 5-1 record with a 2 set win (6-3, 6-3) over Robin & Ben (Renegades).
The Renegades went 1-4 earning 1 point with a singles win from Ben over Bradley (Warriors) in 2 sets (6-4, 6-5).
The Chargers went 3-7 earning 4 points with Benny going 1-1 with a straight set win (6-1, 6-3) over Julen (Warriors). CRB & Douglas beat Diaz & Bradley (Warriors) in 3 sets (6-1, 3-6, 6-1). Jairo & Benny took a 3 set win (4-6, 6-1, 6-2) over Carballo & Manu (Cyclones).
You can watch the final Battle Court session at 5pm on Sunday at watchjaialai.com, laligasportstv.com, FTF Sports Network or download the free Jai Alai Channel app. You can also visit the fronton on Sunday to see the great action in person. Be sure to catch the post-game show with Stu and Andrew for the recap of the action.
And remember, those fans in attendance at Sunday’s Battle Court H2H match at 5pm will have the opportunity to WIN $1,000. It’s FREE to play and if you select the winners of the three singles matches and both doubles matches, you could WIN $1,000. If there are multiple winners, the prize money will be split among the winners.
Be sure to watch “The King of Twitch” (aka El Barba) and Paulie at https://www.twitch.tv/watchjaialai for interactive livestreaming during the H2H sports betting games at Magic City. Tune in to hear the entertainment as El Barba gives “Barba Bursts” for great plays. El Barba and Paulie also answer questions in the chat. It is entertaining for sure.
Be sure to tune in for the “Battle Royale” Championship Finals between the Cyclones and Warriors on Sunday, April 17th at 5:00 pm EST to find out which squad will win the top prize of $4,000 per team member! The 2nd place squad wins $1,000 per team member.
Martin Fleischman, President of MartinFleischman Advertising?
I watched him slowly slice open his baked potato. It was the only thing on the plate. Monty Trainers in Coconut Grove was known for its freshly caught seafood. But, Steve Nostrand, founder of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau and an Executive VP with our soon-to-be defunct advertising agency, Hume- Sindelar, Inc., was a vegetarian. He was happy with just a baked potato while I was guzzling down a fried grouper sandwich and fries.
“I have a crazy idea,” I told him between bites. “And, you, Steve, are the only one I trust that can tell me whether it is doable.” Nostrand and I had become good friends during the Hume-Sindelar years of 1988 to 1991. We often met in Coral Gables for some morning tennis. He loved to just hit balls and refused to ever play an actual game with me. He told me as a junior tennis player, the pressure was so great in matches that he no longer was interested in playing a game that had a result. He just loved to practice. I respected his wishes. I, also, respected his knowledge of advertising and business in general.
“Obviously, World Jai-Alai is going to need another ad agency,” I told him. “You know how the strike has hurt the Jai-Alai industry and World Jai-Alai has a big debt. I have thought of a way to save the company a lot of money, and possibly help myself financially at the same time. I want to form my own advertising agency and pitch Donovan on letting me have the entire World Jai-Alai account,” I said.
Steve stopped picking at his baked potato. He looked squarely at me and said, “Let’s run the numbers.” He took a pen out and started writing on the back of the paper place mat.
“You will need a Media Buyer, Copywriter, Account Executive, Graphic Designer, Billing and Accounting Coordinator, and an Account Assistant,” he said as he listed the personnel. “Many of those things you can handle yourself,” he went on. He totaled the possible costs of these employees.
“If you use the basic agency contract where you get 15% of the media buy and 20% for production costs, you will have this amount of revenue coming in from the current budgets for your frontons in Miami, Tampa, Ocala, and Ft. Pierce,” he continued. “If you can cover those costs, and still clear enough after taxes, you absolutely can do it!”
Since I had been coordinating the advertising for World Jai-Alai for 10 years, I was confident I could handle the production, copywriting, and be the defacto Account Executive. I really just needed a Media Buyer and someone to handle the production of the print ads. Steve had part of the answer.
“Linda Dreyer from Dreyer Studios did all our stuff,” Steve told me. “She is losing us as a client and I’m sure she would be thrilled to handle your ads. I can arrange a meeting for you.”
I had a thought on the media job. Helen Egan, who worked with Grulich-Koenig Advertising, our original agency in the 1980’s might be the answer. Helen was a well-respected Media Buyer and already knew our business. I had kept in touch with her over the years. Maybe she could work part-time for a fee.
But, I still didn’t know the actual mechanics of running an ad agency. This is where Steve was invaluable. “You need to do a schedule, create the jobs, keep a log, and make a job bag,” he told me. Everything involving the ad goes in the job bag. There are insertion orders, billing off the insertion order, getting the ads to the media by the ad deadline, and finally, the most important thing, getting paid by the client,” he said with a smile.
As we finished, his baked potato now looking like a Florida sink hole, I thanked him profusely and told him I had to really give it some thought. If I could tie up other loose ends, I would approach Donovan with the proposal.
My concern was that I would have to resign from being an employee of World Jai-Alai. If it didn’t work out, I doubted if there would still be a spot for me. It was a big gamble. Steve Nostrand had given me all the information I needed, plus his endorsement for the idea. I was on my way.
Lou Ann Dolan had been in group sales and was now administrative assistant for me as Corporate Director of Public Relations. Lou Ann’s husband Mike was our Player Trainer who kept the Jai-Alai players playing during nagging injuries. They both depended on salaries from World Jai-Alai. I was about to ask Lou Ann to take a big risk.
Lou Ann was a great employee in the Corporate PR Department. But, she had never worked for an advertising agency. She was smart, efficient, and nothing seemed to bother her. I was now about to ask her to give up her current job and join me at Martin Fleischman Advertising (what a creative name). As I write this, I realize I was very much like Michael Scott in The Office (for you Office fans) asking Pam to leave and join The Michael Scott Paper Company.
Lou Ann thought it over for about 30 seconds and said, “Yes, I would come with you.” I had told her it was a gamble. If Donovan approved it, he might change his mind after a year or less and we could both be looking for jobs. Lou Ann reaffirmed that she would do it. I was thrilled. I had my quarterback. Now, I needed to execute the play.
A few days later, I went down to Donovan’s office, found him in a relatively good mood, and told him I wanted to discuss something. My pitch was this: the State allowed the tracks and frontons to deduct 1% of the betting to pay for promotions and advertising. Let me form my own independent advertising agency. He would put me under a standard agency contract to handle the advertising for our four frontons. All my costs would come out of that promotion and advertising pool.
At the same time, I would no longer be on the payroll and the company would no longer pay my benefits, including health insurance. Plus, Lou Ann Dolan has agreed to be my assistant and he would save her salary costs, too.
Donovan stared at me. I could see him computing the amount of savings for the company. He merely said, “Let me discuss it with Roger. Sounds good to me.”
He was going to discuss it with Roger Wheeler, Jr., our owner. Roger and I gotten along great in the past. I had a shot. Donovan didn’t dismiss it outright.
Would Roger approve it? Was Martin Fleischman Advertising going to be the next Doyle, Dane, and Bernbach, or Ogilvie and Mather (famous Madison Avenue ad agencies I studied in college)? I never even worked at an ad agency. Now, I was proposing starting one? What the hell was I thinking?