Business of fun: Why the State Fair features some entertainment over others
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) — Piece by piece, the State Fair has slowly come to life at Fair Park with Rusty Fitzgerald in charge. "I already know where everything's going to go," he said. "I have that in my head."
As the Senior Vice President of Operations, he determines the placement of all the rides, games and food stands.
"Traffic flow - the way people walk - affects a lot of things. I want them to go through and around and see everything," said Fitzgerald.
Every ride goes through several rounds of inspections to meet safety regulations and Fitzgerald's approval. "My philosophy is, if I have to worry about it, it won't be here or it doesn't run," he said. "You have to please me and I'm pretty hard to please out here when it comes to this."
While the State Fair owns the Love Bug, Pirate Ship and a few others, most of the rides and games are used in other state fairs before arriving in Texas.
"I don't want to put a game out here that nobody's going to play," said David Russ, the Director of Midway Operations.
Russ says every game has to check four boxes:
- The rules are clear and simple
- It's set up fairly
- It's fun
- You can win good prizes
"All kids that walk on this midway - if they play our games we want them to win," said Russ. He says the balloon darts and duck pond are among the easiest to win, while the ladder climb is among the most difficult.
"There are no games that are impossible," said Russ. "Now there are challenging games, I ain't going to lie." He says you can determine how difficult the game is by the size of the prize. The bigger the plush, the harder it is to win.
As the Manager of Games and Operations, Richard Mankel is in charge of ordering and receiving all the plush. He started placing orders back in May. "It's about anywhere from 500,000 to 600,000 pieces."
The State Fair will spend about $1.2 million on plush. Even when the warehouse is filled to the brim, it only holds about half of what is won each year. "This will all be gone, then we have more trucks coming during the fair and we'll fill it all up again."
The men join forces on the biggest project: Big Tex. With the help of dozens of workers, they guide trailers through Fair Park, clearing a path from the storage building all the way to Big Tex Circle.
The state is mostly assembled horizontally, with his shirt and pants put into place ahead of his big debut.
The weeks before opening day are filled with long days and lots of sweat, but the men in charge say the job is so fun it doesn't always feel like work.
"It's so much fun," said Russ. "I get to work with stuffed animals all day and play games and get paid for it!"