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Paris Mt DH and Super D race canceled

FCLinder

Turbo Monkey
Mar 6, 2002
4,402
0
Greenville, South Carolina
I am sorry to say but it now looks like the St. Francis Sports Medicine Paris Mt DH and Super D race is canceled for this year. Due to lack of Sponsorship $$ (we do have just not what we need at this time), we have decided to hold off till next year. The board will be meeting soon to look at dates for the possibility of a early Spring Race in 2011. Understand our overall goal has been to raise $$ to add a much needed trail at the park. Last year’s event was great and I feel the race went smoothly, but the event didn’t profit much to help the cause. When I first set out to put this event on I would have not been able to do it without the help of the UpState SORBA Group. They have been great!!!! So in respect to our board I will side with them if they feel it’s not right to put it on at this time. We are regrouping with all our great sponsors and looking at our options for the 2011 race. Our goal is to grow the event to help profit the cycling community here in Greenville SC and make it a place known to all cyclist across the nation. To be able to give back to our sport!!!! Myself and the board don’t want you to get discouraged about our decision and understand we want to keep the event ongoing for years to come.

I want to say a big thanks to St. Francis Sports Medicine and all our great $$ and product sponsors from the years past.

Thanks,
Cecil
 
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FCLinder

Turbo Monkey
Mar 6, 2002
4,402
0
Greenville, South Carolina
We have some good things planned for 2011. :)

Now with all this extra time to get it sorted out, I bet the Paris Mtn race is gonna be awesome when it happens.
My main goal in the beginning was to grow the event to be a once a year large bike festival in Greenville SC with MTB racing at Paris Mt., Road Racing and a DS Race downtown Greenville. I want it to be a big old party. I still plan to make this happen in Greenville and will……..

Cecil
 

bizutch

Delicate CUSTOM flower
Dec 11, 2001
15,928
24
Over your shoulder whispering
I'll say only one thing and it is not a negative at all. Cancelling the event because of a minimal return on investment will hamper if not halt progress for future fundraising when the event comes up again. I know my plea will fall on deaf ears, but it's not a good idea to think that cancelling will aid future fundraising efforts.

Consistency, recognition, exposure and volunteer effort can only be helped if you choose to maintain a presence in the calender with this event. If it's cancelled, 2011 sponsorship and profitability will take a hit and hamper the club's efforts to firmly establish it's presence in the park and community.

Is there a dollar figure that would meet the events needs to help it break even.

Sometimes looking at long term goals makes more sense than the now.
 

waterdogs

Monkey
Jul 30, 2010
817
0
Upstate SC
With the possibility of my wife and I relocating to Greenville within the next two months highly likely I was hoping to attend my first DH race. I hope that everything turns around for 2011.

If there is any type of DH group meetings or rides (including planning for next year), please educate me, I'd love to hook up with anyone and ride, of course after we get settled into town.
 

FCLinder

Turbo Monkey
Mar 6, 2002
4,402
0
Greenville, South Carolina
With the possibility of my wife and I relocating to Greenville within the next two months highly likely I was hoping to attend my first DH race. I hope that everything turns around for 2011.

If there is any type of DH group meetings or rides (including planning for next year), please educate me, I'd love to hook up with anyone and ride, of course after we get settled into town.
Feel free to PM me anytime. I will be glad to show you around.

Cecil
 

Guard

Monkey
Apr 21, 2004
486
0
Wilkes "By God" County
Man I hate to hear that. If profit is the goal then not many folks are going to like what I say. USA Cycling is the way to go. Yes it does create additional expense for the racer but we've found its a lot cheaper to obtain insurance. Now you have to have a USA Cycling Official for the race but what we did was have one of our club members go through the process to get his license. After that its a minimal charge each year to renew the officials license. The result is no charge for your official which initially presented a challenge. You can also obtain a timing system relatively cheap (PM if interested)...not a whole lot more than what you've been donating to us to use our system. Just estimating you would have around $500-$600 out of pocket to get setup with USA Cycling & the timing system. After you have these elements making a profit is easy to come by as long as you have volunteers.

The last small race we put on had 43 riders & we made just under $500. That was based on a $25 entry fee & providing subway sandwiches to boot.

Now if you really want to make some money then you should think about putting on an endurance race (24hr, 12hr, 6hr). Unfortunately participation for gravity & xc isn't no where close to that of endurance.
 

waterdogs

Monkey
Jul 30, 2010
817
0
Upstate SC
Thanks for the offer FCLinder, I will do that once we get there.

Also not meant in a negative manner in anyway..... I have to agree with bizutch. Just like running a small biz, you can't expect to make a profit for 3 to 5 years.... it's all about future growth.
 

eccorp

Chimp
May 18, 2010
56
0
How much r u lacking? Got people who will donate $$. Just need to know levels of sponsorship. Will u guys be discussing more at the sorba meeting Thursday night.
 

bizutch

Delicate CUSTOM flower
Dec 11, 2001
15,928
24
Over your shoulder whispering
Screw all the bells and whistles. No fancy party, no t-shirt, use USAC. Bump entry fee by $5.00 and let us rip it up. I'll gladly pay an extra $5.00 to race and let every bit of that $5.00 go right back to the trails. No fancy trophies. Give top 3 medals to each category (medals are $5.00 engraved), and $250.00 to top pro. Make pro podium 5 deep.

Get Spinx to donate a $500.00 fuel card to fill up the shuttle volunteer trucks and everybody hand out hugs at the finish!!! :D
 

waterdogs

Monkey
Jul 30, 2010
817
0
Upstate SC
Looks like between just the three latest posters, you've got some interest.... I was serious. Like I said, PM me when you get a chance.
 

Metal Dude

Turbo Monkey
Apr 7, 2006
1,139
0
Smackdonough, GA
Seems a little early to call it off at this point... especially with the above offers coming in, Do your magic Cecil - you can find some more sponsors!
 

profro

Turbo Monkey
Feb 25, 2002
5,617
314
Walden Ridge
Lets not get ahead of ourselves. This is the South. As Butch says, no need for t-shirts, parties, trophies, a billion volunteers with lunches and sound systems. Just give us a shuttle truck, a taped course, and some timing. Done. You might just worry about having fun for ourselves before you start worrying about making Greenville, SC known across the country from putting on a DH race.
 

BKQuill

Turbo Monkey
Dec 19, 2004
1,016
0
Rangers Lead the Way
Have to agree with Doug and Butch! Dude, it seems like you are trying to grow this overnight. I haven't been in the game long, but it's not my first rodeo either. Its going to take a while to be at the point your hoping for, skipping it will do exactly what Butch said, it will set you and the progress back.

You like all the glitz and glam Cecil, being in the spotlight and such, you know you do, i hope Greenville gets to the point, but you have to start at the bottom, it isn't going to happen over night or even in 5 years. But stop and think about it, we don't care about that, we just like having a race to go to. It's been said that the SE could actually have a race series with Hawksnest, Beech, Paris, and TTC. Perhaps Windrock, Sugar, Carters Lake? You have the gift of gab dude, perhaps you harness your talent and get together with all the other venues and SORBA(or not), USAC(or not) and we all could profit from a series in the SE.

That's all for today's sermon, now go on my brothers, and preach the word. And remember Jeremy 65:4 "It's like trying to milk a cat"
 

mattmatt86

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2005
5,347
10
Bleedmore, Murderland
How much is actually needed to host the race? We never received sponsorship money to host any of our races at Clemson, just prizes, and we were/are a bunch of half baked college kids. I know our races might not have the feel of a big race with tons of schwag, signage, free lunches, T-shirts etc. but it always seemed like everyone was having a good time. I'm sure if we had additional income from sponsors some of our "hiccups" at races could have been eliminated but that's part of the charm:thumb:
 
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waterdogs

Monkey
Jul 30, 2010
817
0
Upstate SC
Seems to be a re-occuring theme in each of these posts. I like the way profro put it.

We could just all show up on that day and do our own deal. I don't have a truck (I can put three on the roof and one in the back and the wife can drive), but I am sure we can find a member that does. I think the marker tape is dirt cheap at Home Depot.

The people have spoken.

(BTW, looks like we are relocating to the Greenville area).
 
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FCLinder

Turbo Monkey
Mar 6, 2002
4,402
0
Greenville, South Carolina
Ok, I hope I am able to answer most of your questions and concerns. I am very aware of what Butch and Doug said. It’s not total all my call. I have a great team behind this event and I have to stand behind their decisions too, even if it's not what I want to hear. We don’t want to give up on this event. At least I will not. I do agree with you Brian as I would love to help bring all the races together and help bring in some big sponsors to take care of it. Hell I would love for it to be my full time job, but come on. We all know it’s a part time job and only for the love of it. I never got anything for putting on the events and hell when I got 4th in the first event; I passed my prizes down to 5th place and added a 6th place prize by doing so. It’s not about me so get over it and don’t try to make it look like it is. I have been trying to give back to our sport to help it grow!!!! This is where I am best at right now in my time of life and not trying to be the fastest out there anymore.

Now back to the race. Please understand to put this event on we have to cover a lot and I mean a lot to keep the Park Happy. Stuff like logistics to cover parking, people in the park, shuttling the racers, shutting down parts of the park, etc. One reason behind having a lot of volunteers. It’s not anywhere as easy as putting on an event at a Ski Resort. Hell the first year we had over 800 spectators alone and we had to cover moving those people around. Now with the cost. It cost us about $7500 to put the event on last year and we made about $9000 total. I know we can cut a lot of cost here and there. We look at that already. The magic number is $7500 raise through sponsors before one entry fee is paid. We are tring to rasie money to add trails at the park. That cost will be about $10K to ruff it in. If we are not raise the money from the race we may have to put our efforts in somewhere else to raise the money.

For 2011 we are already talking to our sponsors and new sponsors to cover a raise the cost to put the event on and do it right. By the way if you don’t know me, I like to do it right the first time and I put a lot of passion into the things I do. So I will not half ass anything. Also we will have a very big name in cycling world stepping in to help. Like I said before it’s not all about the DH race. It was just easier to host a DH race than a Super D or XC race in the park. Over the years we have ganged the Parks trust to grow and add more events. We want to make sure it’s done right to keep this trust.

I assure you all I will do my best to make sure keep this event a live in the years to come. I also would be glad to take some time at the up and coming Beech Mt race to talk to SE race promoters about the possibility of putting on a real Race Series much like the old days if they want. I would also suggest DH racers to sit in on this meeting to make suggestions. Maybe we can bring back MADRA. Now this would have to be with all race promoters in and not fighting each other over sponsorship $$ and kill it all for everyone. I will not let that happen and will not have anything to do with it if it does get that way again.

I have always had a strong love for the Sport and will always.

I will keep you all updated on the progress.

Cecil
 
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FCLinder

Turbo Monkey
Mar 6, 2002
4,402
0
Greenville, South Carolina
Seems to be a re-occuring theme in each of these posts. I like the way profro put it.

We could just all show up on that day and do our own deal. I don't have a truck (I can put three on the roof and one in the back and the wife can drive), but I am sure we can find a member that does. I think the marker tape is dirt cheap at Home Depot.

The have spoken.

(BTW, looks like we are relocating to the Greenville area).
Please do not just show up and put on your own event. This will end it for all of us at the park for events. Plus riding in the Park on Saturdays in a NO GO and will stay this way. Saturdays is for Hikers only. We were lucky to beable to have the event on a Saturday.

Thanks,
Cecil
 
I just love going to the races and trying to do my best at competing. I've only got on the podium a few times, and most of those were pure luck. Being a sport racer, I don't count on winning any prizes. Back when Maxxis was a big sponsor of the series, I got a bunch of tires. Now I have a pile of dry rotted tires in my garage! I have a few medals that I like having to remember some of the races by, but that's about it.
I don't care about the t-shirts anymore, I have way too many that I don't wear anymore and will probably throw away.
Cecil, you should keep the race going and add the $5 like Butch said and put it towards the trail. Ask for donations also. If your ultimate goal is to raise money for trail maintenance, sponsorship money should be secondary. I'd even bet that hte pro riders would be willing to just race each other just to see who wins. If they get some cash back, I'm sure they would be haapy if it would cover the expenses for the weekend.
I would love it if just once I won enough cash to cover gas and hotel and entry fee, but I know it will probably never happen.
I just want to race at as many different places as I can, and with venues coming and going (TTC, Beech, Charlotte, Windrock) I think we can all agree that any place to race is a good place. Damn the prizes.
Just let us race...
 

BKQuill

Turbo Monkey
Dec 19, 2004
1,016
0
Rangers Lead the Way
It’s not about me so get over it and don’t try to make it look like it is.
Whoa there junior, don't go putting words in my mouth. I said you like the spotlight and all the glam and glitz. Meaning you want the event to be a showcase race for the SE, which I agreed with you.

Careful Cecil.
 

waterdogs

Monkey
Jul 30, 2010
817
0
Upstate SC
Please do not just show up and put on your own event. This will end it for all of us at the park for events. Plus riding in the Park on Saturdays in a NO GO and will stay this way. Saturdays is for Hikers only. We were lucky to beable to have the event on a Saturday.

Thanks,
Cecil
I was only kidding. I know better than that.

I don't think anyone was implying it was all about you and with your explanation of things it should make more sense to everyone. The jist, at least from what I took away from it, was everyone was voicing their support of the event (hence the offers to help either with personal time or financial support). Of course people are going to be disappointed, can you really blame them? Any event of any kind that someone looks forward which doesn't happen is going to leave those people a bit empty.

It's all good. Feed off the positive support for motivation, don't feed off the negative and let it get to you.
 

profro

Turbo Monkey
Feb 25, 2002
5,617
314
Walden Ridge
It cost us about $7500 to put the event on last year
What? :shocked:


Maybe I'm just a simpleton, but the first TTC race had someone's girlfriend standing at the start gate holding a cell phone with the speaker on and some guy at the bottom counted us off. Once on course, I really didn't have any different experience between the TTC race and the Paris Mtn. race. Sure I won a little less money at the TTC, but my over all experience was the same. But I can bet you the TTC didn't spend $75 to put on the race let alone $7500. Maybe its just as well we don't have it anymore. No SE race is worth that much cost to promoters.

Heck, the timing got screwed up at the TTC and they gave my money away to someone else. But I didn't enter to win money and it cost $30 to race. Factor in a $10/day permit and the shuttle, I bet I raced for as little as $10. Still was fun and quite a bargain.

Furthermore, we put on the entire Windrock Festival at a cost of $0. That includes a shuttle truck (although we do ask for gas money donations) and free beer and burgers (while they last). It also includes a lot of swag and a darn good time. Nothing fancy, but a good time.
 
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FCLinder

Turbo Monkey
Mar 6, 2002
4,402
0
Greenville, South Carolina
I was only kidding. I know better than that.

I don't think anyone was implying it was all about you and with your explanation of things it should make more sense to everyone. The jist, at least from what I took away from it, was everyone was voicing their support of the event (hence the offers to help either with personal time or financial support). Of course people are going to be disappointed, can you really blame them? Any event of any kind that someone looks forward which doesn't happen is going to leave those people a bit empty.

It's all good. Feed off the positive support for motivation, don't feed off the negative and let it get to you.
I know, just didn't want others to think they can just show up and do what they want. We have worked very hard to get what we have at our Park and I don't want to lose it because of a Bad Seed.

Thanks for understanding,
Cecil
 

waterdogs

Monkey
Jul 30, 2010
817
0
Upstate SC
I know, just didn't want others to think they can just show up and do what they want. We have worked very hard to get what we have at our Park and I don't want to lose it because of a Bad Seed.

Thanks for understanding,
Cecil
My bad, poor choice of words on my part..... but I was only kidding (should have put that at the end of the statement).
 

FCLinder

Turbo Monkey
Mar 6, 2002
4,402
0
Greenville, South Carolina
What? :shocked:


Maybe I'm just a simpleton, but the first TTC race had someone's girlfriend standing at the start gate holding a cell phone with the speaker on and some guy at the bottom counted us off. Once on course, I really didn't have any different experience between the TTC race and the Paris Mtn. race. Sure I won a little less money at the TTC, but my over all experience was the same. But I can bet you the TTC didn't spend $75 to put on the race let alone $7500. Maybe its just as well we don't have it anymore. No SE race is worth that much cost to promoters.

Heck, the timing got screwed up at the TTC and they gave my money away to someone else. But I didn't enter to win money and it cost $30 to race. Factor in a $10/day permit and the shuttle, I bet I raced for as little as $10. Still was fun and quite a bargain.

Furthermore, we put on the entire Windrock Festival at a cost of $0. That includes a shuttle truck (although we do ask for gas money donations) and free beer and burgers (while they last). It also includes a lot of swag and a darn good time. Nothing fancy, but a good time.
Doug I fully understand your thoughts. My problem is when I do something I do it big!!!! Well at least I try too. We can cut back a lot. We put $2200 to the Pro purse alone. Then the cost to shut down the park for the day wasn’t about $750. Then our cost for Marketing and advertisement. Cost to feed and give all our volunteers a Tee to thanks them for helping. Yes to put on the event at Paris it will cost a lot. Without the volunteers this event will not happen because of what the park requires out of us to cover.

But also understand I wanted to bring a DH Race to an area like Greenville. Where the cycling population is high and spectators would want to come watch the event. We cater to them too and not just the racers. You were not at the first race where we had 800+ people watching the racers come down the hill. Now last year’s race the rain played a big factor in the crowd. You ask anyone that was at the first years race and they will say it was one of the cools things ever to race down a hill lined 6 people deep watching them. Name another race in the last 5 maybe 6 years in the US that had that. I am not trying to get props for this, but only to add to the wow factor or experience for the racers.

Just understand I am trying to make things happen and keep the event alive,

Cecil
 

danielsapp414

Monkey
Mar 27, 2005
274
0
Boone, NC
Damn Cecil...I'm kicking my own ass after I really vouched for your event months ago and told one of your sponsors to really hook it up this year for Paris Mtn. I told them that it's where they should put their money and product after they called me to get the big picture after talking to you. I can almost promise that they won't be helping you make it bigger in the future no matter how much I say it'll be legit (which now I won't.) Thanks for working on ruining any credibility I have with them and for letting a lot of people down because it wasn't going to be the "all hail king cecil for putting on the biggest and best race in the southeast ever" show. I may be totally off but thats how it looks to me.

You say you do something and do it big, well canceling something just because it's not going to be quite as epic as you wanted, or even not nearly as epic as you wanted is pretty lame in my opinion.
 
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profro

Turbo Monkey
Feb 25, 2002
5,617
314
Walden Ridge
dsapp, if you got any cred left, which I'm sure you do. Float some swag the way of the Windrock Fest for our raffle. :spam:
 
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drkenan

anti-dentite
Oct 1, 2006
3,441
1
west asheville
Damn Cecil...I'm kicking my own ass after I really vouched for your event months ago and told one of your sponsors to really hook it up this year for Paris Mtn. I told them that it's where they should put their money and product after they called me to get the big picture after talking to you.
While I don't think your street cred is ruined in any sense of the word, just know that everyone learns this lesson at some point in life. Hence why I rarely vouch for anyone anymore.
 

danielsapp414

Monkey
Mar 27, 2005
274
0
Boone, NC
I've learned the lesson too many times...it's fine, I'm done looking out for other people besides myself and a select couple others I can trust. I typically don't vouch for many people either, but when a good friend who is the rep for a certain company calls me up and asks me where to put their money (choice of a couple events) and I tell them what I think is most legit, it just burns me to see not only the event not happen because the promoter can't make it big as he would like, but also one of the rep's projects.
 

Trilliamiano

Monkey
Oct 7, 2007
205
0
Boone, NC
Come on guys dont give up love this race!
I love the race too bro! This was my first public DH I ever raced and I loved every minute of it. It's a great venue to get more people into DH because the track isn't very intimidating (I got edged out in the hardtail class by a dude with shaved legs) and it's close to a large population center.

If the date wasn't the same weekend as Collegiate Natty Champs then DB would be in there right now to help get the ball rollin. I'm Prez of the ASU mtn biking team this year so I've gotta focus on bringin home some hardware to the High Country
 

FCLinder

Turbo Monkey
Mar 6, 2002
4,402
0
Greenville, South Carolina
danielsapp414, did you read the whole Thread? Like I said before and will say it again!!!!! It was not my call to cancel the event!!!!! You guys need to get over it, I have and I want it to happen more than any of you!!!! I am sure all in the UpState SORBA group will say this is true. So don’t hold it all on my head or I will just walk completely away from trying to keep this event alive. Its just not going to happen this year!!!!. I worked my Ass off to make this event the way it was. The group did too. Hell I lost my wife over cycling too!!! For you to say this about me is total Crap!!!! You are acting like someone else on here that never knows what the hell he’s talking about when it comes to my life, what I am doing, or have done. It’s sh”t like this that pisses me off!!!! So easy to blame someone when they don’t know the whole story…… Yes I did say I like to do things big or not do them at all. Having an event in Greenville and at Paris Mt State Park is a big thing even without the bells and whistles.

If you would like to learn and fully understand what is going on and why the event was canceled please feel free to call me. I will be nice over the phone as I know I was not in this post. It’s just this got me a little pissed.

Cecil
864-630-4442
 
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FCLinder

Turbo Monkey
Mar 6, 2002
4,402
0
Greenville, South Carolina
I've learned the lesson too many times...it's fine, I'm done looking out for other people besides myself and a select couple others I can trust. I typically don't vouch for many people either, but when a good friend who is the rep for a certain company calls me up and asks me where to put their money (choice of a couple events) and I tell them what I think is most legit, it just burns me to see not only the event not happen because the promoter can't make it big as he would like, but also one of the rep's projects.
By the way, I have no idea what your talking about here ether? The race date is less than 2 months out and I have never heard anything about or from another sponsor..... This may have saved the event.... The Sorba Board is who called the event. I am just one person on that board.

Cecil