COVER STORY
AMANDA AGUILAR
Tamee and Tony Cardinali of Cardinali’s Ice Cream won “Grand Champion” and “Best Taste” for the Spaghetti Ice Cream during the fair’s inaugural SNACKDOWN food competition.
What else might we see either during the fair or the rest of the year? “For the fair, one of the other fun things we are doing is the Action Zone. Last year we had the motorcycle jumping and we are increasing those to 3-4 shows a day. In between will be segmented with 3-4 high dive shows so there is always going to be something going on in the Action Zone, and we are excited about that. We are also having an opening ceremony every single morning at the race track with a California Crush Clydesdale hitch. It is a six-
horse hit of Clydesdales that will tow a wagon. They will bring in the colors every day, and we will have the national anthem with different nonprofit groups. That will take place 30 minutes before the first post. After that, the Clydesdales will go out on the Fairgrounds for a tour and that will be really cool. Then outside of the fair, the board has been working on strategic planning for the future — what’s the fair going to be, what does it look like, what are business segments we need to work on and what does the customer think of us. That is something we work on
The fair even features a juggling unicyclist dressed like Elvis Presley.
throughout the year. It points us in a direction as to what improvements need to be done to the facilities — should be remodeled or what should we get rid of and that’s exciting things that are happening.”
Roller coasters continue to be a popular staple at the Alameda County Fair.
Are there specific plans for any of the structures — more barn space or even a hotel perhaps? “All of which you have mentioned have been discussed and kicked around. The idea is a strategic plan which gives direction in how we think and use land more effectively. But it doesn’t give specifics to, say, build a hotel — it just says this is an area where commercial development might be synergistic with the fair and the community. This is an area that is doing very well in the industry trend and says you should look more closely at this industry. It doesn’t get real specific on building to building.”
How does the staff work with cities outside of Pleasanton? “One of the big things we did this year, we put out a ticket to ‘Summer Learning.’ It was a free ticket to every single elementary school-aged student in all of Alameda County. Hundreds of tickets went out, and they went out to all the schools because we want everyone to understand this is not just a fun place, but it can be educational as well. The kids can come out and learn a lot of stuff and not just think that is where you go for a corn dog. We are always making sure we are open to all areas of Alameda County.”
The fair offers a variety of rides for adults and children.
The Goodguys and Scottish Games are tremendous revenue makers for the city of Pleasanton. Are we looking at more major events and how do we expand on that? Does the actual fair itself benefit Pleasanton? “Absolutely. All of the normal things you think about — hotel, restaurant business and downtown — you can tell when you go downtown in Pleasanton on a Friday night of Goodguys, there are hot rods everywhere; they are using the amenities the city has to offer. These shows that pay the income tax on the different vending that they do trickle back to the city in some way. The satellite wagering as well as the horse racing — there is a portion of the handle that is actually paid as a tax back to the city. The hometown that the fair sits in — Pleasanton — does reap a nice benefit of the economic driving force of the Fairgrounds. In the future, it’s obvious. This is a nice place and we fill buildings with small shows. We will take anyone that needs or wants to rent from us, but our large-scale festival events such as Goodguys or the Scottish Games are big and we would love to host more of those. But there are only so many weekends available with good weather, which means we also want to turn our focus to our buildings during the winter months. Another big item that has come to the front the last couple of years is these 5K runs. They are very popular and we are a prime location for them. I think we had four or five in the last year. They use the whole facility — they park a lot of cars and those people use the amenities in the town.“ N
Pleasanton WeeklyÊUÊJuly 4, 2014 U Page 13