Goodguys Rhinebeck moved to Massachusetts?

Damn, Rhinebeck was close to my summer place. No way am I going to Springfield. Another show to cross off the list.

 

No,No No,I like that its closer,but this is so wrong.And fathers day weekend,bad.

 

I grew up in Rhinebeck and still have friends there. My take on it was the Fair Assn was getting greedy. They really leaned on the group that puts on the May swap meet there (a long time event at Rhinebeck) this year and that event may be looking for a new venue. So I expect they got greedy with Goodguys and Goodguys went to the Eastern States. I am sad because Rhinebeck is a great venue and you damn well better lock your car at motels/hotels in Springfield, MA. My wife is from Feeding Hills, a suburb of Springfield and we hear about the lack of safety downtown Springfield from her relatives all the time.

 

What the fuck are they Thinkin!!They must be connected with FACEBOOK!!lol.I only went to Rhinebeck this year & it was a nice setting, little expensive to enter($75 for 3 days, It only cost me $27 for Woodstock!lol).But i really liked it.Had friends close by so had a place to stay.
JimV

 

Oh, and a note to Five-Window Girl. Laura, the Eveready Diner building was my old man's Old Gristmill Country Store. He built the building from the bones of a revolutionary gristmill that was in Hyde Park. I built my very first hot rod in the sheds behind that building, a '47 Ford tudor sedan with a 283" Chevy back in the early 60s. Lot of memories there.

 

Cross another one off next year's schedule. Just another Horribly BAD idea from GOODguys leave the scenic Hudson Valley in favor of that crappy run down parking lot????????? Great Idea for Father's Day weekend too -- tons of New England rodders and potential spectators are biking up in Laconia.
X2 on the Racing !!!

 

Anyone follow Americade motorcycle event? Takes place in Lake George and last year they wanted to move the event to the Big E due to costs to use the beach and beach roads at Lake George. After a few hundred people wrote into the Americade website/forum, they decided to keep it in the original location-Lake George.
On paper, the Big E looks good-right off the highway, food and gas everywhere, etc... but the location sucks.
Fathers day weekend? Maybe Goodguys should just cross the event off their list as well!?

 

EDITED: I had my head up my butt about dates made available.

Rhinebeck was one of our favorite places to go, it's beautiful.

Hopefully Big E will be successful. From what I've seen it's an amazing fairgrounds, along the lines of Des Moines.

There is no conspiracy or secret agenda. We weren't given a date, so we found a new location. I guess at this point I shouldn't be surprised with the immediate "Goodguys sucks" responses from people before they hear the whole story.

p.s. Someone mentioned NY State raping vendors via taxes. That is definitely true. Everyone has been complaining about the number of vendors at Rhinebeck for the past few years when we are seeing increases at nearly every other event (like here in Texas this weekend where vendors are up about 25%). The vendor decline in Rhinebeck was 100% because of NY State. They wanted vendors to not only pay taxes on what they sold that weekend, but on ALL sales via catalog for the remainder of the year assuming that those sales came from the catalogs that were distributed at the event.

 

Actualyl Marc's email is marcm@good-guys.com

Mine is kirkj@good-guys.com

We definitely welcome your feedback. Like any business Goodguys has to make their customers happy to stay in business. The more Goodguys knows what you want the better we can make it.

 

Why Father's Day weekend? Was that the only slot available?

 

Yep. As you can imagine, open weekends are hard to come by with outdoor facilities anytime during the spring and summer. On top of that they have to work into our schedule. It's really a nightmare to find dates.

 

wow from one of the nicest old towns ive ever seen, to the absolute GHETTO!!! even if it wasnt in the ghetto, it will never work on fathers day. people just have way to many other obligations on that weekend. i know years ago people tried to get goodguys to hold an event in topsfield ma. at the topsfield fairgrounds, home of the oldest fair in the country.. and its an old town similar to rhinebeck with tons of hotels, and resteraunts.. i hope they will look into that again.

 

I don't have a dog in this east coast fight, but I do know that Father's Day car events do work. Here in the midwest we have the Back to the Fifties event in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and out west there's the LA Roadster Show and Swap. Can't get much bigger or better than those.

 

Then there is Fathers day at the HRR in Bowling Green.It had to be a money thing. They moved from Perry Ga in 97 to Atlanta. 2 yrs later moved again.

 

WORCESTER would be better , love that show

 

or BROOKLYN , CT , nice fairgrounds there

 

Better lock up your cars real good in the Springfield area,even while your parked on the show grounds,er make that pavement. Your gonna be in the stolen car capital of Massachusetts.

 

Right Coast went from Springfield to the Berlin Fairgrounds in Ct before they officially pulled the plug.

Berlin by far is a better fairgrounds. However size wise I'm not sure how it would work as its a bit smaller than Springfield. It's certainly a much better location with better lodging and safer.

 

Kirk, they didn't renew the date at the end of the show this past year?
Now you are stuck looking for a location on another date anyways? The date you 'always had' was the second or third week of Sept. Not June.
But hey, if you guys who make the decisions think this is gonna be great, good luck with it. As far as the feed back you are getting here, it should start to sink in when the car count is down.
And no, the reason the vendor count is down is not 100% due to the state of NY boning people. The decline of vendors at Rhinebeck has been continuous for about 8-10yrs now.
You don't think Mass checks tax papers at the winter Big E swapmeet? I can garantee that you won't pull any where near the amount of vendors as the winter swap there does. It works in the winter because there is absolutely nothing else going on in the north east that time of year.
It really doesn't matter to me now. I won't be going with my car, my wife won't be going with her car, and obviously the kids won't be going. But I am sure it was a tough decision, just not a good one.

 

The reason the the Right Coast show moved from the Big E to the Berlin fairgrounds was because the Big E jacked the price up for the fairgrounds. Then the show fell apart.

Worcester? Really? Worse location and area than West Spriigfield. Roads suck, so many vandalized and stolen cars from Moscofian's shows through out the years.

Brooklyn CT? Come on, no real easy routes in and nothing around for accomodations. Plus the grounds are not really that nice for a Goodguys type show.

A good location needs to have realitively easy access routes in and out, plenty of hotel, food and fuel sources in a clean and safe area.

Out west, many cities are decent and have a good 'nightlife' making the cites themselves a draw. Not so much back East. Boston and providence are ok cities but not access friendly from other areas.

I think the move will take the quality of cars back a bunch. Rat Rodders and punk rodders will be the most excited about this move.

 

To bad. The GG shows at Rhinebeck were great. Lost count how many I went to with my sons. Oh well, I will figure out another show to attend. Thanks KIRK! for the info. Slim

 

Just like Alchemy I'm too far away to be involved but it does seem that on a national level the fairgrounds and other venues want a bigger cut of the pie from these type of events ever year and add more expenses that have to be passed on to the car owners and vendors.
I've watched that with the local club that puts on one of the bigger events in this state every year.

Still not automatically setting aside the date of a very successful event for the next year that has been on that date for the past ten years makes the operators of that venue seem to be a bit full of themselves or someone offered a lot more money for the date.

Next September after the local Rhinebeck hotels, motels, restaurants, bars, mini-marts, grocery stores and gas stations start asking what the hell happened that weekend that they were counting on several million dollars of extra revenue that they all the sudden lost the fargrounds and state will take notice.
The state will loose more in taxes off the lost sales by the local businesses that weekend than they would ever have gained from all of the vendors at the show.
Overall car shows probably give the largest profit to expense ratio of any events that go on at most fairgrounds. We don't use many of their buildings, we as a group are pretty damned good at cleaning up after ourselves and usually all the fairgrounds clean up crews have to do is empty garbage cans and be done with it. All we ask is that we have clean restrooms, a bit of shade and a bit of a sense of security for us and ours.

 

Actually it is nearly 100% for that reason.

And when an event continues to decline you have to make a decision. Will that decision please everyone, nope. Does feedback help us, yep.

 

The 2012 NHRA Hot Rod Reunion is June 12-14 at Beech Bend in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Non stop nostalgia Drag Racing at its best with covered bleachers. In my estimation its the best Rod Run in the country. Lots of good restaurant's and motel's in a safe area. If y'all haven't been there, come on down you won't be disappointed. It also the home of the National Corvette Museum.

 

Thats fucked up Kirk. Thanks for the answers.

 

I agree completely. Rhinebeck fairgrounds and the surrounding area made it one of, if not the best show in the northeast. The Big E and Springfield will be no comparision. I hope the spring swapmeet at Rhinebeck doesn't go the way of this show. Sad. Tom...

 

I fixed the error in the email address...My blood pressure was so high last night that I could not type correctly! Now if everyone can email Marc, that would be great. marcm@good-guys.com

 

I think the best thing to do is that if you don't like the location don't go! After attendance drops off maybe GG will listen.They won't have a show if theres no cars, plain & simple!
Also GG & the Rhinebeck fair grounds should go to the state of NY & tell them there driving away business.Bending alittle is better then watching it go out of state.
I don't see any good coming out of this at all, Big E sucks compared to Rhinebeck.
What about somewhere in CT?
JimV

 

Too bad, I enjoyed the ride down the Taconic Parkway to Rhinebeck.....cool road.

 

I will agree with everyone here that the Big E is no where near as good a fairgrounds as Rhinebeck.

However, I do see the potential. The posting on the Goodguys website says they will now have the Auto Cross. Something that I won't do with my car, but I sure as hell will spend time watching. I think it will also help to draw some participants because of it. I know there isn't any real shade parking, but there are plenty of buildings and coves to park near and around. I also don't see Fathers Day weekend as that off putting. There are many shows nation wide that work really well on Fathers Day.

And like everyone has said, the hotels in the area suck. However, 15 minutes down RT75 southbound are a bunch of nice hotels around the airport and there are two really nice hotels at the base of Day Hill Rd. in Windsor, CT right off of I91. All safe and sound from the Springfield area.

Is this place any where near as good as Rhinebeck, NO. But, it is what it is. I will be there, with my car. Unlike many people from CT. that I know that all drive together in their daily drivers because they don't want to spend the money and enjoy their hot rod. A fact I don't understand at all.