Date: Thu, 14 Jul 94 14:30:54 PDT
From: "Daren Stone, D2 Mfg. Engr. C5/6, 5-9521" <DSTONE@SC9.intel.com>
Subject: Car show finances, re: Palo Alto All British
On Thu, 14 Jul 94 14:30:54 PDT, DSTONE@SC9.intel.com writes:
> RGS03%ALBNYDH2.bitnet@UACSC2.ALBANY.EDU writes:
> I could also add that in thirty years of attending car shows, I've
> never heard of one where the entrant paid nothing and the spectators
> picked up the entire tab. This is true in other areas as well. For
>>Roland Dudley adds his .02 worth:
>>That's the way the Palo Alto meet is.
>>>And then I (daren stone) do too ....
>>>Assuming you mean the All British Day at Stanford
Soccer green, and that you're saying it is the case
that the entrants pay nothing and the spectators pick
up the tab, I must beg to differ.
Although I have never attended the Palo Alto
British Meet as a spectator (;-), I have had friends
show up for free and I most certainly get charged as an
entrant. Ten dollars last year, and no multi-car
discount :-(.
OK, as one of the cofounders of the All British Car Meets in Palo Alto and
Los Angeles, I feel like I should respond. These meets are now run solely by
Rick Feibusch, now living in Venice, CA, so I speak only for myself here.
(But I think he may agree with some/much of this . . . . )
It started out in the late 70s as an offshoot of the Morris Minor Registry,
which at that time had 400 members in California and a healthy schedule of
meets in the Bay Area. Why not expand these fun meets to all British cars,
since we all spent time going to various marque meets?
The Portland Meet had happened the year before (technically a year older) but
I honestly don't think we'd heard of it, so we figured we invented the idea:
The First Annual All British Car Meet. And it was great: 400 LBCs of all
sorts, and it just grew from there. We had everything from Minors (lots) and
Minis (lots) to Rolls Royces and Bentleys (a handful) and Lotii (lots and
lots and lots and they always arrived en suite, crabbing anglewise across the
curb to avoid scraping) to Triumphs (of all kinds including Vitesses and once
in a while a 2000 or Mayflower) and Healeys (Big, Sprite and otherwise) and
Jensens and on and on and on.
Way too many stories to go into; tempting to write a history. But, to the
economics of it all. We didn't charge for the first couple of years (if
memory serves) 'cause back then Palo Alto let us use the space if we promised
to clean it up. That was then; this is now.
Please note the following: Any meet organizer now must pay a LARGE fee to use
"public" facilities; post a much larger insurance bond plus deposit to be
refunded (or not) at the random whim of whichever bureaucrat got out of the
wrong side of the bed that morning; promote the thing with flyers, posters,
and literally HUNDREDS of phone calls to every major and minor LBC club
within a 1,000-mile radius; print up a program (and then attempt to collect
the moneys for ads sold in it, if there was time); design, order and pay for
the giveaway (mugs are always popular, as are key fobs; my fave was the Union
Jack license plates and then plate frames the next year, they still show up
even on cars shot for magazines!); pay for prizes for whichever awards are to
be given away (case of Castrol always appropriate); recruit/hire
volunteers/teens to direct traffic, give away stuff, count ballots; CLEAN THE
FIELD AFTERWARDS ("garbage polo" with a pointed stick out the cutdown door of
a T-series MG or a TR2/3 is always popular w/5-year-olds, thank goodness);
and then take the winners/guests/honorees/volunteers/friends out to a large
(and often alcohol-laced) dinner afterwards.
And this is just a partial list . . . .
The message is not to feel sorry for us poor meet organizer types; it's just
to appreciate that, like all other good things including parts for the LBCs,
IT COSTS A BUNCH OF MONEY TO HAVE A MEET. And listen, the $20 entry fee for
your car is (by my calculation) not quite 3 movie tickets. Or maybe pizza &
sodas for the family. For that money, you get 400 to 800 British cars and
their owners for the entire day, a chance to vote for your fave, a shot at a
prize and so forth.
This is the end of my lecture; I guess I'm still pissed off that people who
will easily spend $200 for some part for their LBC will park across the
street (in the Stanford Shopping Center lot) and walk into the meet because,
they tell us, "$20 is too much money." Whatever happened to supporting the
sport, folks?
Comments welcomed.
John Voelcker, now of NYC but formerly of Palo Alto and San Francisco, CA
'58 Riley One-Point-Five
'59 Riley One-Point-Five parts car
'61 Morris Minor 1000 Traveller ("Woody Wagon")
'84 Subaru DL 4WD wagon (rusty but faithful, in upstate NY, FOR SALE!)
'89 Subaru GL 4WD wagon
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