Ed Hearn Listen Up!

[HRTV]

Hey Ed,

Call the pros! Your post are great and very thought provoking and even amusing at times that said when you and the powers to be are ready to take APBA and SO to the next level give these folks a call. The members of this web site are race drivers, fans and family member’s not professional promoters. All though it’s good to get driver input they don’t have the answers.

I challenge every APBA board member and president to take a stand and finally do the right thing! One call does it all; hire a professional PR firm to pull APBA out of the stone ages.

Realy Sponsorship

[Blackhawkguy]

I believe this has been tried before

I believe the APBA and the SORC has tried doing this before, in fact if memory serves me correctly that is how the APBA got into trouble, (my memory is vauge on the situation but it involved hiring a person to promote the APBA or run the unlimiteds, I am sure Ed Hern knows more and can fill in the blanks, and I may be completly wrong) anyways what kills this idea is being a membship run organisation. A race track owner, or race series owner makes descisions based on profit, what do I need to do to attract people to come to my races, charge them for it, and at the end of the day turn a profit. When was the last time you charged someone to see an Stock or Mod race. We make descisions based on what the membership wants, and sometimes what the membership wants is not a good descision. The other problem is sometimes people choose to slander people in positions that make descisions instead of helping them make a educated descision. I wonder how much money the APBA actualy has to do some type of promoting, and how much would reach the Stock, Mod type categories, remember at one time the Stock catagory was the biggest and could sway a vote on who was the president of APBA, not any more nor has it been for a long time. The last thing is ,when you advertise you are trying to sell something, if there is nothing to sell after you made the pitch, then you have wasted your time on the prospect and they are lost forever. some type of promoting is definatly needed, maybee a slush fund for clubs to access and promote races on the local level, it seems to be where the most actualy gets done

One other thing that popped into my head after posting this was for a long time a big thing in the APBA was the building fund, that probably took a big portion of extra funds. I think the big issue will be is there really any real amount of money available to realy promote boat racing.

[14-H]

The Pros

Is that what the membership wants? Blackhawkguy is right, our decisions are ususally based on what we want, not what is good for getting specators. Going to Wakefield (in the middle of nowhere) every other year is a perfect example. We love it. But nobody sees us there. But if this is what we want to do, Stock Outboard has to spend the funds, not APBA. If APBA were to spend the funds, I guarantee you if Stock Outboards were included in any type of promotional program at all (and I doubt they would be), it would most likely be only the J and AXS classes. Ed.

[Kristi Ellison]

Until boat racers are willing to race for someone other than themselves this dilema will not change. We are either going to race for us or we are going to make an effort to put on a show for spectators, which would mean finding more public and accessible sites and getting the word out to the public that we are coming. It also means having a good announcer and a race director who will run the heats off in about 4 hours....not always easy but after 4 or 5 hours we become boring to the general public. We also need to get the community involved and give back to the community i.e charity involvement. Than we get invited back and we grow and develop the sites as well as a following. None of this is easy but it most certainly can be done with some hard work and tenacity.

My 2 cents

[14-H]

Agreeing with Kristi

It'll probably also mean running 10-15 lap heats on really short courses.

[HRTV]

Great post Kristi,

Now that most of us agree how do we take these ideas off of HydroRacer.Net and put them into action, my biggest fear is if we wait on the racers as you mention in your post above things will never change. It would appear to me that the racer has been the biggest hurdle for the past 20 some odd years and its time for someone to mandate a change like it or not. I know "mandate" is a scary word that will provoke a lynch mob to form a circle around my house but come on folks how much longer do we race in circles where no one can see us or no effort is made to invite the locals etc.. an 8x10 sheet of dirty paper saying boat race this way on a telephone pole in the middle of town is shameful. Is that what the majority of you want going forward, if that is the case then so be it.

[David Weaver]

Maybe not...

It'll probably also mean running 10-15 lap heats on really short courses.

The USTS show at Inverness was very weel received this year by the large spectator turnout and by the local officials. We had some challenges running-off the heats quickly, but the sprint races seemed to create a lot of excitement. We ran 4 laps on a short course right in fromt of the spectators.

The key to the sprint race formats is too keep boats on the water and to have an annoucner explaining what is going-on.

DWW

[Kristi Ellison]

Dan and Ed

I invite you to come to a USTS race. I am not rubbing USTS in anyones face, but they fiqured it out many years ago and it is working. My father was dead set against it and they proved him wrong (not an easy task). I have fiqured it out and I will not say it has been easy.

I start by finding a good site in a city preferably. I make inital contact and bring a promo video and point them to the website. Believe it or not they become very interested. Than I involve a local group like the American Legion. I let them help with raising sponsor money and give them a cut. If they choose to charge admission I give them the proceeds. The local charity usually has good community ties and connections and can help reach the public as far as advertising. They are usually willing to put up posters and contact the media.

The first race is always hard. Promise nothing but a good show. The race committee has the hard job.....put together a 4-5 hour show MAX! and stick to it! Be creative, have a finale race and build to it. A great announcer helps too...keep the crowd involved. Do it right the first time and you get invited back and you get more support from the community next time.

Think outside the box....go to your local tracks and get ideas....they raffle off prizes. You may be able to get the Charity group to help get a raffle prize....sell the tickets in advance and at the race and split the proceeds. Contact the local media...offer them a ride in a boat. Start a year in advance, set your schedules up early so people can plan vacation and finances.

There are lots of great ideas posted here all the time....use them! I had no idea how to put a race together before I became President I am a nurse this is not at all related to what I am educated to do.....if I could fiqure this out all of you are more than capable. It is very hard and time consuming sometimes but the pay off is worth it.

I don't know if any of that was useful for you guys but it works for us.

Kristi

[HRTV]

Dan and Ed

I invite you to come to a USTS race. I am not rubbing USTS in anyones face, but they fiqured it out many years ago and it is working. My father was dead set against it and they proved him wrong (not an easy task). I have fiqured it out and I will not say it has been easy.

I start by finding a good site in a city preferably. I make inital contact and bring a promo video and point them to the website. Believe it or not they become very interested. Than I involve a local group like the American Legion. I let them help with raising sponsor money and give them a cut. If they choose to charge admission I give them the proceeds. The local charity usually has good community ties and connections and can help reach the public as far as advertising. They are usually willing to put up posters and contact the media.

The first race is always hard. Promise nothing but a good show. The race committee has the hard job.....put together a 4-5 hour show MAX! and stick to it! Be creative, have a finale race and build to it. A great announcer helps too...keep the crowd involved. Do it right the first time and you get invited back and you get more support from the community next time.

Think outside the box....go to your local tracks and get ideas....they raffle off prizes. You may be able to get the Charity group to help get a raffle prize....sell the tickets in advance and at the race and split the proceeds. Contact the local media...offer them a ride in a boat. Start a year in advance, set your schedules up early so people can plan vacation and finances.

There are lots of great ideas posted here all the time....use them! I had no idea how to put a race together before I became President I am a nurse this is not at all related to what I am educated to do.....if I could fiqure this out all of you are more than capable. It is very hard and time consuming sometimes but the pay off is worth it.

I don't know if any of that was useful for you guys but it works for us.

Kristi

Sounds like a winner to me and it obviously works for you guys. My hands are full trying to keep HR up to date but I do intend to get out in the field and be more hands on in 2007.

[Blackhawkguy]

Comanders intent

Kristi has the right idea, that is how I got the Town of Grass Lake to accept the boat races, get a charitable organization involved, use them to help promote, I do not think this is going on there at the moment but up till that point we had a hard time getting aproval for the race outside the village council, once I tacked on the boosters it was hard for the Township,and Jackson parks to say no. Ed mentioned that Stock outbord would have to pay for the advertizing, he is probably right. So now how much does Stock outboard have to spend, remember most of the advertising in the past was paid for by the manufactures, promoting their motors, OMC always bought the back of the cover for the program at Grass Lake. I think this format works real well, maybe someone can put it in writing like a how to book, so someone who is trying to get a race going can get a copy of (how to promote your boat race). There is so much talent on this web site, it is just a mater of putting it together going in one common direction, we call this comanders intent, no matter how the fight goes, we all know where we are headed. Come up with a common comanders intent, then let people work out how to achive it, I am sure each area will have a diferent solution based on their diferent cir***stances.

[treadguy]

Usts

Kristi is the best reference for ANY type of boat racing. She approaches the best people, she spends the time to get them hooked, and she shows them what a plus it will be for their town and associated clubs. I have had my disagreements with the Helsten Clan in the past but cannot argue she has the formula for making boat racing something that spectators WANT to come and see. The only other solution is to have a designated body of water that can be used for something other that racing when not in use. Chip Solmes has some great ideas for this. Making a racing venue's schedule coinside with an ecological and educational format on an association maintained body of water would be the best possible situation. State and fedral funds would, I'm sure, be available for something like this. Barring that, listen to Kristi.........She makes it happen.

[Kristi Ellison]

When you are out looking for money and venues keep in mind that lots of Cities have festivals and craft fairs. If these are close to the Lake you are looking at you may be able to "hook up" with the sponosrs. What a great draw a weekend full of festivities and racing. These festivals always have ambulance, porta potties and vendors. The city may very well be able to get you a PA system. All you need is sanction money and a "show" and you could be in business. If you give them a show they might put up some money to get your drivers there. We are cheaper to bring to town than most any motor sports and we are family and people oriented by nature and we need to promote this.

The biggest compliment I got was from the President of the American Legion last year after our first Raleigh race. He told me I did not tell him "how nice these people are". This year the ambulance and American Legion personel were taking their rookies through the pits to meet the drivers and show them around. The chief of the ambulance crew told me he had never heard of this before but he was hooked on boat racing and he hoped we would keep coming back.

We have a good product!!

Kristi

[Dr. Thunder]

Just a thought but ...

Hey Ed,
<snip>

... ready to take APBA and SO to the next level ...

What is the next level?

More races in your region?
Increased competiton in your class(s)?
Fewer classes with more participants/boats?
More spectators at your events?
More sponsors?
Lower membership/entry fees?
Increased APBA/Region membership?
Improved media coverage?
Better access to new equipment?
More professionalism?
Better locations for championship events?

[Dave M]

Great Posts

Except for X. FInally some eye opening ideas.....

Ed, You have a highly promoted race in your back yard. Unfortuantely you did not attend this past year. It is Shelbyville, IL. Basically the organizers did all that Kristi mentioned. It worked. Lots of prize money, events happening all day in the pits, in the park and all over town. Lots of people came to watch, I have my own groupies sitting in lawn chairs in the empty section beside my trailer. Always gave me the thumbs up for good luck, and we talked to them, yes, they were IN the pits without hassels.

Basically the community is involved in this race. I know when I arrived the Parks guy met me at the entrance, and basically gave me the history of the place, and told me how much he appreciated me coming all the way from Michigan.... only a 4.5 hour drive. I am like, man, I drive 6 - 9 hours sometimes and all you get is a park your crap out back in the worst pit spot you can think of, and like it.

So, at least two organizations are doing something to save the sport. USTS and NBRA.

[Kristi Ellison]

Dan

I must say that in theory I agree with your original post but in reality we have to have something to promote or the money is wasted. The drivers have to take responsibility for presenting as professionals and taking ownership. That may mean investing in some team uniforms or just some collared shirts. Than the race committe has to have a formula to pull it all together so a promoter has a product to promote. Every year at our annual meeting we lightly touch the subject of a promoter but we stop short because we KNOW that means stepping up to a level of commitment from the teams and the BOD that we are not sure we can consistently meet. Our hesitations are many and they include the fact that at this point and no point in the near future are any of us putting food on the table doing this. Also we are self governed and we are limited in the ability to make everyone conform to guidelines mandated by a promoter. The other big issue is man power in the form of worker bees.....we all fall short of that assest.

I will finish by saying that although to get a promoter sounds good some very fundamental issues must first be addressed:

What are we promoting?
How commited are we?
Do we have the manpower (workers and participants)to meet the commitment?

I think right now we need to continue to develop at the local levels and based on what I have read everyone is slowly catching on. We also need to develop a 5 year plan for future growth....i.e summer camps, ride alongs and some of the other great ideas exchanged. Once we have established a good program and developed a "good show" than we commit to stepping it up again.

Kristi