SMYTH1

the sport is going backwards,now ther are 4 organizations.there are not even enough boats to support one.offshore racing will never even think about becoming a proffessional motor sport until all boats are racing together under one banner.second thing is that all races must be in the ocean.people want to see action. watching a 46 skater run in a lake is not exciting.that is what hydros are for.there are many forms of motor sport where the fans only see part of the racef1,sports cars,cart,2 cup races,and now rally,so the stadium theory does not fly.every other form of motor sport has somewhat professional levels.bikes ,drag,cars..sponsors know the problems with offshore which is why they won't touch it.pretty embarassing to know that corporations are sponsoring ford escorts and subaru rall cars but have no interest in a 40 foot moving billboard.i will race in opa because i love racing and it seems fun again.but whats going on sucks.my opinion.

Phantom1

Makes sense to me. The only thing that I would point out is that sponsors ask about "attendance". Stadium style, whether you like it or not, provides a better atmosphere to measure spectators. I had a prospective sponsor ask me one time........"so how many of those people on the beach are there to watch the race, and how many would have been there anyway?". Tough question to answer.

In the mid 1990's when US Offshore was alive, I offered to help them organize their race on Hilton Head Island, SC. They ultimately had a falling out with the Town of Hilton Head (depending upon who you ask). That would have been a great venue because the plan was to have the prime spectator viewing within Sea Pines. Sea Pines is a gated section of the island that charges $5 to $7 per entry when no events are going on. That would have been the perfect opportunity to monitor the number of spectators that had actually paid to be there. The current "fan demographics" mean nothing to a prospective sponsor. Unfortunately, no paid ticket, little credibility.

SMYTH1

big time motor sports sponsors are all about tv coverage.they could care less about 100,000 people in stands .they want the millions of people wathing on tv.thats how they do there demographics by seconds of airtime.first you need to have somthing people want to see.boats flying out of the water on the verge of crashing.when i see the scrabble world championship on espn and bobsledding on speed.i get sick.

TYPHOON

Why is it that EVERYONE in NJ knows of the old BENIE HONNA race? It was before my time,but I have seen the pics of thousands of spectators lineing the walls and beaches to watch a race. It was on a Wed. and people took there vacation days around that day. EVERYONE I mention boat racing to says they know of that race in Point Pleasant. What happened to change the draw?
MD

ScottB

We all moved

JohnS

Scott,
Remember the old Kings Grant Marina with all the race boats in the parking lot. Those were the days.

To Randy's point, the town was submersed in racing then. There would be race boats everywhere, on the water, on trailers and scattered throughout Point Pleasant. There would be a pretty long parade down main street also. These were all "must see" events.
There were a lot more boats then, you couldn't help getting caught up in the excitement. The funny thing is, you couldn't see the race after the first lap, and that was pretty far away from the beach too. I think it was the carnival like atmosphere that made me look forward to that week "down the shore".

SMYTH1

yea that was the biggest race in the world at one time.it was even on wide world of sports abc.you had at least a hundred boatsthere and the whole townwas basically shut down for it .the past couple fo years the boat counts have been low and people lost interest.i gotta tell ya i have watched it from jenks for the past couple years a i love racing and at times have been bored as hell. i think opa will start getting more boats if they stay consistent and maybe that race will get big again.also don't forget one guy owns that whole town and he can make or break it

Ron P

I watched serveral Benihana races and there were a few differences between then and now. Yes it was a 200 miles race and you only saw the boats once every half hour or so. But the big difference is the boats themselves. They were larger than life. This was a time when a fast private boat was a 21' Sea Ray with a 188HP I/O. No one had a 40' Cig as a personal Bay runner.

When these boats came to town it was a show that couldn't be seen anywhere else.

Nowadays, privately owned boats are bigger, faster, louder that some race boats. Hence Poker Runs.

SNGLSTACK

smyth1 you are right 1 guy owna the whole town rumor has it he could care less if there is a race or not he has to go through all the b.s. and for all the money he takes in over a regular day its just a courtesy on his part problem is to many to many making promises they cant keep people think they are going to see a race like years ago and see what some still refer to as the hennesey see whats running out there now and say this b.s. im not coming back for this to many capos.not enough soldiers

SMYTH1

OFFSHORE RACING(BECAUSE FOOTBALL,BASEBALL,AND BASKETBALL ONLY REQUIRES ONE BALL)