In the wake of reported public health violations at
Safeco Field, the facility's concessionaire, Volume
Services, "vowed to speed up service ... and improve food
safety," according to Tom Paulson of the SEATTLE POST-
INTELLIGENCER. Safeco Field's Volume Services GM Alton
Hutcheson: "I guarantee this won't happen again. ... It's
all about training staff" (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER,
7/23). In Seattle, Art Thiel writes that with the "pedal-to-
metal rush to complete" Safeco Field, Volume Services was
left "little time to find and train employees and work out
building problems." A "clue" of that was visible during the
team's TV telecasts which aired a "help-wanted ad for the
ballpark's hundreds of low-paying jobs that would last for
... three months" (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 7/23).
OPENING THE SAFE FOR ADVERTISERS: In Seattle, Angelo
Bruscas writes that Safeco Field currently has 75 sponsors,
with the Mariners adding "at least a dozen" since leaving
the Kingdome, but critics contend the ballpark is "far too
commercialized." Safeco's official coffee supplier,
Tully's, has ads on the main scoreboard, the left-field
wall, behind home plate and throughout the ballpark.
Tully's President Tom O'Keefe: "In the short home stand
since the opening of Safeco Field we may have already paid
for our annual sponsorship via the national exposure we've
received on TV to date." Mariners VP/Business & Sales Bob
Aylward: "We ... beefed up our corporate marketing staff in
an effort to take advantage of the opportunities that Safeco
Field gives a team. I'd like to think that, looking around
there, we did a pretty fair job" (SEATTLE P-I, 7/23).
OPENING UP THE BLEACHER SEATS: The Mariners will now
allow advance purchase of the 1,837 center field bleacher
seats, which had "previously been set aside for day-of-game
purchase only" (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 7/23).
