We have our street sign approved, it's currently being crafted and, in turn, we're finally free to offer a grand opening date: Friday, April 29!
Also, this disclaimer: Your attendance is ... mandatory!
Backtracking a bit: We'd been waiting on approval of our street sign from the City of Pittsburgh's Planning Commission and the Historic Review Board, and we received both Wednesday while I was up in Buffalo covering hockey. With that, the Strip District company that's fabricating our sign began that process -- which generally takes about a month -- in earnest.
Why so long?
Every letter's hand-crafted individually. From there, the lighting/electrical components are infused. And from there, the sign's installed while our small portion of the Fifth Avenue sidewalk's shut down. (I'm picturing literally sitting there all day shooting pics/video of this thing going up while pedestrians are forced to walk around our little construction zone!)
Now, all that might get done before April 29, but we wanted to choose a date that was later in the month to be safe, as well as one on which both the Penguins and Pirates had home games -- they do, vs. Blue Jackets at PPG Paints Arena and vs. Padres at PNC Park -- to try to make it convenient for as many of you as possible to stop and see us beforehand. We'll be open that day beginning at 11 a.m., and all of us who are available -- myself included -- will be there to welcome you.
Hence ... mandatory!
Circle it on the calendar!
Make that plan now, whether it's just to see us or to make it a doubleheader and catch some hockey or baseball!
I'll be in comments, as ever, if there are any questions on the opening ... but I won't be accepting any rejections!
CONSTRUCTION UPDATE
Quick video I whipped up for you very late last night on one of our countless trips to 224 Fifth:
As is evident, we don't have much left that doesn't involve the stocking of actual stuff. But that'll occur in the next couple of weeks, as well as the implementation of our video/audio presentations, the podcasting studio in the back and, in the most significant remaining step, the hand-done, one-by-one placement on the wall of the Building Bricks our readers bought.
We're getting there.
MAJOR SPONSORSHIP NEWS
We'll be ecstatic to announce major sponsorship news in the next Site Stuff. Part of a very, very uplifting month around here.
RECORD LISTENERS
We just completed our biggest five-day weekday span of unique listeners -- 17,396! -- since launching DKPS Podcasts, and it doesn't come with a close second.
This is the main number we track. The downloads are the thing for most, but a unique listener is exactly what it sounds like: It's tracking the number of different people who listened. So even if someone listened to 20 episodes, they still count as one. It's a great way to track our general growth.
Thanks so, so much to everyone who's with us on this. It's transformed the company. Really has.
WE GO EVERYWHERE
• I'm flying to Bradenton, Fla., tomorrow night for a week of covering the Pirates' spring training. Alex Stumpf will then return to finish it out. He and I will both fly to St. Louis for the franchise's 136th season opener April 7.
• Dale Lolley's flying to Palm Beach, Fla., tomorrow for the NFL owners' meetings.
• Dave Molinari's flying to St. Paul and Denver later this week for the Penguins' two-game trip.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page views for the past week were 587,928. Our most-read original piece was Taylor Haase's coverage of the Penguins acquiring Rickard Rakell, at 13,893. Broken down by team, articles on the Penguins brought 26.9% of our traffic, the Steelers 17.4%, the Pirates 12.3%, Pitt 1.7%, Penn State 1.2%.
• Our podcast downloads for the past week were 275,746.
• Our YouTube video views for the past week were 110,140.
• Our company social media accounts are at 43,957 followers on Twitter, 37,643 on Facebook, 14,554 on Instagram, 12,226 on YouTube.
• Our merchandise is all available at the online DKPS Shop.
• We make mistakes. If you see one, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
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