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Another Greely Grand Prix on Memorial day weekend is a mistake. How many times do you think the City will back this event with no spectators? What is wrong with picking another weekend when people are not busy doing other things they normally do on that holiday? Those VIP tents, the carnival and the stands were about as empty as the Sahara desert. How many more clues do you need? :idn:
Blink, I have to agree with you. That weekend many people go camping or out of town.
The tents may have been empty but we have to ask the people who paid for them if they were happy. To that, the answer is an emphatic YES. The sponsors who paid for them want to be involved again next year. In fact, most of them are increasing their support and want futher involvment.
Do you need spectators to race? Do you care? Sponsors only care if they are reaching their target market and do they see potential in the event. Last year was our trial run. Could we be trusted to do a good job. We passed the test with flying colors.
We have learned from our mistakes and are working hard on improving in those areas where we know we need improvment. The obvious side, marketing and facilities are where we will be making strides. But cut us a little slack, last year this thing was done in 3-4 months. We are starting now, we have already contacted sponsors, we are already preparing the marketing side of things so that it will be bigger and better for next year.
If the sole measure of the event is on whether we had spectators or not, well then we failed. But if that was the sole measure of sucess for karting events, I don’t think I’ve been to a very many sucessful kart races in this country!
No matter what weekend we pick, something else is going on. We will be up againest something. The city wants this weekend, they want it to be sucessful. They have offered to do much, much more in terms of marketing for they have a vested interest in seeing this event sucessful.
Hi,
I have to disagree that Memorial Day is a bad weekend for racing. In fact, when I raced in California our only two spectator events were Memorial Day and July 4th. We had really big turnouts for those, from participants and spectators.
I’ll leave to others with more marketing expertise to figure out how to get more spectators, but I think Memorial Day is a great weekend for racing. You’ve got 3 days, so you get a day off after the race. Also, everybody used to have their radios going listening to the Indy 500 so everyone was fired up and enthusiastic about racing. We alway had a big barbecue at the track on Saturday evening, so it was a fun social event too.
If you think you need to attract more participants, then I suggest making it a big event by finding sponsors to kick in some prizes or offer bonus points for the race.
Charles
Spectators?!?! I was just happy the Hooters Girls were there to provide some distraction.
No one has mentioned the layout, although I am sure the organizing group will address this. Will it be a real ‘streets’ race where at least PART of the course gets the karts out of the parking lot? Or will this continue to be a temp course setup in the same area?
I enjoyed the race there this year (my first ‘big’ race) and will be back next year.
Kirk
Doug, Curt ect…. I would be interested in being a sponser for a portion of this event. But the only way I would do it is if the event was ran in the streets and not in the parking lot. To make this event like Rock Island, and I know that is your goals, It has to get out of the parking lots and go to the streets. That will help bring in the racers from all around. ” you build it they will come “. Get rid of the points to this race and make it a cash event. The big boys dont want to come to the race for points that there not involved in. But they will come for a nice cash prize. Not only the big boys but I think all classes should be rewarded in cash. I can hear it now, who is the King Of The Hills. (only my thoughts )
Cash Prizes? Well…interesting point, but i will put forward that cash alone will not equal a higher kart count. Take the former Black Rock speedway event which promised a HUGE amount of money (around 30k total, i think) yet NO ONE came…or at least not enough entries to make the event viable. Doug Welch knows more about this than I, perhaps he could comment on this?
Maybe people were put off by the high entry fees needed to generate that kind of large purse? Example: If I don’t think there is any chance of winning a large purse, then where is my incentive to pay drastically more to enter the race?
Thinking out loud.
Kirk
Putting it “in the streets” considerably raises the anty. The budget would at least double if not more. It also considerably increases the logistical problems. For example, if we did it in “downtown”, we would be in the position of having to compensate busineses for lost sales. The entire event would have to disappear overnight. For example, the Rock Island GP has to be completely torn down and cleaned up by 2:00am. They have a crew of over 100 people who do it. At Greeley this year, the crew for setup was 4 adults and 6 kids! The tear down crew was 1 adult and 6 kids.
Given our current staff and budget, putting it “in the streets” is out of the question. If we found a sponsor who was willing to pony up $100,000, we might be able to do it. Did I bring up street repair?
:sun: You always have to walk before you run. I went to a recap meeting last week and many points where brought up for improvements next year. I think like Jonnie Five we need more imput. Here are some areas covered so far. Pit viewing stands, Saturday Bar-B-Q, Tee Shirts, Local Restaurant Imput with Discounts, More Sponsors, Keep the eye candy girls, A different track lay out still at the present site with more length. Signage in the town and direcdtions to the track. So send imput and make this a great event. You know people who would love to help in the sponsorship area let them know what is happening. Build it and they will come of course they have to know it is happening
If the City of Greeley is happy just putting on a race for the 100 or so karters and their families then who cares about the spectators. I am sure the food vendor?s and the carnival promoters were not pleased with the spectator count, how could they be? And if all you have to do is change the date to another weekend and double the crowd how much marketing is that worth? This is not the Rock Island Grand Prix with the racing demographic that surrounds the area. This is a town that is made up of a higher than normal ratio of people that are not interested in racing karts. It goes without saying that many people have other plans on this weekend. My experience over the years has shown to me that major holidays always have a lower racer count and spectator count. Sponsors look to expose their product or service to the largest quantity of people for their money. I just do not think this weekend accomplishes this goal.
Brad:
Spot on.
How many people are like me who would like to do this “local event with Nationwide inspirations” but will instead do what they always do: Enjoy the holiday and the time away from the city. I for one would rather be with friends and family at Indianapolis watching real racing. Y’all knock yourselves out.
However, if you REALLY want to make this thing grow you’ll think about the vendors and the paying public and move this to a weekend like any other weekend and THAT gives the public a diversion from their everyday routine. In its present state you’ll get sponsors and vendors but the novelty will soon wear off.
:cheers:
Before I moved to Colorado, I used to help organize a bicycle tour/race/expo in Hartford that attracted about 2500 people. It ran for about 7 years. A couple of times the city wanted to have it on Memorial Day weekend instead of it’s traditional week before. There were endless arguements and debates, mostly about how no-one would show up. That city looks like a ghost town on holiday weekends. I was one of the ones that was worried.
Guess what? Attendance actually went up. Didn’t make any difference at all.
@Doug Welch wrote:
Putting it “in the streets” considerably raises the anty. The budget would at least double if not more. It also considerably increases the logistical problems. For example, if we did it in “downtown”, we would be in the position of having to compensate busineses for lost sales. The entire event would have to disappear overnight. For example, the Rock Island GP has to be completely torn down and cleaned up by 2:00am. They have a crew of over 100 people who do it. At Greeley this year, the crew for setup was 4 adults and 6 kids! The tear down crew was 1 adult and 6 kids.
Given our current staff and budget, putting it “in the streets” is out of the question. If we found a sponsor who was willing to pony up $100,000, we might be able to do it. Did I bring up street repair?
Thanks for the clarification, Doug. I had no idea that store owners would require compensation. Obviously that is a huge hurdle to clear. You’ll hear nothing more from me about a streets race. Perhaps the name of the GGP can be changed to remove the ‘street’ reference?
Kirk
edit: sorry to the thread author. I am did not mean to hijack the thread and turn this into a ‘general’ discussion….back to the Memorial Day discussion.
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