Champ attendance

[mercguy]

I am just curious on the attendance at the various Champ boat events. What are some of the attendance numbers?

[Miss BK]

The Bay City River Roar attendance is about the same as the Seattle SeaFair Unlimited hydroplane races: 20-30,000 (not including people in boats or watching from nearby businesses).

These are all people who pay $8 per person specifically to watch the boat races. They didn't come to swim at the beach or some other activity.

The 2005 ChampBoat Season will also be seen on television 20 times, in one hour shows each (20 hours of film) on the Outdoor Channel, which is accessable to to 25.6 million homes.

The other ChampBoat venues are fairly new to the sport. Even St. Louis is in a fairly new location.

Pittsburgh is a brand new venue, but has some past history of tunnel boat racing. In 1993 the crowd there was estimated to be 200,000 fans. I know they probably didn't get that many this year, but I heard the crowd was still pretty good for the first race back after being gone all these years. If they stick with it, I'm sure they'll see six-digit crowds again.

[mercguy]

The Bay City River Roar attendance is about the same as the Seattle SeaFair Unlimited hydroplane races: 20-30,000 (not including people in boats or watching from nearby businesses).

These are all people who pay $8 per person specifically to watch the boat races. They didn't come to swim at the beach or some other activity.

The 2005 ChampBoat Season will also be seen on television 20 times, in one hour shows each (20 hours of film) on the Outdoor Channel, which is accessable to to 25.6 million homes.

The other ChampBoat venues are fairly new to the sport. Even St. Louis is in a fairly new location.

Pittsburgh is a brand new venue, but has some past history of tunnel boat racing. In 1993 the crowd there was estimated to be 200,000 fans. I know they probably didn't get that many this year, but I heard the crowd was still pretty good for the first race back after being gone all these years. If they stick with it, I'm sure they'll see six-digit crowds again.

so, San Diego is BY FAR the largest "fan" attended race in the series? As to the "others" you are refering to as coming to the beach to swim, etc, that is not correct either, just an added luxury during "down times" between racing. Even "if" half the attendees of the San Diego race were not there to watch the boat races, which is not the fact, there would STILL be a larger turnout than the rest of the venues. I am sure the other locations have a great turn out and wonderful show, but you are portraying SD as a "non-boat racing" area, which is not true at all...............AGAIN, these are "my opinions" and do not represent or express anyone elses relating to SD and its boat racing events or coordinators.

I will miss watching the Champ boats this year in SD.........

PS: go ahead chew me out and tell me I do not know what I am saying, BUT I still am a boat racing fan (and racer) and will continue to support it as much as possible. Tell me to shut up............then I will..........

GO RINKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Miss BK]

It also tells me that San Diego -- if they really wanted to -- could clearly afford to pay the expenses Champ will incur just to get their organization out there. I still think it is incredibly insulting to tell them their show is not worth the price. But then, I know what the true motive is. I saw how the Unlimited Series was treated last year - San Diego and other race sites pushing for the Series to go defunct so they could have total control - and this is how that all started.

[mercguy]

It also tells me that San Diego -- if they really wanted to -- could clearly afford to pay the expenses Champ will incur just to get their organization out there.

I am SURE they want to and WOULD pay, if there was the means, but if you go back to Ross's statement, you will see part of the reason. I realize I am partially wrong in my assumption of the "no- Champ boats this year", but not wrong in the fact that they ARE wanted here!!!

again I ask........what do the team's sponsors pay for? Do they not cover travel expenses, etc? I have no clue???? I "always thought" that going to a race and winning a "prize" was an added perk, not something that was mandatory??????

[Miss BK]

The first misconception is that these teams are making any money.

Most of the sponsored Champ teams are still paying a bundle in travel expenses out of their own pocket. Maybe one or two don't have to - maybe. For most of the teams, San Diego is a 3000 mile trek, with 12-13 hotel room nights and a number of very expensive airline tickets. Then there's the meals...

A $50,000 sponsorship package pays for 2 motors, some spare pistons and rods, racing fuel for 10 races and a few props. It won't even come close to covering your travel expenses. That's why these guys all have to keep their full time jobs.

On top of that, a majority of the teams are self-sponsored. The names on the trucks and boats are often family businesses. Carlos Kuri's uncle owns Telmex, Terry Rinker's uncle own(ed) Rinker Boats, Rusty Lamb pays all the expenses of his own Lamb Racing team, Wyatt Nelson owns Wyatt Nelson Architect, the list goes on and on.

Some race teams are just hanging by a thread -- if the prizes and money don't increase soon, we are going to lose a LOT of teams and that will really hurt our sport. That's why so much work has gone into coming up with a different motor option.

So maybe you can see why asking these teams to give up even more is just incomprehensible.

The owners of ChampBoat have also paid out of their own pocket too many times "for the good of the sport". Now San Diego (which boasts 100,000 fans and has no problem PAYING other series expenses??) wants Formula One...err...I mean ChampBoat to come to their party with their show but "pay their own way".

They will be doing themselves a much bigger favor to hold out for venues that agree with their asking price at events where they are the MAIN stars, and are guaranteed to get 100% of the media attention.

To continue to bury yourself in costs by giving away what can easily be sold, in John's own words, it's a "stupid" plan.

[Ron Hill]

BK,

What you've really said it that most teams are sponored by Family/Friends....This makes them SPORTSMEN. Seebold and Rinker have sponsors that aren't family, but they are the only two, that I'm aware...

3,000 miles is a long ways....1,100 miles was too far for us to go to Colorado, too. (That's why we didn't go)...

Seems to me, John Daley calls the tunnels Formula One because that is STILL the name most promoted in the past at San Diego...

I'm going to call John Daley tomorrow and just BS with him....

[Miss BK]

In all my years of racing in the "Sportsmen" category, I never was given $50,000 from my family to go play with my boat. Nor did anyone I raced with. Sportsmen are happiest on a low budget program.

But if I raced in a REAL SERIES with real TV, real saleable entertainment, real promise for the future.....then maybe my family would be more apt to invest that kind of cash. But then I wouldn't be in the "sportsman" category anymore.

Sportsmen don't expect to eventually have someone pay all their expenses. That's not their goal. Their goal is to have fun and go home.

But the ChampBoat teams ARE expecting a scenario that includes a payoff - but they know it takes time to constantly improve their show to get to that point. And that's exactly what NASCAR did... and that is what ChampBoats are doing.

[Cameraboy]

The Bay City River Roar attendance is about the same as the Seattle SeaFair Unlimited hydroplane races: 20-30,000 (not including people in boats or watching from nearby businesses).

I assume "20-30,000" for Seattle Seafair is a typo. They are notoriuos for their attendence overestimates, but the attendence for the weekend is definitely 200,000 plus. The Champ boats haven't run there for Seafair, but they have run in Tri-Cities in front of 60-70,000.

[Miss BK]

Yes, it looks like there was a typo on the Seafair info...


Here are the demographics of Seafair, from www.seafair.com :

Seafair air show & hydroplane races: 450,000+ spectators
Seafair Torchlight Parade: Attendance 300,000+ spectators
Seafair 8k run: Attendance 300,000+ spectators
Seafair Marathon: 10,000 spectators
Seafair Milk Carton Derby: 30,000 spectators

http://www.seafair.com/documents%5CSEAFAIR%202005.pdf