In a perfect world:

More races closer to home
Guaranteed start money & Purse
Bigger boat count (less classes)
Large outside sponsors in Multiple classes.
T.V. Coverage. (x check)


We can dream cant we..

Dear Rick,

That's how we roll...

Rick,

On a serious note, without dreams, we can't set goals. Those all sound great, the question is how do we, as racers, transform those dreams into goals and realize them?

I'm on board, tell me what you want me to do

TC

augie you have been on here a lot lately you must have got up from your nap and took some geratol magic ferry dust will make those dreams come true.

No Magic "FERRY" dust here...just, and I'm tired and crankey and hungry and..............Winter $ucks! And Rick...ahhhhhh fuc$ it, you will get yours!!!!!!!!

me..

• Group rates for race team liability insurance
• Defined disaster recovery operations
• Regional sub-chapter racing
• Encourage cat outboards in the northeast
• More estuaries

That's was the question, what would you the racer want to see in a perfect world (it's ok to be selfish on this one) Like me wanting more races close to home.

This could actually turn into a good thread.... Be nice....

More races closer to home
Who's home? OPA tries to keep races within a 12 hour drive for all teams. Did you enjoy taking two trips south this year? As we expand our series, it allows us to pick up additional teams becuase now they have an OPA race close to their home. We had conversations with a race producer in Texas, but felt it was just too far for us. It would have been a 30 hour drive from NJ. Believe me, race site locations are very important to OPA.

Guaranteed start money & Purse
Unfortuanly this might be the last piece of the puzzle. Local race sponsorship comes from the CVB - Convention Visitors Asss. They want to know one thing. How many heads will you be putting in hotel beds and for how long? We have a GREAT audience in St Clair, but I doubt many of them stay in local hotels. They drive from home to watch the races. If we could fill 5000 hotel rooms at each site, we'd be sought out all around the country.

Bigger boat count (less classes)
If you could get racers to gravitate to certain classes, then it would be possible to have less classes while maintaining the boat count. 3 classes with 20 boats in each sounds good to me.

Large outside sponsors in Multiple classes.
LOVE THIS ONE. OPA is working on sponsors for 2011 and we hope that the TV show would give the teams the tools they need to get sponsors. One feeds off the other. If teams have large sponsor names rather than slogans, it would play better on TV and it would show other potential sponsors that they aren't alone and this is a good place to get noticed.

OPA is currently working on a professionally produced sponsor package. This will have everything a sponsor is looking for - demographics, attendance numbers, TV viewer numbers and more. Once this is complete, by Feb, teams will be able to use the same book but have a few pages added about thier specific team - photos -bios - etc. It will only cost you $175 to get this book made for your team as we've already done the heavy lifting and paid a much larger expense to get it made. Once it's done, I'll post it and give you the company to call in order to get it remade for your team.

We want to give you the tools to get sponsors so that your cost of racing goes down, or God forbid, you find a way to make money racing boats.

T.V. Coverage. (x check)
Sometime in January we should be able to get the Nielson ratings for our show. Everything falls in place if the numbers are big enough.

The TV show will continue in 2011 and we all learned from our mistakes this year. If you guys will help by using more on boards - and sending the chips to the TV guys - it will make for a better more intersting show. Along with other lessons learned, the show will only improve in 2011.

Have at it guys, but please keep it positive. Winter is upon us when threads like this get started.