T$ Interview

[Horton]

for those of you who never go to the front page - click here

[Horton]

re-reading the interview - below snip is so true. I do not think anyone has the solution yet but talking about it is a great start.

"Big picture-wise we need more out-of-market draw. We need to be smarter- we need to quit skiing in little backcountry sites and calling it a pro-event. I appreciate the effort and the people that put them on, but the more often we show up for less than 2,000 people and ski for less than $10,000, the less chance we have of people coming and growing. What do the sponsors get out of it if no one is coming to these tournaments? I appreciate what some people are doing now—like what Dana (Reed of ProSlalomEvents) did with the Malibu Open and of course Moomba. We are silly to be taking sponsors’ dollars and spending them that way--we are better off staying home. For 30 of us to show up and ski in front of 300-500 people, well that has no value to a sponsor."  

Read the whole interview

[skibug]

Agree with a lot of the interview points except the analogy to surfing and what has gone on in that market.  One of my ski partners is a life long surf enthusiast.  We were having a discussion the other day about this same subject.  He reinforced my opinion and belief about skiing and what it really takes to get involved versus a sport like surfing.  Again it comes down to $$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!!!! and accessibility.  New, custom, hand made surf board (and we are talking equivalent to a high end ski) for around $500 - $600; and, a ride to the beach (hitching, bumming, driving own car, etc).  Costs are relatively low and the ocean is free and very accessible.  The majority of the US population lives within a couple ours of the oceans; East and West coast, and the oceans can accomodate thousands of surfers at one time.  While public lakes can offer some of the same access and accomodation; you still need a boat ($$$$$$) and at least one other person to drive.  Also, skiing on public lakes, even recreationally, is quite a challenge unless you are up at sunrise.  Even at that, on the public lake I grew up on skiing, we would get out at sunrise to be met by 30 other boats on a 650 acre puddle. That was 20 years ago; needless to say, we didn't get much calm water.

In terms of public venues for show casing the pros, he is dead on.  I have had some personal conversations with Dana about the Malibu Open in Milwaukee and he said it was the best, most incredible event he has been a part of.  If you want to promote the sport; you have to get it in front of the masses at heavy traffic urban sites (primarily in a mid to large city venue); where it is easily accessible and convenient to a large audiance.  People are not going to travel for 3, 2, or even 1 hour to witness a sport they know very little or nothing about.  If the are walking down the street of a big city and see a bustling of people; they are more apt to take a couple extra steps and see what is going on..."nothing attracts a crowd, like a crowd".  Dana also said that the weekend of the Open was the same weekend as the Air Show which helped because people we out and about for that event; which is another consideration in terms of piggy backing off the success and turn out due to coincident events.

 Just my $.02.

[kfennell]

I've often thought that downtown shreveport would be an EXCELLENT spot to have a tournament, you have the very calm river between about a half dozen casinos with excellent views plus the boardwalk. I wonder if I could serve as a promoter to get this kind of thing to go down? Is there any money in it to set it up? Maybe if I just pitched the idea of a tournament with jumping to the casinos they would be all about that.. that is if we could get the army corps of engineers on board.

[skibug]

Kfennell

I know that Dana is looking and considering what other venues maybe a fit for other tournaments.  He also has a real good idea of the money and effort it take to pull one off.  I don't know Shreveport at all; but, one of the main ideas would be to piggy back on another event scheduled for the same weekend in order to capitalize on the existing crowd.  Does Shreveport hold any large events in the downtown area?

[kfennell]

Not that I know of downtown, but there are about a million rich folk out of dallas here every weekend to visit the casinos, as well as shows at the casinos. There is a yearly air show that is fairly popular, as well as a few bowl games that are very popular but it is a bit cold for a tournament here when that is going on.

 

Could you get together with the wakeboard folks and have a wakeboard/ski weekend? I know in OKC that the wakeboard tourney was fairly popular with over 5k people coming with no advertisement and this would be a better location and presumably better advertising if you tie it in with the casinos.

[Horton]

Part 2 is up. Enjoy

Thank you Krista