OK, who is the marketing and advertising guru of this forum? I am curious if anyone can place a monetary value on the damage that has been done to offshore racing in general in recent years. One of the organizations has to have done research into the loss of sponsorship/advertising/television opportunities.

This year there are 34 total races planned by APBA, SBI, OPA, POPRA, GLSCS and OSS. These are to occur over 23 weekends, and we have, what.........maybe 140 potential raceboats nationally that might participate?

The sport has obviously been damaged as a whole, but how much? There has to be a marketing/advertising professional on OSO that can answer this question.

Thanks in advance.

It would be very interesting to find out.

How can anyone put a price on something has never had much value. 95% of the teams have always been self sponsored and do it for fun! Very few can make any money at this sport if they are just racers. Yes the odds go up if you are in the marine business but the average guy pays to play and has excepted it. The best shot at making money at this sport is being the guy that fixes and rigs the boats. Sponsors come and go if they don't see value for there money.
It could be fixed if someone with deep,deep pockets dumped millions of dollars into 1 sanctioning body and payed big prize money and lots of TV time. That would bring the boats and sponsors. But who has that kind of disposable money that is willing to invest it in offshore racing?
MD

Randy

Just wait 2 more weeks . Good News is coming .

Mike

Damm P.D.

Nothing positive to say about Offshore racing....There are teams out there with sponsors....even P-Class teams in 2004 have them....Just becuase you may have had your problems with them don't make it out like if you come out to race you will go B.K. unless you have deep pockets....Damm Scott B. did good with sponsors running in P-Class....Maybe Phontom1's question has to do with in the past year or 2 with all the organizations runnning and the lack of boat count at each venue maybe herting the sport...since I started racing in 2000 at least for APBA I have never seen the boat count as low as it was for 2004...and OSS,SBI,OPA and the GLSCS sure didn't put up the 70 plus boats a race like it use to be except in Sarasota...when SBI and APBA ran together...and the Worlds.....Even some of the Manufactures pulled out...thats money that is lost...when you loose TV like we did this year...don't you think that hert sponsorship there gose some more money....If you think today is just as easy to get sponsors with 20 -30 boats racing in a venue with no TV as it was when their were 80+ boats racing with TV your nuts....this herts everyone in Offshore Racing and there is a loss of value today becuase of it compared to 2 or 3 years ago. Its time to get together and get the boat count up like it used to be...no offence...but how about instead of talking about how hard it is to get sponsors why not spend a hour or so a day trying to get sponsors.....I'm not being a smart ass here but you have all these years of racing behind you and yet no sponsors.....Maybe its time to sit down with your team and come up with a plan to get some....I'm willing to give you some idea's and in return...tone it down a little and the bashing.....Its a new year...lets take Bruces advise and all make alittle change.....and one other thing...why dose someone have to come up with millions of dollars to dump in to one organization and pay out huge money to get boats to come out.....we already have over 23 Super V's, 13+ Super Catlights, 13+ Super Cats, 10+ SVL's, the outboard cats in SBI....and 50+ P-Clas boats out there that are racing.....problem is we all racing in different places....So you see you don't have to pay someone huge prize money to race beacuse the guys are racing right now....
Get on the phone get some sponsors so you can race OSS and do a few APBA races so you can as you say kick's some ass that race APBA...and maybe do the SBI/APBA Sarasota race.....We need to take some of this responsablity for whats going on with this sport....
Just my thoughts....and don't take offence to what I wrote....we always were able to say what we were thinking......

Correct-

hey mike where do you get your info, it's good

loose lips sink ships

I'm not bashing racing at all. I am just stating that most teams pay as they go. And yes some teams have done a great job of landing sponsors and I'm happy for them. Keep up the good work.
If you don't think if there was a $50,000 purse per class that all the boats would race under 1 roof then we really don't see eye to eye!
MD

Randy,

I don't know....If thats all it would take is a $50,000 payout a class to get everyone under one roof...I don't see if SBI put out a $50k purse that all the teams would leave OSS and APBA or vice-versa...I do know we have the boats and there is a lot of loyalty out there...I guess I'm looking at what we have right now...and to Phantom1's question...I think its harder now for an Organization giving a city a boat count of 30 vice 85 + no TV to convince them to put up the money....+ I thing the low boat count has hurt the racers and hurt to build a larger fan base with only 2-5 boats in a Class...and since Offshore Racing has been around for a long time and that type of prize money was never available maybe we need to do what is acheivable right now....the host citys and the fans have never seen a Pro-Series Class with 20-25 boats in one class....we all think that's what we need.... and that can be achieved...maybe if the racers focused on that and put on a show for the city's and fans with that 15-20 boats in 3 - 4 Pro-Class's that would get us the prize money you talk about....
I do see a dimino effect happening....3 Organization....boat count split between the 3 have given them a 20-35 boat count per race to promote....guys who were freinds and who raced together just 2 or 3 years ago now enimies...
To me this is not OSS,APBA or SBI's fault...
We the racers said:
1 We want a schedule out by Jan 1st...they all did that.
2 We the racers want a say in the rules...they all did that.
3 We wanted joint races....they did that (SBI/APBA and OSS/GLSCS...and a World Championship with all Bodies)
They even went as far as leaving the rules up to the teams that were racing in them.
So today we still can't blame the Organizations for the low boat count...3 main Groups have a vision they feel is the answer....why not just put all agenda's aside and race more then one Organization...even if its only 1 or 2 other races outside you main Org. it will help Offshore Racing in the end..I'm sure OSS,APBA and SBI would love if teams who would normally not race with them...come out and did 1 or 2 racers with them...it would put on a better show for the fans help the boat count in each Organization and take us to the next level....that would be a start to you $50k pay out per Class....
Not every team can do this...but if 70% of the teams could do this...think how much better this season would be compared to 2004......
Just a thought