Archive for October, 2011

Perry Field House


2011
10.27

Last week, the class took a facility tour of the Perry Field House on campus.  The field house is a relatively new building on campus, built in 1992 as an indoor track facility and multi-purpose area for the campus and surrounding community.  The building is used for various purposes, such as indoor track and field competitions, collegiate football practices, intramural athletics, and even conferences or expositions.

The layout of the facility is easy to navigate and very wide-open.  Walking through the lobby in the entrance, it is clear where you should be going because the two main rooms are visible from that point.  The information desk is located directly through the doors and one must pass by the desk in order to enter either of the two rooms.  One criticism of where the desk is located is that it is too far from the entrance and if there is a line or the attendant is busy, it is easy for someone unauthorized to sneak in the facility.  For safety concerns during large events, it would be recommended to close that gap and put tables near the entrance for check-ins.

Along with the layout, the general aesthetics of the facility are appealing.  The turf room looks very cool and still modern even though it is nearly 20 years old.  The basketball courts still look somewhat new and the colors of the facility fit with the campus.  Unlike the Rec Center on campus, the Perry Field House has aged pretty well over the years even though it is about a decade younger.

Another concern for the facility that was obvious through the tour is the lack of storage.  The builders of the facility did not take into account how much equipment would be used for the facility.  The walls in the basketball court area was lined with equipment that could be potentially dangerous to people.  There are signs posted and people know that the equipment is clearly off-limits, however the equipment is distracting to the whole building.  It looks bad and makes the facility look cluttered and unorganized.  During track and field events it could be especially dangerous because the equipment is so close to the running areas.  Also, for larger events where additional space is vital, the access equipment takes up that extra space and can lead to a crowded feel among the crowd.

Finally, I felt that building could use at least one more bathroom facility.  I did not get a chance to look into the bathrooms but as far as i could see there was only one bathroom facility.  The facility can hold a lot of people during large events  and those people have to go somewhere.  It seemed to me through my observations during the tour that in the case of a large event, the bathroom facilities are probably over-worked with too many people, long lines, and trouble staying clean.

Overall I enjoyed the facility and I loved knowing that is is nearly 20 years old but it still feels like a new building on campus.  The building has aged well and is still a staple on campus for students to use for some sort of function during their 4 years.  It may have its faults, but for a 20 year old building, those problems were probably not thought of at the time and are hard to fix at this point in time during the building’s history.

For a super awesome video of the facility, click on the following link (couldn’t get the video to embed at the moment so I’ll have to go old-school for now): Super awesome Perry Field House video

 

Stroh Center


2011
10.20

A few days ago the class visited the Stroh Center, a new multi-million dollar athletic facility that houses the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams as well as the Women’s volleyball team.  The facility was impressive in its sustainable practices and general architecture.  The most obvious, striking thing to me was the reserved parking spaces for “Fuel Efficient Economy Cars” that plastered the first two rows leading into the main entrance.  I had never seen anything like that before and thought immediately how this building was going to be great in its sustainable practices.  The outside of the facility is very intriguing as well, the front of the building looks very modern and artistic, while the sides of the building look dull and have a sort of warehouse-esque to it.  The inside of the building could use some more decor and color, but time will help heal that process as more memorabilia and ideas emerge.

The functional layout for the facility seems to be pretty good.  The locker rooms were located in an area that is hard for fans to access during the game, and there is a practice court that is open 24/7 to all players.  Everything a student-athlete needs seems to be within the building.  When there is another event within the building, the athletes still have a place to practice which makes it easy to reserve court times and keep a consistent practice schedule.  There seemed to be ample storage within the facility so ease of access to the equipment seemed to be pretty good if an athlete wanted to come in during off-hours to practice on their own or with a small group.

In comparison, I think this facility matches up pretty well with any other facility.  It meets the needs of the athletes and surrounding area.  It only seats a little over 4,000 people for any athletic event which is concurrent with the population size and fan base.  The General Manager even stated that it was nice to have a smaller facility because it was easier to fill up which adds to a more exciting atmosphere.  If I could compare it to any other facility I guess I would compare it the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.  The Quicken Loans is highly versatile; holding concerts, ice hockey, and other special events.  The seats all fold up or are stored elsewhere to make for more room and on basketball game day it provides a big atmosphere without too much seating.  While the Stroh Center does not have the versatility the Q does, it does have the proper amount of seating and the comfort of the Quicken loans Arena.  It seems that both facilities meet the needs of all the parties involved and that each is different in their own way but yet the same in other ways.

Technology


2011
10.18

In general, technology has taken over the western society’s culture.  Today’s generation of young adults, teenagers, and children have grown up in a world of vast technological expansion and a world in which all they know of is new technology.  Nearly everyone has a computer in their home, TV’s all have HD or 3D capabilities, cellphones are more prevalent than ever, tablets and mp3 players were introduced before anyone even knew they needed one.  Every industry has been affected by technology for both good and bad reasons.  For the purposes of this blog post I will focus on the specific industry of the food and beverage industry of tourism for what technology has done for this industry.

The major benefit of new technology in the food and beverage industry is the ease of Point-of-Sale systems (POS).  They are computers that the servers input an order and it is sent directly to the kitchen.  Gone are the days of paper tickets and hand-written orders in most restaurants.  Orders can be brought back up, specialized, and help with analyzing product data.  This is the first benefit of technology, ease of managing inventory and cost procedures.  The POS helps record all purchases and will give revenue print outs at the end of each shift or year.  The major drawback to this systm is that it takes loner for the food to get back to the kitchen.  With a hand-written order, all the server has to do is write the order and put it in the kitchen for the cooks to make.  The POS forces ever server to write the order from the table and then go to the POS and type everything back in to send to the kitchen.

Another way that technology has improved is through the use of the internet.  Small businesses can post their websites to come up on Google which allows people unfamiliar with the area to type keywords such as “sub shop Bowling Green” and up pops Mister Spots, Dave’s Cosmic Subs, and Jimmy Johns.  it helps the local businesses be seen more by outsiders rather than the visitors having to search throughout the city for a sub shop.  The downside to this is if you dont have a website or have a website that is outdated, it can turn away business because people can’t locate you easily or can’t receive any information by themselves, leading them to go to a familiar place such as Subway in this example.

The Aloha POS produced by NCR Corporation is a software program that helps professionals in the hospitality industry manage their inventory, prevent theft, and ensure speed of service throughout the location.

The strengths of this software program are:

  1. Speed.
  2. Organization.
  3. Order accuracy.
  4. Higher Sales.
  5. Easier Accounting.

The weaknesses of this software program are:

  1. Expensive.
  2. Hard to use.
  3. If it breaks down then you might lose everything.
  4. Difficulty receiving quick service support.
  5. Will not last as long or will soon become outdated as technology grows and expands.

Cedar Point Dinner


2011
10.06

I thought I would do a post on a cool experience I will be doing for the next few weeks that involves a facility.  I work s a server at Cedar Point and they are going through Halloweekends until Sunday October 30.  Every Sunday I work as a banquet server for the G.A. Boeckling’s Eerie Estate Banquet.  The banquet is a fine dining dinner that consists of your choice of lobster tail, filet mignon, crab legs, and a special desert.  The really cool part about the dinner is the facility in which its placed in — an actual haunted house in Cedar Point!  The beginning of the dinner  starts with a lighted tour through the house which provides behind-the-scenes information about the haunted house and the history of some of the decorations.  At the middle of the house is the dining area which seats between 3 and 25 people.  Guests are seated in a very creepy looking room and the meal is hosted by their tour guides and banquet servers — all of whom are painted and dressed like monsters.  The meal lasts about an hour and then they go about the second half of the house and back into the park.  The haunted house then opens up to the public shortly after clean-up.  The cost?  A very affordable $68.95 a person. In terms of the facility, I just felt that it was one of the coolest facilities I have seen a while.  The theme was spectacular and the guests really enjoyed it.  It was very cool to see the place transform into a dining room and then back to a haunted house again.  Hopefully as the weekends go by I will have some pictures of the facility to post on here.  For now I will leave you with the photo of myself and what I look liked during the event.  Enjoy!

 

UPDATE: 10/24/2011

Uploaded all the other pictures and put them in a gallery.  There is also a great news article with more great pictures at http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201109/2669/

 


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