We recently had the opportunity to travel to AT&T stadium to visit some of the FSG team working there on a particularly challenging signage fabrication and installation project.
Towards the end of the day FSG Signs Construction Manager, Mike Stephens offered to take us for a quick look inside of AT&T Stadium to see some of the work FSG was currently performing as well as some of the past work performed by FSG. We walked the entire stadium and marveled at the size and scale of everything.
From the beautiful field, to the speaker arrays hanging from the ceiling, everything about AT&T Stadium was awe-inspiring. We left that day with an incredible sense of pride at what FSG was capable of, however, it wasn’t only for the reasons you might have expected.
You see while the engineering, fabrication, and installation of signage in one of the world’s most expensive sports venues is impressive, it was stickers that piqued our interest more than anything else on that jobsite on this particular day.
That’s right, stickers.
It goes like this- every cup holder in AT&T Stadium has a brand label on it. Each row is a different brand. So, for example, row A may be Ford while row B may be Miller Lite. Now AT&T Stadium boasts more than 80,000 seats which mean there are more than 80,000 cup holders which means there are more than 80,000 brand labels. Here’s the thing, you see none of those labels were attached to those cup holders when the seats were installed. That means that someone had to take more than 80,000 labels, unpeel them from their backing, and stick them to the cup holders– one at a time—seat by seat—row by row.
The most amazing part about this task is that the company that took care of it was none other than FSG. Along with help from the customer, FSG put together crews with team leaders and set out to label 80,000 plus cup holders. With only six days to get the job done, FSG managed to get the labels printed in four days, and hired more than fifty temporary workers and installed in just two days.
As I am hearing this story the only thing I could think of was how much trouble I have with those “Hello My Name is:” labels, yet these guys and girls, under a time crunch, delivered 80,000 plus of these labels.
Now you may be thinking, come on its stickers—what’s the big deal?
The big deal is that when the customer needed more than 80,000 brand labels affixed to more than 80,000 cup holders in hurry, the FSG team delivered. Where other contractors had fallen short, the FSG team picked up the slack and took a few paper cuts and sticky fingers for the team. When other projects and contractors were getting the attention, the FSG team could be seen in the background quietly doing what needed to be done. The big deal about little stickers is that by sticking to one of its founding principles of doing what it takes to take care of the customer, FSG was able to secure a hope for future business.
There are many talented team members working on the AT&T Stadium project both then and now. With great sales, good project management, a solid product, an incredible aerial installation team and a proven track record of getting it done, it’s no wonder FSG finds itself in Arlington Texas again. However, even with such great talent, I can’t help but wonder just a little bit if the customer, when faced with the need to get some new signs hung before kick-off 2013, remembered a time when they needed 80,000 labels installed before kick-off 2009. If that is the case then those little stickers are a very big deal, and they should serve as a reminder to all of us that there is tremendous value in doing whatever it takes to take care of the customer.
Want to know more about the AT&T Stadium project? Stayed tuned to the FSG Today website and FSG Channel receivers to learn more about this project and other projects FSG Signs is currently working on.