Some people are going to be really busy over in the professional offices at 1060 W. Addison for the next few weeks.
As many know, the Chicago Cubs decided to have what can be described as an open casting call for their next Public Address Announcer. So, the Cubs have told basically everyone with a computer:
“Hey, you can be the next voice of the Wrigley Field!”
Hey, it doesn’t get any fairer than that. But can you imagine how many audition tapes have been made this week?
By: Brian McCabe
Can you fathom how many two-minute videos have been posted on YouTube?
Can you envision the comedy acts and attention-grabbing skits that have been performed before the applicants read the three lines the Cubs are requiring every candidate to perform during the video?
Just take a minute and let that soak in. The Cubs are only one of the most popular franchises in all of American professional sports. Chicago is only the third-largest city in the country. Wrigley Field is only considered a Chicago landmark and sports monument.
So, yeah, I doubt too many people would be interested in this job especially during a horrid recession.
This job REQUIRES you to attend every single Chicago Cubs home game and special Cubs media events.
Ouch. That is a rough requirement. Working at Wrigley Field and you HAVE to watch the game and talk about it. I cannot think of anyone who would want to that. I mean the Cubs are only able to get 40,000 plus people TO PAY to watch the game every day.
So really, how many people would want to actually GET paid to watch the game and talk about it? 500,000? 1,000,000? More?
However, the Cubs were smart to require a video be posted on YouTube as part of the application. This greatly reduced the applicant pool. Having a camera, being able to operate a camera, knowing how to export a movie and then post it on YouTube turned off or eliminated many people.
So, let’s say 10, 000 people applied for this position. If you think that is too high, we will say 5,000 people applied. Personally, I think that is low, given everything I mentioned above, but we will say 5,000 people.
With every video being approximately two minutes, that means there is about 10,000 minutes of application video for the hiring team to view.
At twelve hours a day, it would take 17.5 days to watch every video. That is over three full work weeks spent watching people dance around and talk.
I think the Cubs might need to hire some people just to decide whom to hire for the PA Announcer job.
I hope at some point the Cubs publish the final number of video applications they received. This could set some type of Guinness World Record for most applications for one job listing.
And again, the Cubs would be excelling and winning again …
Except it will still not be on the field. And that is all the really matters.
“Now, coming to the plate …”