Event Coverage LA Roadsters Fathers Day Show

Enough already.......Its John Bucks deal now and we can all wait until next year to see if he can turn it around. The high point was the 50th and its been slipping since due to a number of factors (demographics, hot weather, etc) out of their control ever since, but their actions have made it decidedly worse.

I'm going to hope for the best and that he will be able to change the negative perception of the show that he and the club are largely responsible for.

Go back to the beginning of this thread and read my posts about keeping the LA Roadsters "traditions" alive and promoting the example of individual involvement in the club by all of us to make it better like the MSRA's Back to the 50's. I would gladly pay a small yearly associate membership dues and volunteer one shift to work at the show to keep it going. It works. Our local show, the Prescott Antique Auto Club Watson Lake Show and Swap is thriving because it welcomes everyone and is a member centric organization. http://www.paacaz.com/

This is what success looks like .............

It’s over! It was that “WOW” factor!
What a fantastic Back To The 50s!
11,680 REGISTERED VEHICLES!!

THANK YOU to the 1,900+ volunteers who worked over 4,000 shifts to make this event the best for all the attendees!
THANK YOU to the 11,680 registered participants!
THANK YOU to all the spectators who come each and every year, and to those first-time attendees who have looks of “WOW, I never expected all this!” on their faces!
THANK YOU to the Sponsors! Your support is valued and appreciated!
….... and behind the scenes making it all come together …...
THANK YOU to the Board of Directors, and to all the dedicated and enthusiastic Committees Chairs and their incredible teams who put in months, weeks, and hundreds of hours to have Back To The 50’s run as smoothly as possible.
THANK YOU! Many – many Thank You’s go out to many-many people!

On the cover of the MSRA monthly LineChaser is a special byline which reads Friends+Food+Fun+Fellowship. YOU are the “+” in the classic car community and we THANK YOU!

https://msrabacktothe50s.com/

It certainly isn't dying in Minnesota! Why can't California, the birthplace of Hot Rodding do this and do it even better? The Fairplex venue is great and LA is the center of a strong car culture. Its all there, except for the right attitude.

Face it, this years change generated a negative impression that did keep the roadsters, specialty cars, swappers and attendance down, and that all adds up to killing the gate, which will kill the show because that is where the money is. Like I've said before, perception is your reality! With all the hot rod shows on television it is obvious there is a large audience out there that could be tapped. Its a perception and promotion problem that needs to be solved. In the end it is a business, and this business model is failing.

I'll be there until the end but so far it looks like its strike one.............

 

The show is too spread out now. Lost of wasted space.. I never bother to take the walk up to the building or see the cars along the way. A friday-saturday show would be good. Especially if they let you set up EARLY friday not friggin 10 am... I went and wandered and snagged a few things but I didnt bother setting up this year considering the last couple years were more of a pain and the place was a ghost town by 11am Saturday...didnt help i didnt make any money either. Well see what they come up with next year...

 

From what I hear they could use some more porta-Johns around the swap area.

I would add, allow pre-buy of 1 day Drive-In passes. They only had 2 day passes available this year.

 

My thoughts based on some knowledge I have of this (and some guessing) - and I'm basically agreeing with your premise.

 

It's in the refrigerator, the light is out, the milk is getting cold and the butter is getting hard.

 

Try 2014

 

Mr. Buck did have commercials running on TV for at least a week prior to the show. You don't do that for free.

 

In years past,The main advertisement had been car magazines, those days are gone and have been replaced by the gossip queen "facebook" or instagram. I didn't see much on there, times are changing.

 

I saw almost daily updates from the show in the weeks leading up on Facebook we must have very different feeds

 

La Roadster club members are getting too old to run the show like they have in the past. Guess a club with no new and younger members will not last forever. Sounds like the extra entrance fees are needed to pay the $150,000.00 for the show rights. What was the amount the club has in their treasury.....was it a million dollars? No new younger club members because of the treasury money! Like Bobby Dylan said, "money doesn't talk, it swears". What is more important, more money in the treasury or keeping the best hot rod show and swap in the country going? I don't know John Buck, but I do know running a big show is lots of work......the club supposedly made a million bucks doing it. I for one would like to see the show continue.....hope the club does too.

 

This shit is getting old. Bottom line is it is their show. Not yours or mine. If you like it go, if not, don't go. Jeezus.

Oh .... and what they have in the bank is nobody's fk'g business but theirs.

 

And the IRS.

 

You said it ALL----Very quickly!!

 

Ahhhhhhh
Did you hear they moved the Oakland Roadster Show to Pomona and renamed it the Grand National Roadster Show? It will die in two years,,,,, no one will support it!
Just saying,,,,,,,,

 

Isn't Oakland a good place to move from?

 

The show is ruined......so bad they may never recover. They over priced every aspect from what I heard! And what dumbshit goes from roadsters being free for decades to $50? No $12? No $18? No, right to $50. Pretty fucking greedy and stupid. The special interest cars, which is the main reason I go was disappointingly LOW in attendance, vastly spread out, and very tiring to navigate! Terrible. Poor poor planning. I'm so glad, (even tho I didn't know they shit the bed on this yet), I for the 1st time drove my daily driver. SO GLAD I didn't take a hot rod!!!. R.I.P.......................... you greedy bastards!!!!! I feel bad for the folks who fly in from all over the world for LARS!

 

WHY? The show had a life of it's own for decades!

 

I guess you would have to ask Mr. Buck. He isn't stupid. He thought some promotion would help. Up to him to decide if it did, or it didn't.


"From what I heard"?? You didn't even drive a hot rod to the show, and you're pissing and moaning about the show and it's cost?? This is what puts the hurt on a big show, not the promoter. I guess you would have been happier if he had not stepped up, and committed for 5 years, and just let the show die. Us roadster owners are not bitching about the 50 bucks, it's all you people who think you are voicing our opinions. I have missed 3 father's day shows since the first one at the Hollywood bowl which means I've attended a hell of a lot of free LAR shows, and I ain't bitching.

 

Stepped up and not let the show die? Yes, I would have been a lot happier had he not stepped in and fucked up one of my top 5 events for the year! Hell, in the words of me and a LOT of my friends he killed it. You roadster owners not bitching about the $50? RIGHT, because only about 10% of you showed up!!! I would think the 90% that didn't show do not share your opinion. I've been going for many many years, and my opinion is he really shit the bed on this one. You care to differ? Let's all see what the next one's like. You have your opinion, and I have mine. It's really that simple. Next year's predicted failure will tell the tale. As far as you comparing the growth of the GNRS since it's move to Pomona? Shitty comparison. He moved GNRS and made it grow, but KILLED a HUGE ongoing successful show like LARS in one event change.

 

One point of fact Groucho, GNRS had already moved to Pomona for a couple of years before John bought that show. It was small, only used a couple of buildings and he grew it from a dieing show.

Sent from my XT1650 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Another point of fact he took a killer show for decades and fucked it in one event! LARS was NOT a dying show. I fail to see your point!!

 

Class Warfare. So sad that it has spread to all aspects of our lives. Boohoohoo somebody made a dollar and I did not get a free roadster and free entry together with my foodstamps.
My advice: Stay home and let your negativity swirl around you like a dust devil at the local dump.

 

What planet are you on? If you would have talked to LAR members, instead of your whining buddies, you would see the point. The show had been in the red the last few years, and WAS dead. Yes, John stepped up, and because he did, you still had a show to go to. Did he find there's a learning curve, you bet. If you had bothered to read this entire thread, you would know he is taking constructive criticism, and the show will be better in the future. Apparently you are one of the few that can do things perfect the first time. Instead of bitching on the internet, why don't you step up and offer tips to John and his people on how to make the show better. They are listening, and meeting with people who have concerns. 10% huh? So, you did an actual count. Were there less ro0adsters than past years, to be sure. But, there were still 350 of us there supporting the event. Anyone can say anything they want, show hard facts and I'll buy it.

 

What planet am I on? Earth right now. But, from the attendance I may have been on Mars that day at Pomona. Constructive criticism? HA! Raising the price on just about every aspect of the event and turned it into a virtual ghost town almost over night? Too little, too late. My whining buddies? I know a lot of prominent people in this hobby, and I'll take their views/opinions and what I SAW over your words any day. One very great thing for narrow minded people like you...........you WON'T have any crowds to deal with there next year. LMFAO!! R.I.P. LARS, you will be missed.

 

Building up the GNRS was a great success. There were no real disappointments as each year grew from the year before. I admit that. But this one's the opposite, grossly failing in attendance at every corner from prior years. Comparing this event to prior greater years is far from a good thing. With LARS you literally have thousands of vendors, swappers (both buyers and sellers), spectators, and hot rodders very disappointed of literally every aspect of this year's event. I seriously doubt that the large amount of people that travel from afar at great expense will roll the dice and come back to this one. That is my opinion and observations. Hey, I hope I'm wrong. But, I've seen this too many times in my life. Prognosis? Not good.

 

I did see a couple of advertisments and shared them, but there was no networking. A lot of my friends didn't show up do to the uncertity of what was going to change and the rising cost.G.N.R.S. has been a success because we got a younger generation involved and car clubs. Car clubs do a lot networking and bring young family's and Spectators.
It not fair to blame john Buck for everything, the show had been on the decline for years, mainly because they moved the swappmeet so far from the show.Yes john has a huge challenge to turn this show around and still haven't seen any positive suggestions.

 

Again..........GNRS..........people expect a smaller turnout when something is in it's infancy. People will go in hopes of support and growth. When a huge and popular event fails terribly there's a whole different mindset involved for it's attendees.

Suggestions? Simple, put it back how it was 10 years ago. Far more organized and less spread out. All sections were easy to navigate. A lot LESS waking for nothing. And he can probly get away with renting a LOT LESS space from the fairgrounds, saving thousands of dollars, allowing him return closer to the old pricing for "all" attendees. Attendees that are the backbone of any event.

 

Amazing speculative comments each day!

 

Kind of hard to put it back where it was 10 years ago. The Fairplex tore down the entire area that connected the different areas of the show. The covered vendor area is gone. If it were easy to "go back 10 years", it would have never changed. Negative attitudes won't fix anything. When did giving someone the benefit of the doubt become "narrow minded"?

 

GNRS in it's "Infancy" = you know that it is the OLDEST continuous indoor car show in the world? That is is OLDER than LARS. And it had been much larger and more prestigious than it had fallen to when John's company bought it.

I think everyone agrees that one of the major problems is the distance and spread of the show, that has been a problem for a number of years now. But what most don't realize is this was dictated by the Fairgrounds when the remodeling of the grounds eliminated the covered area where the vendors were that was closer to the swap meet area - It was the Fairgrounds that mandated the layout, and the LA Roadsters took a bunch of shit for that change the first year, and people on here, and elsewhere, predicted the demise of the show at that time "It's too far from the swap to the show" - "It's too far to the parking area to the swap meet if I buy something" - "I'm not coming back, this sucks", and so on. But people learned to deal with it, even if it never fully recovered. Some relief helped by allowing parking next to the swap meet instead of just lot 9 like that first year. The fairgrounds and the club also helped by using the shuttle trams and even some golf carts to transport people with large items.

The Rod Shows folks are listening to all this and taking the CONSTRUCTIVE Criticism and suggestions to heart. i know that the show being spread out is one of the things that they are working on.