ARLINGTON — Getting a current or former athlete to travel to the suburbs for a free signing can be a bit of a difficulty, but Britt Sports Cards in Arlington is doing just that.
Some of the top players of the Everett AquaSox will be visiting the store on Aug. 3 from 10-11 a.m.
“We’ve done a big promotional package with the AquaSox this year and we have been giving away free tickets as part of a raffle” said Mike Britt, owner of Britt Sports Cards. “It’s a free event and the top players for the AquaSox will be here at the store signing autographs.”
Britt is hoping to spark a passion for sports among community members and children who can see local sports heroes in their own hometown.
“They are really limited to where they go with their signings, so it’s a special event to have them leave their surroundings and come out into the community,” said Britt. “It coincides well with the Northwest Minor League Baseball All-Star game that the AquaSox will be hosting. We have the most tickets of any business or person for that game, and we are giving them away in our raffle.”
Anyone can go into the store and drop their name into the raffle for free.
“It’s one raffle ticket each, per day. So if you have a family of five, you can put each name in once a day, and we never empty it,” said Britt.
The autograph signing is free for anyone who would like to come and bring their own merchandise to be signed — baseballs, mitts, jerseys.
“We will have baseballs and photographs, so there are options here for people to purchase things to get signed if they don’t have anything,” said Britt. “This is just a very family-friendly event. We want to bring people into our time of sports, and it’s a really cool time to be a fan because of All-Star game and that the AquaSox are doing so well this year.”
In Sedro-Woolley recently, an event was advertised for a special fundraiser with former Mariners Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner and Dan Wilson, but although fans showed up in the hundreds, the Mariners never did. According to Rebecca Hale, public relations director for the Mariners, the players and the organization were unaware of the event.
“That made me cringe when I saw that,” said Britt, who was worried that fans may assume a similar outcome from the AquaSox signing at his store. “Our intentions and what we are doing is so positive, and it’s a free event for the whole family. That story kind of worked against what we are trying to do. All of this can be verified with the AquaSox. Anybody who goes to an AquaSox game knows we have been collaborating with them. We’ve got a whole-page coupon in their program.”
Most of all, Britt wants to pass on his love for all things sports by giving local kids an event they can remember.
“It’s a really neat thing,” he said. “We want to give back to the community and Arlington and bring fun things here. We want to support Arlington and get kids involved and interested in restoring this hobby. It gets kids off the street and gets them doing something fun. Because just one thing can change their life.”
Britt Sports Cards is located at 332 N. Olympic Ave. in Arlington.
