Regarding several of the subjects in this thread simultaneously (locations' and staff's attitudes toward Buzztime and its players; players' wish for better welcome, better support, screens, playmakers, etc.; Clint's interest in fostering environments of referrals, rivalries, shout-outs, etc.) I suppose I have a cluster of ideas.
Buzztime could do more to play matchmaker between A and B. Who are A and B
A Locations (whether owners, managers, or waitstaff) whose ideal Buzztime customer is/has x,y, and z x- an ideal size party, maybe it's 5, maybe it's 10, I doubt it's 1 or 2 y- they come on the slow nights. It is probably a lost cause to think that waitstaff and shift managers will ever really welcome Buzztime or its players among their bread-and-butter basketball/football/weekend crowds. They don't want to break up their solidarity wall of color, every screen on a sports event, even every screen on the same sports event, for a dull static board of text. They don't want to have to be fending off, all night long, people asking for that screen (Buzztime) to be switched off for something with more motion. They just wish Buzztime (and its monolith players) would go away at those times when they have all the business and all the demands they can handle. They are reminding themselves that their reason for ever trying Buzztime in the first place was to have a shot at filling in the gaps, getting specific extra business and traffic where they needed it most, not where they needed it least...the slow nights (dare I say those are Tuesday and Wednesday, and about 32 out of 52 Mondays)...and they are wondering why that ain't happening either. z- I'm no restaurateur (this forum's authority on that is Akbar in Delaware), correct me if I'm wrong, but locations love reservations, knowing exactly when and how many and the luxury of planning in advance how/where to put them.
B Players whose ideal Buzztime night out is pretty simply p,q,r, and s p- a seat q- a working charged playmaker r- line of sight to a screen showing Buzztime s- the Buzztime game they came out for
Obviously don't further bother any locations that aren't interested. For those that are, ask them to tell you (Buzztime) what nights they want seats filled, how many are their ideal, how much lead time they need in advance, and perhaps even if they have some preference for whether one unified team group (gets loud), or a table A vs. table B, or just couples or all cutthroat (quiet as a library). Then you (Buzztime) take on that challenge of finding the bodies for those seats. Data mine your e-mail lists, which you used to love to do. Brand and market the concept as some special open-house type series of events, award extra players plus points or some all-new points accumulation system (points and/or referral rewards perhaps redeemable for reserved seats at future events). Stick to a reservation concept to make it look more exclusive and in demand. Operate some new kind of scoreboarding for recording participation long-term (where the shout-outs and rivalries come in). Use this forum as a crowdsource to help hammer out some specifics and maybe suggest a first few candidate sites. And try to be most sure that a Buzztime representative can attend and create some continuity around it with post-event PR and reporting.
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