San Francisco Rod and Custom Show - NO Suede? Why?

so when I called the SF Rod and Custom show to get a booth for the show - I told them I wanted to be in the area that Alex Gambino had headed up last year...........

they said those buildings were not going to be used this year - WHY?

They told me it was not cost effective to have people fill those buildings and those cars were not a draw for the public!

DID THEY GO DOWN THERE LAST YEAR?????!!!!!

I could not believe it - and I told them that I guess I dont have to worry about getting a booth then - they said OK

and that was it..............

so somebody on here has to know the REAL reason - is it because Cow Palace raised the rates on them?

Or some other political stuff going on?

Needless to say I wanted to set up there because I have some great footage on the Vintage Torque DVD #1 from that show, but I am not going to fly out from Iowa to set up and not have the crowd that would be into this DVD not showing up.

I guess the Good Guys Pleasanton is the only game in town now for the bay area? And BILLETPROOF of course!

 

Someone needs to come up with a ba*****t only show.

 

yes - that would be cool - but is it because it is too much $$$$?

 

To much polla-****s to get into,more people having fun down stairs and nobody having fun up stairs..................

 

The official word from Rick Perry was that last year some of the folks in the Suede room told the operations manager from the Cow Palace to "**** off" when he asked them not to carry around their whiskey bottles or BBQ outside the back door. That and the rooms cost more to rent than the income was from the registrations. He said there was no appreciable gain at the gate to help offset the added expense.

I've considered doing a Billetproof Winter Nationals indoor show in the Bay Area... but the costs of an indoor show are staggering and you rely almost totally on spectator revenue for income. Its a very risky proposition. Putting out $30-40k just to get the show off the ground with no guarantee of make one red cent of it back? Hmmm...

 

Actually working on a scaled back Billetproof Winter Nationals right now...

trying to find a good parking garage that will be open for use on a Sat. We can be "indoors" at least out of the rain. Someplace that will allow a band to play.

Kinda get back to the roots of Billetproof. A smaller gathering.

 

Does it need to be an official venue like an arena/cow palace type of place, or just a large indoor space that you can drive cars into? Surely someone has an empty old warehouse somewhere that they'd be happy to make a few bucks off of some weekend.

 

well, the costs/revenue equation scales up and down with the ratio's pretty much the same. Smaller venues cost less, but then you cant get as many cars in, and you cant get as many people in. Infrastructure is a problem as well. If there are people you need to have food, water, ****ers, parking.... most of the big places have all those sorts of things handled, little/bare places dont.

Right now I need a parking garage at an office building that we can take over for a Sat. afternoon. I can bring in some porta potties, a band, we can park mostly out of the weather and have a good time.

 

I remember as a kid most car shows were held at armories....maybe check for a building thats up for sale,god knows there are a ton of those thanks to Mr. Greenspan

 

I think the "**** off" incident may have happened, but seems like a copout. As for the gate, I'd say there will be a considerable decline in attendance this year. They'll probably blame it on the economy. I may show the Starliner, but I sure won't go every day like in the past to hang out with my friends. There's nowhere to meet and greet without the downstairs area.

 

Wow that ****s!! Good thing I'm from southern cali not northern!!! Haha

 

That sounds like a good enough reason to cancel it to me.

As for an indoor show... how about the Alameda Navy Air Base?

There are a lot of hangers there... I'm sure they'll rent them out.

Sam

 

$12k a day.

 

do it in downtown sacramento. there are like 4 parking lots under the freeway where they do all the swap meets. plenty of space and couldn't be too much $$$.
-drZ

 

this all comes down to the $$$$. if the guys that put these shows on just wanted to be around a crowd and cars he could go to WAL-MART!

 

Yep, car shows are a business, just like concerts, films, tv shows, hot rod parts manufacturers, dealers, car manufacturers, dealers, the HAMB...

it takes money to put on a show and no one is going to put on a show and lose money. Even if you invite friends over to your garage and provide them with pizza and beer...eventually you will get tired of having to pay for it all the time and suggest that perhaps everyone could pitch in and help pay for it.

in the case of an indoor car show the potential loss is huge, at least to me it is. I dont have a "spare" $30-40k to burn. Someone else might.

 

As a show promoter i personally cannot see a Suede Room NOT being a draw in this day and age , especially in a "Bright lights -Big city" like San Francisco, and would have to believe that the producers and management were indeed offended by remarks and certain behavior from attendee's. Thats a shame if that happened.

That said, i have been given permission to have the entire building for the Suede Pavilion at the Sacramento Autorama next year. The main stage and seating area will be relocated to another part of the Cal Expo grounds. We have filled 75% of the building with cars and vendors so if anyone is interested in being a part of it feel free to contact me. Also, I understand that TJ from the Poorboys Car Club will have his Pinstripers reunion and fund raiser in the same building once again.

All the best, Axle

 

i won't be going to sf this year then. the back buildings were the best part of the show. glad to hear about the autorama having a building for the real cars.

 

I heard a rumor that Perry was going to put on a separate show in San Jose a month or so after the Cow Palace. And charge a lot more money for entry, I realize its a business, but at some point we have to stop conforming to the whims of show promoters like Perry and take it back in our own hands. After I heard about the Cow Palace situatin I started looking for a venue in the bay Area but so far haven't found anything promising. if anyone can come up with ideas and pm me with them I'll start following up and try to find a venue the Koffins are all willing to host and put up a reasonable amount of cash but it would be nice to do a weekend event inside where we can all hang out! Let me know if I can be of any help!

 

so this year there having a suede room in sac,last year didn't they have only 30 or so hand picked suede car in a tent

 

Yea, Santa Clara Convention Center. I think its on another thread that Axle started to check the dates.

Brian

 

There was around 40 cars last year but it wasn't "hand picked" . being the first year of organizing it, that was the only amount of people that entered and sent in their applications. Also, not knowing how big the event would be i was only given so much room. Like previously mentioned, Next year i will be given the entire tent to house more cars

 

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Santa Clara Rod & Custom Show
Santa Clara Convention Center
Santa Clara, California
November 27, 28 & 29, 2009[/FONT]

 

There is, but it is in Detroit

 

The reality is, it isn't like it is really that cold or rains that much around here in the winter anyway. Probably could still do an outdoor show and hope the weather is favorable and with reasonable luck, probably will be. Of course, ironically we are now getting our first rain of the season today. Maybe time to break out the Farmer's Almanac and shoot for a sunny weekend get together in an open field somewhere. What about one of the open docks along The Embarcadero in SF or at the Alameda Naval grounds just out in the parking area where the flee market is once a month? I wonder how much the use of the lot costs for a weekend day. Just get a couple of potties, suggest bringing your own drinks/food and see who shows up. I'll show up and might be down for a few $ for the lot access/rental and potties. That lot is gigantic, would only need a small portion and might just need to pay for some access to a small part of it. Nice view of SF from there too.

 

someone should host a show on Alcatraz. nice views and a car show in the workout yard would be sweet. the ferry rides for the cars would be expensive but worth it. rent out the cells for cheap lodgings.
If only I were rich.

 

Sure, but still, you can't expect someone to put a lot of time, effort & money into putting together a serious show and they have to just roll the dice on if it might get rained out.
It needs to be covered so that it is a sure thing.

But I think a winter indoor billetproof style show could go over big if the right place could be found.

Like someone mentioned, the area under the downtown freeway in Sac - where they have the swapmeets - is big and covered and there are bars & restaurants nearby and Sac sure could use more good shows. It's the state capitol for gods sake, we gotta represent.

 

Although...I'm not sure I want you rowdy *******s to come to my town...I hear you've been kicked out of a lot of venues lately

 

That is true, but maybe the winter show needs to be a little less "serious" and a little more casual and somewhat risky and it is what it is. That is why the committed costs needs to be held down to a min. - just access to an open lot and some porta-potties. Maybe be able to have an alt. date in advance for rain if needed or just cancel it and wait to next year if it rains too hard. I'd be surprised if access to part of those lots for a day could cost that much. $12K for rent of one building for a day is pretty ridiculous, so who knows.

If trouble makers start to get out of hand, 911 and I am sure the Alameda cops would be happy to get away from the donut shops for an hour or 2.

 

I'm all for having more and different levels of shows.
Just too lazy to do one myself, so I try to motivate (****er) others into doing it so I can just show up and stumble around for a while.