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

egos and arrogance is a tough combo... im sure lots of people haveing second thoughts about things.

+1

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...

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.

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?

Frankly Mark......When that decision was made (1990 or so) I lost all hope for the sport. Nothing before or since has had even a fraction of the gravitas and potential. The fact that the top racers walked away from that one, based on vague "feelings" and years of unkept promises both before and after, made it crystal clear how big the uphill battle really is. When Eike left....he really did take the future of the sport with him.

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

Or to use my all time favorite TV quote from "Kung Fu"......

"Grasshopper.....it is not so important that we know all the answers...... but only that we understand the question."



T2x

Was it just JC that told Eike to take a hike, or was Copland, Gentry, Don Johnson and the other OPT leaders involved in that decision?

Why would they not take the 8 mill???

The racers voted no.........with encouragement from other "interested" parties.

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..

Was that at Bobby Moores?
Spirit of Amazon
I think I bought his support truck in 1998