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All,It's with sadness and frustration that I am officially cancelling
the Ponca City race August 13-14, 2005.
Ponca City is undergoing an unprecedented economic downturn
resulting from ConocoPhillips' decision to pull 600 jobs out of
Ponca City a little over a year ago. While I have a few enthusiastic
sponsors, their level of sponsorship/advertising isn't sufficient to
raise the purse needed, let alone the costs of the ambulance and
police protection and "plow back" to the city Park and Recreation
Department that is part of using Lake Ponca.
This comes even after I changed my business plan to include
significantly increased exposure for my sponsors in the Ponca City
News the week before the race. They're just not spending money.
All but one of my major sponsors for last year's race are "not
interested...maybe next year" this year. Even the four casinos in
the area--which usually fall all over themselves to get exposure--
are not buying in. And, in exploring some cooperative ventures with
folks like Coca-Cola and local supermarkets...they're only
interested in minimum expenditure--not the sort of thing with which
you finance a race.
I know what it cost to run last year's event, and I can see no way
of attaining that amount again for 2005, despite continued work
since the first of the year by mail, phone and in person.
So, since there's not sufficient financial support to bring a
positive, lucrative event to town...in frustration, I'm
saying "Fine."
I still have first right of refusal from the City Commission to
sponsor this kind of race at Lake Ponca through 2006, but unless
there's a miraculous turnaround in attitude and economics in Ponca
City, I'm afraid it will expire unused.
Sorry for any inconvenience in planning, but "if the horse won't
drink after you drag him to the stream...he usually dies of thirst."
Dan
O-49
