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By JONATHAN GAW
PLAIN DEALER REPORTER
Corporate
Cleveland doesn't need whiny baseball players and owners to
entertain clients.
It has WhirlyBall.
A combination of bumper cars, basketball and
lacrosse, the sport has dozens of Cleveland business-types whirling
around an indoor arena in Bedford Heights in pursuit of a yellow
plastic ball.
"It's just a release," said Patrick
Petsche, a senior financial consultant with Merrill Lynch & Co.
He estimates he has taken about 40 clients to WhirlyBall over the
past four or five years. "It's a way to break down the
barriers, and everybody is pretty much the same out there."
Last weekend, about a dozen teams from across the
country converged on Cleveland for a WhirlyBall tournament. A team
from Cleveland includes local WhirlyBall owner Rick Morad, who said
the bulk of his business is from company functions.
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"You're much more involved here than at a
baseball game, and it's more playable than, let's say,
volleyball," Morad said. "Men and women are equalized
here. Those 350-pound bumper cars make (women) just as big as the
guys."
In WhirlyBall, five-person teams maneuver in
bumper cars at 8 miles an hour on an 80-by-50-foot court, each
player carrying a plastic scoop to pick up, catch, throw and shoot a
softball-sized Whiffle ball.
The goal is to hit a 15-inch target hanging about
10 feet high.
The Bedford Heights location is one of 15 across
the country with licensing agreements with the Utah manufacturer of
the game, Flo Tron. Each is independently owned and operated.
Morad charges $125 an hour - groups of up to 10
can play - and some discounts are available on weekdays.
Business people say the game is more interactive
than watching professional sporting event, it encourages teamwork,
it's accessible to people of all ages, and weather is not a factor.
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"It's really a good way to do team-building
exercises and have fun," said Jeff Moore of Arthur Andersen
& Co., who has taken clients as well as colleagues there.
"It's a great way to get people together in a non-work
atmosphere to get to know each other a little better."
For quarterly gatherings, the marketing and
development department at BP America Inc. has held sports events and
even some murder mysteries where the group tries to figure out who
done it.
"We'd done so many things already, and we
were running out," said Lynn Hemanis, assistant administrator
in the department. The group tried something different this summer.
"WhirlyBall turned out to be a great time,
and we definitely will be doing it again."
"You can't really find a decent
comparison," said Daniel Reinbold, district manager at Larmco
Windows in Walton Hills, who took his sales staff to WhirlyBall on
Friday. "What, bowling?"
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