Former Offshore racer now world's 8th richest man
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Former Offshore racer now world's 8th richest man
Boy did the OPT guys blow it when they didn't take Eike's offer to bring Offshore racing up to a professional multi national SPONSORED sport.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/...ista_R3VO.html
Eike had an $8 million dollar offer on the table for annual sponsorship and the "big shots" said no.....citing some nonsense about giving up their "independence".
As the song says:
"How do you like me now?"
You can't make this stuff up......
T2x
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/...ista_R3VO.html
Eike had an $8 million dollar offer on the table for annual sponsorship and the "big shots" said no.....citing some nonsense about giving up their "independence".
As the song says:
"How do you like me now?"
You can't make this stuff up......
T2x
#2
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egos and arrogance is a tough combo... im sure lots of people haveing second thoughts about things.
#3
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dont even care for racing that much any more for some of the above reasons..prefer going to LOTO runs and watching the poker runners run their boats...but that too has changed...
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Boy did the OPT guys blow it when they didn't take Eike's offer to bring Offshore racing up to a professional multi national SPONSORED sport.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/...ista_R3VO.html
Eike had an $8 million dollar offer on the table for annual sponsorship and the "big shots" said no.....citing some nonsense about giving up their "independence".
T2x
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/...ista_R3VO.html
Eike had an $8 million dollar offer on the table for annual sponsorship and the "big shots" said no.....citing some nonsense about giving up their "independence".
T2x
Jerry G always reminds me of this little bit of information every time I think we are making progress towards a unified group of offshore racers.
So many mistakes made in the past, just seems to continue to replicate itself.
Still we press on .....unfortunatly it feels like Obama and his healthcare bill.
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Most of the offshore racing organizations have gotten what they asked for to this point. Based on the results of the past decade, does anyone else besides me think that maybe they were asking for the wrong thing?
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Retired! Boating full-time now.
Retired! Boating full-time now.
#6
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Jerry G always reminds me of this little bit of information every time I think we are making progress towards a unified group of offshore racers.
So many mistakes made in the past, just seems to continue to replicate itself.
Still we press on .....unfortunatly it feels like Obama and his healthcare bill.
So many mistakes made in the past, just seems to continue to replicate itself.
Still we press on .....unfortunatly it feels like Obama and his healthcare bill.
This is why I constantly remind the various racing groups that you must put the sport in the context of its past mistakes, failures, and badly damaged reputation with the truly influential people in worldwide marketing. Every time an effort does a face plant, every time the racers get all charged up and run head long into another stone wall fueled by (another) new group, new class, new team, new "star" owner, only to slide backwards into the "rut", every time a promoter bounces a check, soaks you for a fee, or cancels an event at the last minute, every time the racers ignore a clear deterioration in the overall fleet size of top class boats..... the sport takes another body blow in the eyes of the people who count..... the major sponsors and media.
The racers were "too smart" to listen to Eike...and still not smart enough to ask probing questions about a TV package that had me laughing out loud the first time it was announced.
As Clint Eastwood said so eloquently and I paraphrase..... "A sport has to know its limitations"........ long before it starts shooting from its collective lip.
Nuff said.
T2x
Last edited by T2x; 03-16-2010 at 09:29 AM.
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"Grasshopper.....it is not so important that we know all the answers...... but only that we understand the question."
T2x
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The sponsorship was based on the racers signing a contract to race the season exclusively with the sponsored group.....under the existing Superboat and Open Class rules of that time. This led to a bunch of..... "It's my money and I'll do what I want." quotes by the biggest racers and the mid pack guys followed along like sheep to the slaughter....... (Sound familiar?). The first year was to be $8 million( enough for big TV, top prizes and some expense sharing) as I recall and a ramp up after that as the joint marketing efforts matured and other sponsors came on board.....
Eike had one of the top race boats in the world...a 4 engine 50foot Cougar.... and was absolutely putting his money where his mouth was.
BIG MISTAKE which , obviously, continues to haunt the sport to this day..
Last edited by T2x; 03-16-2010 at 01:40 PM.