by Jim Plautz
Pete continued to grow and improve. As a fifteen year old he was ranked #12 in the Florida 16’s even though it was his first year in this age bracket. Just over six feet tall, his serve was becoming a weapon. He was a long way removed from that boy who wanted to hang out at the base line. Borg was still his hero, but Pete’s all-court game was beginning to look more and more like his namesake, Pete Sampras.
Driving to tournaments every other weekend was getting to be a drag particularly to the out-of-town tournaments in Orlando, Boca Raton and other “designated tournaments” that offered stiff competition and an opportunity to improve his State ranking. We looked forward to a weekend off until Pete decided at the last minute to enter the New Port Richey tournament where he had started two years ago. He wanted to play doubles with his friend, Ron, whom he had met at the tourney two years ago. “Ron said I could stay at his house and his parents will drive. You won’t need to drive me and can stay home and relax.”
Pete was seeded #1 and easily reached the semis. Saturday night we got a call. “Are you coming to the tournament today?” Pete asked. We hadn’t gone the first day because these small tournaments no longer provided much competition.
“Is there someone there that is going to give you a problem?”
“Yeah, the finals could be tough. There is a Canadian kid from Saddlebrook that looks pretty good. He doesn’t have a Florida ranking, but I heard he is ranked #2 in Canada. The semi final match should also be interesting,” Pete said with a chuckle. “I guarantee you will enjoy the match.”
We got to the semi-final match just as the boys were completing their warm-ups, and immediately saw why Pete had invited us. His semi-final match was against the boy that had beaten him badly two years ago and then complained that he hadn’t played well. Pete still remembered the disrespect the boy had shown him.
Forty minutes later it was over: 6-0, 6-2. Pete shook the boys hand and left the court quickly.
“Well, was revenge as sweet as you thought it would be?” I asked.
“No, it was really disappointing. He’s not really a bad guy, just a little cocky when he wins. I actually felt sorry for him, that’s why I gave him those two games.”
“It’s a good lesson, Pete” Mary said. “Revenge is a negative emotion and in the long run, seldom brings you the satisfaction you are looking for.”
“Anyway” I said, “you are right about the Saddlebrook kid”. I was watching him play on the next court and could tell he had a game that could give Petie problems. “He has a darn nice game. You better be ready.”
Carl Lindner called back and said a meeting was scheduled with the Tampa Sports Authority for Friday morning. He introduced Tim Samuels who had overseen the preparation of the bid. Thirty minutes later Tim emailed us the TSA bid specifications and the Hunt proposal, including cost estimates and supporting CAD drawings. The project was off to a good start.
I called Marco and gave him the news. “Can you get away? We need you in Tampa ASAP.” I summarized the gist of the phone calls from Carl Linder.
Marco was absolutely thrilled. This was exactly what he had been hoping for when he joined our small company. The Mexico City job was going well and most of his responsibilities could be delegated. This was an opportunity to show what he could do.
“I’ll be there tomorrow morning, Jim. This sounds awesome. The Hunt people know what they are doing so we should be in good shape with the bid price, but I want to look at everything again. Do we have the software to read the CAD drawings? Will our printer handle it?”
“Tell you what, Marco, here’s Ken. Tell him what you need and we will have it ready for you when you get here.”
Marco was in the office early the next morning and spent the next five hours reviewing the CAD documents and the bid specifications. Ken helped where he could but basically stayed out of his way. We got together after lunch.
“Well, Marco, what do you think? Can you do it?”
“You’re damn right we can, and we can do it better and cheaper than what they planned. I think we can double or maybe even triple the $8M profit they projected.”
“Okay, tell me how,” I asked with some skepticism. I preferred a more conservative approach of promising less and producing more. Marco was sticking his neck out.
“I’ll need more time to work on this but there are savings in at least three areas. Being local will save us about a $1M in travel costs, but the main savings come from their design and choice of sub contractors. The numbers they have in for the electrical and mechanical subs are way out of line. I can get local people to do the job for half their estimates if you let me hire someone I worked with at Bouygues. I spoke with him earlier and he can be here next week.”
“Do it,” I agreed. “This is your baby. What’s the problem with the design, Marco? That concerns me. Will the TSA (Tampa Sports Authority) go for it?”
“They will, because my design is better. The Hunt proposal was done in hurry and uses poured concrete for all the pilings and footings in the stadium and garage. We can save $5 - $7M by using reinforced steel. It looks better, it’s stronger and it’s cheaper. Hunt would have ended up doing the same thing.”
“Hunt mentioned reimbursement for their bid costs. What do you think is a fair price?”
“Nothing, if you ask me, unless you hire the guy that did them. They are just rough sketches used to come up with a cost estimate. The next step will be to develop the actual drawings. The rough drawings in the proposal don’t really help you much unless you know what the guy was thinking and have access to the Computer Assisted Design system they used.”
“They sent us an internal cost schedule showing they spent $450,000 on the bid. Most of this was time charges priced at their normal billing rates. Their actual out-of-pocket costs were less than $20,000. I wouldn’t pay them more than that.”
I sat back and considered our options before deciding on a course of action. “Tell you what. Let’s reimburse them the entire $450,000 in return for access to the people that prepared the proposal. Who knows, they might be able to help us, and I don’t want to appear cheap when we stand to make $10M - $20M. Okay?”
“You’re the boss,” Marco said. “By the way, I will need to hire a few more people to oversee the sub-contractors. I can borrow some people from the Mexico City team, but not enough to do both projects.”
“Go ahead, Marco. Put your staffing and manpower requirements together and let’s talk again tomorrow.”
Ken had been an interested listener. “If I may suggest, let’s hire people with the idea that we will need them for future projects. I have the feeling that this is only the beginning.”
Marco and I nodded in agreement.
Pete’s match against the Saddlebrook boy was worth the trip. Down a set and a break, Pete fought back to win in three exciting sets; 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3. The boys were exhausted, but only had 30 minutes to rest before they met again in the doubles finals where Pete and Ron won in straight sets.
Mary and I were watching the doubles match when a young man, about 30, approached us. “May I join you?”
I motioned him to sit down. “My name is Sammy Baston, head tennis pro at Saddlebrook. I’m really impressed with Pete’s game. Whoever is teaching him has done a great job.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Mary has been doing some of the coaching and he takes lessons and drills with our club pro, Gregg.”
“Thanks for the compliment” Mary added. “Your boy is a nice player too. It could have gone either way.”
“You’re right, but your son was able to reach back for something extra when the match was on the line. That was the difference, and that’s what we look for in a kid. Not too many players can do it. It’s like Sampras on break points. He always seemed to come up with the big serve. Your boy seems to have that ability.”
Sammy certainly had our attention. The best way to a parent’s heart is to compliment their kids, but he seemed sincere in what he was saying. “Thanks, we appreciate the complim
ents. Parents always enjoy hearing something nice about their children.”
“Have you thought of bringing him out to Saddlebrook to look around? The competition for Pete would do wonders for his game. There are ten or twenty kids out there that could give Pete a real good game, and a few that frankly are quite a bit better. It’s really the next step if you want him to get to the next level.”
“Let us think about it. Right now we are happy with the coaching he is getting from Mary and Gregg.”
“I understand, Mr. Simpson, but if you want to try us out just give us a call. This is my direct number,” he said as he handed me a business card. “Believe me, Pete would benefit from training at Saddlebrook.”
Mary and I watched as he walked away. “It’s something to think about,” I suggested.
“I know, it’s tempting, but I’m not sure if Petie is ready to make that type of committment. Five hours of tennis every day isn’t for everyone.”