I helped setup a vendor booth on Thurs. I was at the show Fri and Sat and it stunk. The promoters have done virtually NO pre-show advertizing and the car count and spectator count reflected thier efforts. Vendor count was much improved. Last year was the first year for this show and I estimate they had 1,500 cars and tons of spectators. Today, nice weather, and I bet 600 would be a fair estimate and very few spectaters. The swap vendors were sparse and about 1/2 of what was present last year. I give this show one more year and it will be in the tank. Furthermore, if you come from the West or North, you have to drive 20 miles each way in very heavy traffic and lots of road construction just to get your entry packet. WTF??? They could have set that up easily at the vacant ice arena on the North end of the fairgrounds. NSRA get your head out of your ass. Kermit ps: some real nice flatty stuff was there today!
This years show was a dis-appointment compared to last years. As was stated there was no advertisement in the Milwaukee area for the show. Last year, I was told that they had signed a 5 year agreement for the show here. That might change if next year is like this years. We are lucky this year to have NSRA And Goodguys in the Milwaukee area. Next year Goodguys will be gone from Waukesha, last year here. I did win a decent door prize so I won't complain to much.
I believe the GG format for NSRA will NOT work ... A lot of folks went last year " as the first show " and I heard a lot of the NSRA faithful were not happy. I also think that a LOT of the spectators spent their money $$$ last weekend at the Summerfest music deal ... I would rather go see Hank Jr, Lynyrd Skynyrd and others ... than a bunch of 69 Camaros, a few Mustangs and all the other stuff ...
Definitely a shame that the show has not taken off. The point of no promotion rings very true as few of the people I know in the hobby knew about it until the last minute. We went this morning and the car count was low enough that we breezed through, looked at what we wanted to and were able to make it to Road America for the afternoon. Thankfully Milwaukee is close enough to a lot of other cool events.
goodguys is kicking nsra's ass. they are better business people. nsra needs to go back to pre 48. goodguys shirts are way much better too
Iola was also very thin on spectators this year (or at least, ones that wanted to buy shit) it was really slow, so part of the reason might be that this year is just going to be a slow year for the hobby. Seems like no one has any money anymore. I know I don't.
Is the economy cooling auto hobbies in general? I race sports cars (spec miata - nothing thrilling) and all the events that I have been in this year have been way-down in participation. This was my first year at Iola and had been warned that there was no-way I would see a quarter of it in one day - well, no- problem seeing quite a bit (wasn't looking for anything, no-bucks equals no-need). I also went to the BRIC vintage races at Road America today and the rich guys were a bit down on car count as well. What's going on?
This is a really good, really valid question and would probably be deserving of a thread of it's own. That seems to be the trend this year. Last year, I had some old car bodies and parts and I sold that shit as fast as I could put it up for sale. This spring when I was trying to sell stuff, seems like no one is interested. And since I'm not able to sell much, I don't have shit for $ to spend, so it's a trickle down effect. I wonder what's going on. Sure gas is expensive, but does it have that much effect?
We may have hit the skids due to the cost of gasoline and the trickle down effect that hits everything we use. We only have a certain amount of discresionary income to spend each week. This is the money that is left after the house, car, food, utility payments etc. are paid. As the price of gas goes up, our extra money goes down. Very soon the added burden of high gas prices will cause the price of everything that gets delivered to market to rise. This will further destroy our hobby. I talked to the T shirt guy from Iola today at NSRA and he said the participant and spectator count at Iola was down alot this year, Maybe NSRA thought the show would tank and decided to save their advertizing budgeted monies????
I believe we are just seeing a shift in our hobby to do more of the grass roots shows and stuff because people are trying to save money were they can but still want to do stuff!!!!!! the Free shows I have gone to this year have had big numbers!
If grass roots shows and saving money is what you like then don't miss the 44th Annual CHEATRAMA on August 19th, that is the Same Saturday as The Good Guys Festival of Colors, but our show starts at 2:30 in the afternoon. Which gives most folks plenty of time to donate a cool $50ish to the Good Guys, and then still head down to THE NITE OWL DIner on 830 East Layton Ave in Milwaukee to check out The Hot Rod & Kustom Jihad! ANd if cheap is your game, then welcome aboard, our show is $5 Lousy bucks! Always has been, always will be. We would lower the price, but then we would have to ship the show to China! Thank you for your time, and God Bless The Greenbay Packers! 15 Time Mr. Nude Milwaukee (both short mans class & overall) Southern Milwaukee Timing Association Charter Member (S.M.T.A) Tito Barris Fan Club President Speedy Rats Personal Trainer (I show him how to cuff his jeans) Carl D. Urbaniak
I couldn't sit around all day waiting to get one of the 500 trophies, so I went for a ride instead. Besides, I don't have any air bags, so I don't think I could become a true member of the NSRA.
Another observation about the NSRA show was that there were very few women in the crowd. The mickey mouse craft show area they had set up for the women was also very weak. Hmmmmm.... Kermit
I don't go to any other NSRA shows other than Louisville, so I didn't know it was open to newer cars, when did that start ? I haven't been to Lville since 04, but I guess I didn't notice them if they were. I think the economy is absolutely slowing the show / event thing. The last few years we've been going to an event or show almost every weekend. Since the gas went to 1.70 and 1.90, let alone where it is now, we noticed a downturn. Looking back now, it's obvious things are far from how they used to be. Now, unless the event is close, which most big events aren't, you can pretty much count on the fact that with gas at 3.00gal., meals and one or 2 nights hotel room, a $40.00 or 50.00 entry, just for a couple, you've spent $500.00-600.00 before you ever left home, heaven forbid you have more than one kid, or have a breakdown or something unexpected that hammers you for another $500.00. People would have to come home and get a loan. Unless you're very well paid, people can't afford to spend $500.00-$700.00 a weekend. It used to be you could run to a show a couple hundred miles away, stay one night and have a good time for around $150.00-$175.00 People just can't throw $600.00+ down twice, or even once a month anymore. .
I breezed through the show in about 2-1/2 hours satuday morning. Mostly high dollar street rods, not to may traditional style hot rods that I like to see. The swap meet was real small, only about a dozen sellers. With the 95 degree heat by 11:30am I split for home. The Good Guys Waukesha show car count was down last year but I think there were more hot rods. I don't know if I'll go this year or not. Probably just hit the Nite Owl and look at the good shit!
I agree. I think it's because people are starting to use the internet for promotion and organization more than TV, radio, flyers, etc and are setting up their own shows. I think the 'NSRA' type organizations need to realize this and make some adjustments in their 'business model' or a decline in attendance and stagnation are a definite. I know I'd rather go to a small show with 100% traditional rods than an NSRA show and have to filter out 98% of the billet-laden, fuel-injected crate motor crap...
I did not go to the NSRA show. I did go to Galena Il sat nite for the party at the motel. It started out slow then picked up after the sun went down. Talked to some people that were in Milwaukee fri and sat then drove to Galena sat afternoon. I think there is getting to be a lot of shows (local and national). And yea with the high cost of gas, hotel and registration people have to pick and chose. I decided not to drive the 2 hours to Milwaukee on saturday because of being out in the heat all of last week and because I kinda forgot about the show till thursday night. I use to go everywhere every weekend, but I am starting to slow down and pick my favorites and make sure I go. Also after I spent the weekend before in Iola I decided to stay closer too. Just my thoughts.....
NSRA = "No Steel Rods Allowed".................haha.......oh yea, Ryan if you read this, a guy that I work with was talking about the NSRA in Oklahoma back in the late 90's and some "Punk" kid getting tossed out for hotrodding. I just chuckled and I thought of you. Chris
Geez...I hardly ever listen to terrestrial radio but I heard Wings Callahan's NSRA ads several times during the week preceding the Milwaukee Nationals.... Buying media in any market is tough...I used to have a 100K/year budget for a weekly racing venue where I did the PR and advertising. Every week my spectators and drivers would complain that they never heard any advertising....despite the fact that I bought radio time in three markets...over 200 spots per week on six stations and about 300 column inches of print in a dozen papers...
A few points: 1. Back to the 50's set a record, over 12,000. $25.00 pre-registered. 2. Goodguys, Des Moines almost 3,000. $50.00 not-pre-registered. 3. Friday nite Cruise, No. St. Paul. 600 cars (a guess) Free. 4. Sat. nite Cruise, Anoka 600 cars (a guess) Free. 5. Hunnert Car Pile Up 800 cars (a guess) 5 bucks. With the free stuff and the interesting cars at gatherings like Hunnert Car Pile-up, I ain't gonna go on any overnight trips to small NSRA or Goodguys shows where there's only a handful of interesting rods. At Btt50's there's enough cars where you can find a few hundred to catch your interest. Also, you will notice most of the guys with expensive rods don't bother looking at other rods. Even though I'm elderly, sitting in a lawn chair all weekend is boring. I hope the trend to include driving events or drag racing continues. NSRA had driving events in the past. Maybe they'll try it again. I find myself going to the local 1/8 mile dragstrip on test and tune day and running one of my rods. It's a bit more exciting than looking at Billet wheels, HOK paint and $10,000 interiors all weekend.
Ok.... Ok... OK... I'm going to say something that may be contraversial... I don't attend most of those shows because I have other places to go or other people to see...!!! Plain and simple as this... Summertime in the U.S.... and more so in the northern states... are jam packed with billions of events each day! Otherwise I'd go... some of my friends that attended this event came home with some good time memories, very expensive door prizes, and yes... Trophy's...!!! (Did I mention Door prizes... drawings... free stuff...!!!) And some just came home Sunburned and hung over...! Not all shows are my cup of tea... but are the fun and the lifeblood of others...!!!! Who am I to say what Sucks or what's Cool... the important thing I found out... is that life is SHORT... quit bitchin... and enjoy what you enjoy and leave the others alone if they enjoy something different...!!! Thank God for the NSRA, GOODGUYS, NHRA, AHRA, SCCA, NASCAR, NRA, etc.... it gives millions of people other things to do besides sitting in front of their computers judging the world from their air conditioned cubicle... AW Shit... WTF.... I just described my pitiful ass...!!! I'm out of here...!!! Hahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahhahahahahahahahahahahha
Good point, now that I think about it. While I didn't go to Goodguys Indy, only because my daughter had a dance recital, I thought it was so cool that they had to get out and drive (was it 120 miles?) the car, then drag race it to win whatever award it was. You just know that it just burned up the, roll-it-out-of-the-enclosed-trailer-to-the-parking-spot guys. "I'm not driving my car on the highway"....."I'm not beating my motor/drivetrain". That was a stroke of genius. .
With the Good Guys leaving and the NHRA having low attendance sounds like Milwaukee is not the place to have a car show. The Columbus Good Guys show was packed and if Louisville is like last year 14,000 cars is a bunch.
Plain and simple as this... Summertime in the U.S.... and more so in the northern states... are jam packed with billions of events each day! Wingnutz/you are very right.....WAAAAY too many events.....small and large......Getting large numbers out to these events is harder every year....too much competion,..and $$$ are limited.. You pick and chose where to go....and there is soooooo much to chose from.
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