is nats always at the same place?

[Sy769]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

Well I have been busy and am coming in late on this thread. Took a while to wade through it all.

This is a family event. However late at night people do hang out in the parking lot and drink. There isn't really anything I can do about that, even as a committee member. Try and tell adults who have spent considerable time and money to attend they can't drink......

Not gonna happen.

Tooky I am sorry you and your girlfriend had to hear the drunk Texan. His behavior exceeded the norm. I can say that because I every year I am out late. Doing so I inadvertently became a member of the Nats elevator crew, and witnessed Jeremy Duncans AWD donuts. What people do late at night outside of the official schedule is somewhat out of our control. If someone is unruly during the event hours we will deal with it appropriately.

Regarding moving the event to BG. I made the contact to the owner and discussed moving the event there. I have supported researching it as a possible location. It does have AutoCross track as well as camping etc.

However let me ask each of you that WILL attend a BG nationals.

How do you like only having the track from 8am-4pm? The cost is over 3K including ambulance.
Ask yourself how many attendees will get up in the morning for the caravan to the track?
How many will show up in time to see and participate in the track event.
How many of you will bitch and moan because we don't have the track from 2-10pm like we always have? BE honest... That is the dilemma we are faced with on the committee
so don't think for one second the we don't have the events best interest in mind. And unless we work out some way to get the autoX track on Friday we would have to autocross during that same 8am-4pm slot.

So you guys want the track for the evening.....??? I was quoted by the OWNER of the track $7500 for a night track rental. If anyone is willing to sponsor that then by all means contact me ASAP and I'll get the wheels in motion.

The committee members share everyones desire to have a great event. However we need ideas that can be implemented and enjoyed by the majority of attendees not by a few. They also have to be realistic in financial terms. There are many cool things we could do but everyone would complain about the cost of registration. If we were a corvette club with 250 attending members that would open up many options. We are not. We are a limited production truck with a limited number of people that will attend regardless of what we do.

I would like to see the various large local groups encourage their members to attend and make a large power tour out of it. As an example, think if the majority of the members of F.A.S.T got together and organized a SyTy Power tour to the Nats. Including the members they would pick up on the way it would be a huge showing. Why don't they? I dunno.

I hope all of you understand that it is not easy to point to a spot on the map and produce a quality event at that location. It takes $$ and until one of the major SyTy vendors steps up to the plate to sponsor, we are left with just registration funds.

Feel free to email if you don't want to post in public syclone10@msn.com

 

[skata]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

what would be going on at the track after 4pm? if it was a spectator night, that would be cool.
the autocross track sounds like a good idea also.

 

[SYO237]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

As an example, think if the majority of the members of F.A.S.T got together and organized a SyTy Power tour to the Nats. Including the members they would pick up on the way it would be a huge showing. Why don't they? I dunno.

Not wanting to get into the argument, but to put out some information to the committee for planning.


In the past 2 years, a majority of the FAST hardcores have either bought houses, buidling houses, had a baby, getting ready to have a baby, switched jobs, relocated and havent settled yet, broken trucks, conflicting dates to other events, and of course funding issues.

Id like to see FAST make a grand appearance for 2006 as we have done in the past for the others nats.... Ive noticed we always get talked about either way... we show up and go crazy and make a lasting impression, or we dont show and people say they really miss that none of us showed up. I like the lasting impression more than the missed out talk.


Just putting it out there for the 06 committee, if bowling green was the next location, Id expect to see more of FAST start attending again due to its closer for us for one and just the overall area is familiar to quite a few people in our group. I'll be honest and say theres a good handfull in FAST who are just tired of the long haul to see trucks and hang out. A few in the group would say that they just could do that here on just one of our usual events during the year and not have to drive 1000 miles. Theres not doubt that we are a huge group, but in the 150+ trucks known in FL, theres only about 20 of use who are considered the hardcores and will travel to goto events. The rest mostly want to stay local, which is why we do events all over FL. We've had some new members come on recently, so hopefully our numbers go up again.


With what Ive seen and experienced with Nationals, unless decisions are made early for the important stuff like the date, location, and schedule of events, the long haulers are harder to convince to come due to just plain uncertainty. I know those 3 pieces of infomation have been a deciding factor for alot of people over the years. This is coming both from east and west.


Whatever the final decision is for date and location, with 2 years missed on my end due to schedule and other non truck related events, I do plan on making 06 with at least one of my trucks. Im just patiently waiting for the 06 dates to be announced so I can notify work im taking off those dates a year in advance.

 

[TYRODD]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

Im just patiently waiting for the 06 dates to be announced so I can notify work im taking off those dates a year in advance.

Thats what I'm talking about!...now where do I register! :thumbsup:

 

[JSM]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

What time racing starts has no impact on me. I will plan for it.

Privately I was told by someone, if racing was at 8am they wouldn't race. I can only assume due to fact they want to drink heavily the night before.

To me, the priorities are a bit mixed up in this case.

I go for the trucks, which I think all should. The event should be setup around the trucks, and after hours activities given #2 priority.

I will help sponsor some of the costs for track rental should it move to Bowling green. I think i can get a few others to chip in also to offset the $3k bill.

I think paying an extra $4k for evening -vs- morning is dumb idea though.

To me BG is more central to those people that have attended year after year.

I know where track is coming from, that sat. night is an open night racing. To shut it down for us to race only, obviously they would need to charge what they normally take in for that event.

I personally think having our event in morning, then the opp. to race some locals at night could be a very good thing. I see a syty -vs- locals bragging rights.

I will be there, no matter where it is held, and go along with the committee's decisions with a smile, however they are done.

 

[GM TURBO]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

I've been following this post for some time and have always managed to think of something to write before leaving the house.

I would much rather race in the morning for a few reasons.
We can hang at the track when we're done and see locals.
No offense to anyone - but it does get a bit boring watching the same trucks over and over again.
Eat dinner at a reasonable hour.
More time to drink after racing if you don't see the need to stay up till 4 AM.
Decent amount of sleep before driving 8-20 hours to get home.
Cooler temps in the morning (although they'll get hot towards the finals) - this is about the only negative I see.

Most of the people who are racing aren't the ones staying up getting hammered till the wee hours of the morning.

Tooky,
Sorry I missed your grand entrance - and I'm sorry you and your girlfriend had to see what you did. I know there were a few things I just rolled my eyes at. I would probably be just as embarrassed as you were had this been my significant other's first experience with the 'great' SyTy group.

Back to your comment about racing...I can only speak for myself. I was in disbelief with the times I ran. I was quite upset. Racing isn't a huge part of my life. This was my first time down the track in 6 years. I'm finally in a position where I can break my truck and it isn't going to cause major problems. I could go on and on about the multiple issues I had - but it isn't worth it. My truck ran like poo. Sorry I couldn't make your Nationals experience more enjoyable. I'll do better next year.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Location doesn't matter to me. I love KC because of the hotel location and I'm finally becoming familiar with the town. BG is about 60 miles closer for me.

Build it - I will come.

 

[Double-A]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

My only question is this. If the largest attendance was in 2000 over Labor Day weekend, why did the dates change? I think I remember people saying that they didn't show up in 2000 because they already had other commitments for the holiday weekend, but the fact that more people showed up then anyway would negate that. So why isn't Nats over Labor Day weekend anymore?
Just a question. I'm not trying to start anything here.

It's my understanding that the dates changed for the following reasons:

1) It was 105 in the shade every day that weekend. The '01 Nats moved later (9/11 weekend) and it was still hot as balls, so starting - I believe - in '02 the Nats moved to June in search of cooler temps, not only for racing but for participant comfort.

2) Most schools start before Labor Day now. Not sure about the rest of the country, but around here we used to start after Labor Day until folks started suing schools for winter bus accidents. (Now they cancel school if there's snow in the forecast.) Thus the school year was started early to allow time for snow cancellations. Folks with kids can't make that weekend. College kids can't either. That eliminated a ton of our potential attendees.

3) The average resale value of the trucks has dropped considerably in the last 5 years. This allows folks who are typically less passionate about our trucks to still own one. Less passionate = less attendees. I don't say this to point fingers or anything, just stating what I've witnessed as I've been to every Nats and in the community since 1996. Yes I know there are a number of passionate newbies.

4) Given the 20-35 year approximate typical owner's age of the trucks, a number of folks have started families and bought houses since 2000. This equates to less SyTy time. (Rightfully so.)

5) The economy in general has taken a dump since 2000. Even if it keeps 20 folks from coming, those 20 folks are missed.

We, as a committee, are passionate about trying to do EVERYTHING we can think of to get more folks to attend and make sure EVERYONE has a good time. We get tons of suggestions, some of which we do, some of which aren't feasible for whatever reason (usually financial), but we try our best to make this an event for you guys, not us. We're stuck with a dilemma in that folks want more to do, but many aren't willing to pay the extra $ to have it done. If we raise the registration price, we turn people away. If we do the same thing every year, we turn people away. A number of folks said they'd show this year if there was a cash pot for racing - we did it, and few of them showed. But it was a good suggestion and we enjoyed adding it. We're not opposed to change, we just make sure we thoroghly examine any change before implementing it. Change for the sake of change is rarely good.

Please keep in mind that we are completely non-profit - any money leftover from this year (not much) gets put toward next year's Nats, and so on. While we thoroughly appreciate the sponsors we have, we don't have so many that we can just through money around at just anything. Much of the $ we need to make the event happen comes from the participants. We'd love for folks to step up and sponsor this or that and enable us to drop the registration price or use it to do something special (GM for instance), but with current attendance our hands are tied. However, the quality of the event is the most important thing to all of us. We don't want to change things so that 500 people show up but it's a lousy event.

Tooky - I personally apologize to you and your lady for what you came in through. I hope you (and anyone else for that matter) don't let some of the late night antics keep you from attending in the future. And if my Ty wouldn't have burned 3 days before Nats it would've been there, hopefully running 11's. It'll be there next year.

<soapbox mode off>

-AA

 

[Beavis]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

just reading these 8 pages gives me a headache.

Does anyone have Cliff' Notes for this thread?
I can't read all this crying and moaning.....I tried, but halfway through all I could see was "waa,waa waa waa waa,waa waa waa waa."

:stupid: X2

 

[SYO237]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

Heres the most important cliff note:



If you care about the nationals, want to see it bigger and better, quite bitching and do something about it. There's a committee, join it. If you feel that you can help out with coordination and you can add something positive to the mix, contact any of the current 06 committee crew and ask to be a part of it and get assigned a task to handle instead of just hiding behind a keyboard and typing away your opinions on how it should be done.



:git: :eh:

 

[blk00z28]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

I would like to see the various large local groups encourage their members to attend and make a large power tour out of it. As an example, think if the majority of the members of F.A.S.T got together and organized a SyTy Power tour to the Nats. Including the members they would pick up on the way it would be a huge showing. Why don't they? I dunno.

I think that would take a year just to get intouch with all the old FAST people that have lost contact.

 

[GM TURBO]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

Heres the most important cliff note:



If you care about the nationals, want to see it bigger and better, quite bitching and do something about it. There's a committee, join it. If you feel that you can help out with coordination and you can add something positive to the mix, contact any of the current 06 committee crew and ask to be a part of it and get assigned a task to handle instead of just hiding behind a keyboard and typing away your opinions on how it should be done.



:git: :eh:

Been down that road.
Wasn't taken seriously.
Talked to others who've been involved.
Don't want to do it anymore.

 

[Tooky]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

Syclone#1992, you are right I haven't been on the board much in the last year and I am glad to hear that the newbie harassment is toned way down. I will take your word for that.

Morgan, ZMann, Sy769, GMTURBO, Double-A, I appreciate your comments. They mean a lot to me (and Heidi).

 

[QUICK STORM]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

this was very active a week or two ago. what happened?

i really want to make it nats next year. may have to cancel my trip to Europe.

 

[SYO237]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

Its what happens every year.

Everyone gets all passionate about the nats for about a week, then it dies.

 

[TurboManiacal]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

this was very active a week or two ago. what happened?

i really want to make it nats next year. may have to cancel my trip to Europe.

Don't come over here. It's over rated.

 

[BigBadSmoosh]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

Its what happens every year.

Everyone gets all passionate about the nats for about a week, then it dies.

or, others get fed up with people bickering.

 

[GM TURBO]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

I'm still going to the Nats.

 

[TYRODD]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

I'm still going to the Nats.

Me too....I just wish it was this weekend :tup:

 

[heavy breather]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

Let me start off by saying thank you to all who work so hard to make this thing happen every year, and also that I truly appreciate your efforts. For quite some time I have wondered why not BG, and thats not because its closer either.....I would show if it were in Vegas , Tampa, or NYC if I wanted to go.

The reason so many look at BG as a good location is the same reason so many other groups hold meets there. The track facility is a good one, its close to town, hotels, restaurants, etc, etc. and there is a fair variety of activities nearby, thats why it works well for these larger crowds. That is also why it looks like a good fit for the SYTY nats. I have been attending the Buick meets there (with 1 exception) for over 10 years...car or no car I know I am going to the Buick Nats. And without fail its a good event.

Just my opinion here, but the reason I personally like BG is that they really cater to the crowds that come in for these events.....not just the track, but everyone is really cool about the whole deal restaurants, hotels, locals and the like. Even with the smallish crowds we have for this event, I think we could garner a little respect at BG. I believe we could probably reserve one of the smaller hotels completely. And, the experience that current committe members/organizers have would go a long way toward making a BG nats a great event. I know that this is a decision largely based on financial viability, and like I said before I will show in KC if thats what works best as a whole, but I think it warrants some serious looking into. There is certainly a "partial" attitude from those ;local to the track, but having some of them look into the viability of such a change in location would be helpful in making the decision, as well as adding some new ideas for the 06 event wherever it may be.

The Nats cannot happen without the help of those that have time after time worked to make it go smoothly in the past....anyone who thinks otherwise is just kidding themselves. This is an event for the benefit of the group as a whole, and making it personal between or against comittee/board members is not going to solve anything.

Plain and simple, if those who want the nats in BG are serioius, they will need to do the legwork to make it happen, and draw from the experience of those who have made it happen in KC. Otherwise, just call the Double Tree and reserve your room now.

 

[Jimmy]

Re: is nats always at the same place?

Let me start off by saying thank you to all who work so hard to make this thing happen every year, and also that I truly appreciate your efforts. For quite some time I have wondered why not BG, and thats not because its closer either.....I would show if it were in Vegas , Tampa, or NYC if I wanted to go.

The reason so many look at BG as a good location is the same reason so many other groups hold meets there. The track facility is a good one, its close to town, hotels, restaurants, etc, etc. and there is a fair variety of activities nearby, thats why it works well for these larger crowds. That is also why it looks like a good fit for the SYTY nats. I have been attending the Buick meets there (with 1 exception) for over 10 years...car or no car I know I am going to the Buick Nats. And without fail its a good event.

Just my opinion here, but the reason I personally like BG is that they really cater to the crowds that come in for these events.....not just the track, but everyone is really cool about the whole deal restaurants, hotels, locals and the like. Even with the smallish crowds we have for this event, I think we could garner a little respect at BG. I believe we could probably reserve one of the smaller hotels completely. And, the experience that current committe members/organizers have would go a long way toward making a BG nats a great event. I know that this is a decision largely based on financial viability, and like I said before I will show in KC if thats what works best as a whole, but I think it warrants some serious looking into. There is certainly a "partial" attitude from those ;local to the track, but having some of them look into the viability of such a change in location would be helpful in making the decision, as well as adding some new ideas for the 06 event wherever it may be.

The Nats cannot happen without the help of those that have time after time worked to make it go smoothly in the past....anyone who thinks otherwise is just kidding themselves. This is an event for the benefit of the group as a whole, and making it personal between or against comittee/board members is not going to solve anything.

Plain and simple, if those who want the nats in BG are serioius, they will need to do the legwork to make it happen, and draw from the experience of those who have made it happen in KC. Otherwise, just call the Double Tree and reserve your room now.

Que pasa,vato?

FYI the committee A group of people officially delegated to perform a function, such as investigating, considering, reporting, or acting on a matter has chosen KC for '06