Booked my flights and room back on June 10th. Got two round trip tickets for less than what one costs now. As of about two weeks ago I think the Casa de Marina resort was sold out too.

Rooms are hard to come by in KW for this races and if you do find one it will cost you or be in a very out of the way area. Also yes there is 2 airports and the reason that is a plus is cause from almost any city there is a direct flight in for a fair cost unlike KW airport that only runs a few airlines.

While yes the beach is "free view" and it does take money to do this sport. The guy who has a wife and kids but loves racing can bring his family, not spend thousands, and grab a few shirts or more to help support. Why do you think the Clearwater race has grown so much?

KW leaves behind the casual fan...plan and simple. If you want to hang there for thurs-sun/mon for the race.....it's going to cost a fair amount.

Is KW more of a fun setting....yes

Does KW have more history.......by far

Being a Clearwater local do I want that race here nad not KW.....Nope....I say keep it in KW.

But I get why they are looking and how you can bring in the average Joe back into the sport or the fan fair up front and close by with having it here in Clearwater. Also like was said....I don't see Stu ever changing the poker run and he shouldn't. If that was left the same and for some reason the races did leave. I don't think there would be that drastic of a change down there during that time of the year.

So maybe clearwater would be a better spectator venue due to lower costs for the racers/owners. I'd think the spectators could create a good time wherever they are, you all do brag about your partying capabilities !

Some of these anti-Clearwater posts are so filled with fiction it's amusing. CW is part of the Tampa/St Pete metropolitan area. A much richer and more diverse environment than a little beach town like KW. Nothing to do in CW compared to KW? Are you kidding me? Within 30 minutes of CW there are world famous theme parks (Busch Gardens, Adventure Island), museums, go kart racing, NFL, MLB, NHL, Theater and Arts, shopping galore, two cities and tons of night life in both Tampa and St Pete. Also less expensive and more plentiful accommodations, and a much broader segment of things to do for both families and individuals than KW. KW has two things: beaches and bars. CW has that and the local metro attractions completely obliterates KW in the other metrics. And for the race, you can’t even see the races in KW as good as you would in CW.

And as for all these purported ‘old ppl’…where exactly are you people seeing that?? I visit CW at least once a year and I see far a higher percentage of beautiful young college aged people there than most other places in Fl.

Someone also mentioned KW is only for the true racers, not for the general public. Are you kidding? This sport needs as much public support and injection of new fans and blood that it can get. No people = niche interest in the sport = no advertisers/sponsors = no boats! Advertisers and sponsors go and spend money where the PUBLIC en-masse will see their names and buy their products. They don’t give a bleep bleep about a small contingent of ‘true racers.’

We need more feet in the sand and in the pits getting involved. CW has a higher probability of this taking place in the future, KW only has the advantage in retaining what’s already there. Case in point: bunch of guys here at work were thinking about going to KW, some with families, and after looking up travel and hotels we all decided to abstain. Why? Too expensive to spend more than a night or two there. As JDBYRIDER noted – it’s about money. On all sides, for the fans, sponsors, and for the racers.

Uh-huh. Because they are on spring break visiting their grandparents.

If the bars, resturants, and hotels suppoted the races more you might see more teams in KW. All they want to do is reap the benfits from racers and fan and give nothing back to Offshore Racing. The racers and PR boats are the show and we pay dearly for it. When the boats r on the street that we have to pay for and every bar and resturant is packed you tell me Gino how does that help us.

Most of the of the people *****ing about blue hairs arnt too far off from being blue haired them self behind all that dye.

well, uhhhmm, geee..... last time i checked, spring break was not in the end of september.

I was referring to some of the current race venues that have very low spectator counts. Not Clearwater.

Key west is expensive for the 1,000+ poker runners coming from all around the country as well.

I have a hard time believing it's the cost keeping racers out of Key west? I was under the impression that Key west had the biggest boat turn out from all the SBI venues but maybe I'm wrong.

As for Key west not supporting the racers, I was under the impression that Key West pays SBI a pretty penny to bring the race to Key west but again, maybe I'm misinformed. As for parking the boat on Duval, Does Key west charge or is it Carbonell???

Maybe things are different now. We use to call a bunch of the hotels weeks prior and get our own deals on rooms and food and in turn we would park the boat in front of their place and guarantee them 7 days of occupying the hotel. It wasn't 5 star hotels because the best hotels rarely give deals on busy weekends anywhere. But we had to get our own deals.

As for the cost keeping racers away, I remember dragging my boat, crew and tons of crap to Jersey city for the NY race every year. It cost me a fortune and the turn out from the spectators was pitiful. The pits were empty and the award ceremony was only attended by the racers and crew. I spent thousands to race against 2 or 3 other boats with no one watching the race. To me, that was a waste of money. We had a t-shirt tent and didn't sell 2 dozen shirts all weekend. We went to Key west and sold $5k worth of shirts and hats to help fund the weekend.

Stus Poker run brings a few hundred of the baddest boats the same weekend. I would think most of those people are also there for the race.

To me Key west is what offshore is about.

I'm all for supporting the racers! We are having a couple of parties, At Burgerfi . We are about 5 doors down from Sloppy Joes, come by and I will hook you up!