ricks327

Being from Michigan, I have no inclination to come to Florida for just a NCRS Regional Judging meet in early January. The last time I was there was the last meet at Old Town, spent 1/2 of a day because there was nothing else to see or buy and that was a stretch. I went further south to play golf with fellow work retirees. We also use to come to Tampa in late Feb for a week of golf but now have switched to Phoenix for a better chance of good weather.
Take it for what it is worth but what is the draw for long range visitors to come to Lakeland other than a judging event? When Michigan has had regional or national NCRS meets there were many other social and car related events planned for people to attend. I think you have to have something else for people to do other than a judging event and a marginal swap meet. Not complaining but not coming either. Take my comments as a visitor and you are trying to get me to attend.

rich5962

I just this second got off the phone with Tyler. He's composing some notes for you all.

It's a tough job to please everyone. We're really trying to do it so everyone can come to enjoy the hobby, then leave with a good feeling and say it was worth the trip. In order to keep it from becoming just a few cars being judged under a tent in a 7-Eleven parking lot, we need to come up with a plan to cover financial reductions in one area with financial additions in others. We need to be self supporting. Tyler will explain in his post.

I am hoping we can do it again in 2018 and that the scenes below are NOT the last Florida Winter Regional.

This was Saturday.

Enjoy,
Rich Mozzetta

Start at taxiway at Corvette parking areas and swap meet vendors and street rod show.

Continued. Street Rod show and swap meet vendors.

Hanger B Judging walk through.

Hanger A vendors.

Tom Hill and the '67 L88 leaving Sunday morning.

======

RatDog

Calling my idea and others' ideas dumb is a surefire way to keep this from becoming a p***ing contest.

Steve

wmf62

Bill

toms silver 60

Special thanks to the volunteers from Sun-n-fun, SACC, Cypress Gardens CC, Classic Corvettes of Orlando, Lakeland CC, NCRS and probably more. These guys and gals put in hundreds of hours under very good conditions, which was a welcome change. Great opportunity to see Corvette buddies to include: (I have CRS, so I missed a bunch)
Merle, Merryl, Whit and Richard McFarlin, Ron Dill, Bill Tower, Mike Coletta, Russ Sobzak, Roger Lester, Jim Morris, Willie Strelnik, Gil Lambert, Good Bill Herron, Doug White, Rich Mozetta, Wayne Sampson and many more.
The Lakeland Area bunch put in a lot of hours on the wet Saturday and COLD Sunday before the meet. Ed Augustine, Tyler and Monte have dedicated hundreds of hours during the past year to put it all together. Rich Mozetta worked throughout the entire meet driving his special golf cart.
The SACC tent was manned by Ron Dill most of the time and they signed up a good number of new people as well as re-upping current members.
Parking was largely controlled by the Sun-n-fun volunteers, and everybody attending was able to park close to the action. (Sure beats Old Town and having your vehicle towed away).
We even had Batmobile show up in general parking!

It is amazing to me how many Corvette owners don't have a clue as to local Corvette clubs and this meet. Believe it or not, there was a open car show at "Boggy Bottom" which featured free BBQ with the $35? admission, and about 20 Corvettes showed up Saturday! Don't know if this group had already attended our meet, but if they had not, they really missed out on a great Corvette experience.
Looking forward to next year and great weather.

Chuck Gongloff

Hi Tom:

I have no clue where "Boggy Bottom" is located, however, I must say that the NCRS Regional in Florida is poorly advertised. Always has been, and I don't know why.

If it were not for several of us NCRS members mentioning the Regional at club meetings, both of my local Corvette Clubs would not have a clue about the event, and that's sad.

Mark_Milner

Steve, you may be offended, but a dumb idea is a dumb idea. I've had lots of dumb ideas, so I am kind of an expert of recognizing them.

Walt Disney World has been in Florida since 1965, with the Magic Kingdom opening October 1971 and Epcot opening October 1982. As such, EVERYONE knows that Disney has incredible facilities. Most who have been in the Corvette community knows that the NCRS Winter Regional was held at Disney once. It was prohibitively expensive. What many don't know is that it was relatively isolated at what is now the ESPN Complex. While you think it is in the middle of everything, it was a decent drive to get out of to restaurants and such. No one walked from there to their hotel or local restaurant.

To offer it as a suggestion implies you think Tyler, Ed, and others aren't smart enough to think about the elephant in the corner. They have been doing this long enough to probably know by first name each contact for each possible location, and what it will cost this year to use it.

So suck it up, and instead of thinking of the obvious locations, think of ways to either improve the one they are at or how to get a better one as cheaply or cheaper.

Central Florida Fairgrounds is another. It is a nice place, but it is right next to an area called Pine Hills, nicknamed Crime Hills by locals. It is the location where the cop killer is or was running around and hiding right now. The wives and girlfriends are definitely not walking across the street to eat and shop.

You live in Winter Garden. You should know this.


I'm anxious to hear what Tyler has to say. I'm sure he has a lot of information that may change a lot about what we have been talking about. then people will know the real scoop and what they need to do to help.

Bucsnbears

Many of those Corvettes that went to Boggy Bottom were part of the email list I sent out about NCRS. Advertising helps!

Dale002

rich5962

All of us have to ask ourselves why do we come to the Winter Regional...

Some do it because we enjoy the hobby and can combine our time with meeting old friends, making new ones, and having fun with cars at the same time.
Some do it for the fun of self driven competition of how well we did at making the old new again.
Some do it to show how we can take a car apart and remake it with new technology.
Some do it to bring cars or parts for sale to make a monetary profit.
Some do it to plan the Judging needs of the cars and Judge them as a volunteer for the promoting organization.
Some do it to for all or part of the above.

The Winter Regional allows all of these possibilities and more for everyone. It cannot survive without the help to organize it, the funds to pay for it, and the help to run it. The volunteers are just that. They pay something to volunteer. Some fly down, some drive many miles, some live close by. Why? Because they want to not because they have to. If we want to do something there is usually a cost. Sometimes small, sometimes substantial. So in the end, you have to ask yourself why do you come to the Winter Regional. If it doesn't satisfy the reason you come, then it's time to adjust.

Advertising will help and plans to improve that are coming. However there is a cost associated with that too and must be considered.

A large part of the income to pay for the event has come from the many vendors who travel many miles in search of sales to offset their costs and be well in the black. We all know what has been happening for years, and maybe we're disillusioned about why we think a location affects the outcome. Maybe it really isn't the location but just the trend. We cannot turn the clock back 3 years and see what the sales chart would show if at the old place. We need you, but if it doesn't make sense for you anymore it is understood. We will miss you and hope over time something changes and you come back.

We all need to offset these changes to continue. We need to find other ways and I sincerely hope we can find them to keep it going. We also need more help from within the promoting NCRS organization and also others from outside. Any help is welcomed and would surely help us continue. Tyler has been doing this for twenty five plus years. If anyone thinks he or she can do it better, I'm certain he would be in a position to pass it along. Until then, we should support him with help to find new ways to continue. Just remember that volunteer salaries don't pay too well.

Hope to see you next time.

Rich

Tyler Townsley

I guess I better weigh in here. Thanks for the recognition of the work we do in putting on the event, the guys helping me make it happen. It is important to recognize they are volunteers and they live close by, if we move I loose most of them. Any of you tried to get 10-15 people willing to donate 2-4 days in rain, cold or maybe some sunshine to layout lines, park cars and do security overnight?
I will list site the pros first.
1. The facilities, venue and host support are excellent. Sun N Fun has been a delight to work with on the facility support side and the venue is made for events like this.
2. This year we brought on a food vender that serves good food at a reasonable price, and is coming back.
3. Security is affordable and excellent.
4. Facility costs are reasonable.
5. Sun N Fun wants us to succeed and has been very supportive of what we have tried.
6. This location has a draw from area that rivals anyplace in the US: Tampa, Orlando, Ocala, St. Pete, Clearwater, Brandon, Sarasota and Bradenton are an easy one hour drive.
7. In spite of what you think the NCRS registration has not fallen off.
8. It is a successful NCRS Regional event.
9. The public parking has been realigned so that you can park within 50 feet of the swap meet field.
10. We have inside vending spaces, plenty of outside space for spaces and parking for venders.
11. The charge for a swap site is reasonable: 10x30 $75, inside 10x20 $125, outside 10x20 is $65 for the 4 days and a one day 10x30 space for $40.
12. This venue will not be sold/developed in the future so we do not have to worry about what happened to us at the Hyatt and Oldtown.
13. If you watched the traffic flow of vehicles and people it is a plan that can support at least 2500 vehicles with people. We had 150+ drive-in corvettes with room for 200+ more.
Cons:
1. We are all getting old!
2. Ebay has had a huge impact on the need to take your goods to any swap meet to sell.
3. Cars are being restored by professionals who know where to get parts today without waiting for the next swap meet.
4. None of us are promoters, if any of you want to take on the job I will be glad to have you, I can pay you the same as I am paid—nothing. We know it’s a problem and are committed to fixing it.
5. Hotels and facilities are not on site.
6. Other entertainment is 30-45 min away.

I want to thank all who have had suggestions and those who commented on them.

Considerations:
1. We cannot compete with the Mecum dog and pony show.
2. We are going back to the 3rd week of Jan for the show.
3. We will always have swap meet spaces as part of the meet.
4. We will always have a NCRS Regional as part of the meet.
5. The street rod element for Saturday will grow in the future.
6. Carlisle spent a lot of money promoting their November event and it did not seem to get the desired result.
7. One of those helping me is into the big wheel cars with boom boxes. These events charge $20 to get into the event and have to close the gates due to crowd size and run out of area to display the cars. The crowds are at least 20 years younger than we are. The draw market is Tampa, Orlando, St Pete, Clearwater, Bradenton, Sarasota and Ocala.
8. Rich tried REAL hard to get the Corvette Super Sport to the event. Tom Hill has helped us with feature cars from a collection in Orlando and hopefully this will continue next year.
Every endeavor has to have a plan and we actually do have one. Several years ago we recognized the swap meet could not continue to be the major draw to the meet. But In order to continue we needed better facilities with room to grow, reasonable expenses and a layout that could be set up and run by volunteers. To that extent we have accomplished our goal.
Our first consideration is to have an event that has free admission, we want to cover our expenses with just a $5 parking fee but free to Corvettes. I think we did that this year but not all the charges have come in. (We had 150+ Corvettes there Saturday.)
Our second consideration is the NCRS event must continue to be one NCRS members want to come to because of the level of judging and facilities available for classes and cars.
Our third consideration is we will always provide a vender field/facility that rivals any in the US.
Our fourth consideration is to keep it family friendly.
Our fifth consideration is to keep it a car show, with a heavy Corvette emphasis.
So who are our principal customers and how do we reach them? It’s not the guy who flies in to go to the Mecum auction then our event. It’s not the guy who brings his family down for a vacation and splits his time between Mecum and our event while the family goes to the parks. While we do hope our future events have activities to attract these people, we feel the folks who live in the areas mentioned above are those we want to attract in the future. Your ideas on how to make that happen are invited to post your thoughts or how you can help.

Tyler

65hihp

thanks for the detailed response Tyler. I enjoyed your meet immensely this year, thanks mainly to the fine weather that you arranged for, and the much improved food.
No matter where you would go, and how you would run the meet, some people would complain, because they like to. Many would never come out to an NCRS meet in any case. I'm sure that you are always looking to improve your meets, and it shows. Keep up the good work. We'll see you again in Lakeland in 2018. Thank you,

rfn026

We all owe you a huge thank you for everything you've done.

This was my 3rd time and I'll be back next year.

With all of the bitching I just wonder if some people have ever been to other shows.

I'm cutting back on a lot of shows this year. No more Monterey. No more Amelia. I even skipped the Lake Mirror show this year. I really really like a small event. There is a place for this type of event.

We already have enough events where a hotel room is $500+ with a 3 night minimum. And an event where you might be stuck in traffic for over an hour.

I love the Lakeland event.

Richard Newton
Zora's Retirement Project

Frankie the Fink

Reading this thread has been more exasperating than driving down to Lakeland and paying a few bucks more for a hotel room...

Wherever the NCRS Winter Regional winds up next year I am hoping the moderators will repost this thread after globally replacing the word "Lakeland" with whatever the name of the new location is.

Then everybody would have their b!tching already out there in cyberspace and could go back to watching Oprah and Springer next year instead of supporting the hobby

jimgessner

Thank you Tyler and all your staff. It was so much easier when I was on the NCRS National Board in 1980-86. And I was 37 years younger. I fully understand all your efforts to keep a tradition going successfully.

I remember when the So Cal NCRS Chapter sponsored our annual judge meet at the Mondavi Winery in Orange County. WHAT A GREAT EVENT !

The second year, due to costs, we asked any local Corvette club to set up their WSCC/ NCCC event and have a companion Corvette show. Corvettes of So Cal took the invitation to heart and created their show with our show. It was a big success, but within minutes after the the fun 3 day weekend, NCRS National pulled our chapter charter as we had violated NCRS By laws that stated
''events can only be NCRS CORVETTE '' approved functions.

We made amends and got the chapter reinstated, and never did a co-event again. The following year was the last chapter Mondavi location event. We lost money. If the event had continued, it would still be there today in its 35th year of success.

In 2003, I worked with a great Corvette friend Stan Freese who was the entertainment director of DISNEY Anaheim. We presented ''50 YEARS OF CORVETTE'' on Main Street in downtown Disney''. It was a great show that everyone enjoyed. It was an invitational where Corvette owners of each of 50 years brought their great classic Corvettes. One of every 50 years were displayed.

Dick Guldstrand was a feature speaker on the Main Street stage and introduced his new book with Dave Friedman ''CORVETTE RACING''. Randy Leffingwell introduced his new book , ''CORVETTE 50 YEARS''

Our NCRS Chapter talked about doing future Regional meets using the same venue. Costs were prohibitive.

Thanks to Rich and his videos, I see you have a great event location and venue. FLORIDA CHAPTER NCRS has a great January Regional history.

Maybe the PORSCHE and FERRARI clubs should be invited also. I am 1200 miles closer and plan to drive next year.

emccomas

I did say I was going to stay out of this, but....

Let me start out by saying I have the utmost respect and admiration for the efforts of the FL chapter (and other) members that worked so hard to make this event a success. This is not an easy thing to organize, and the FL chapter people always do a great job.

Now, so long as many of you in this thread equate questions about who, what, when, where, and why and suggestions for improvement as "bitching", we will never have a constructive dialog about this.

If your only contribution to this thread is to "take to task" anyone that is, as you see it, "bitching", your value add is actually less than zero.

I am reminded of an old saying..."Some people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

I hope (health issues permitting) to be at the 2018 event, and driving my by then recently restored 1956 Bel Air 4 door sedan.

Any further comments / suggestions / questions from me will be via PM.

fyreline

OK, since I started this thread, I guess it's time for me to react to all that's been said. You may want to go back and re-read my very short and simple opening post. Let me provide the background that I am a New York resident with a winter home in the St. Pete/Clearwater area, an NCRS member, and currently own two corvettes - a 2007 convertible I bought new which is my fair-weather driver back in NY, and a very nice 1962 pictured in my opening post. I attend all of the local shows back in New York, belong to the Syracuse Corvette Club, and have attended Corvettes at Carlisle every year since about 1990. I first attended the NCRS Regional in Florida on its first year at Sun N' Fun, so this is my third year there. It's a very convenient drive over from our Florida place. I am not looking for a "family outing" (my wife and I are both - finally - retired), I don't need a hotel, and we can eat wherever we like either coming or going to the event. I have very much enjoyed meeting so many knowledgeable and friendly Corvette people over my three years' experience at Sun N' Fun. The cars are spectacular, the judging process second to none by some very dedicated individuals, and I have learned a lot about my 1962 that has guided my tinkering to get it back to as close to factory condition as I can. I don't need a lot of big parts for it, and it's always nice to find a few odds and ends - but realistically, I have Corvettes at Carlisle for that and it's unrealistic to expect a Regional NCRS Meet to compete with them, vendor-wise. Even the Carlisle show is down in vendors due to the internet. Here in Florida, I look at it as a great day out with great Corvette people, and a chance to educate myself along the way. I will usually buy my wife some new Corvette clothing, maybe a new book or the like. I'm there to see the cars, see them judged, and meet the people. In these respects the event was, once again this year, a complete success for me. Kudos to those who arrange and produce it - I know from working with our local Syracuse Corvette Club back in New York that when we do our annual fund-raising "Vettes at the Beach" show in Sylvan Beach, NY every July with about 400-500 Corvettes in attendance just how much work and planning is involved. I am sure that I may not be the typical "target audience" for the Florida event - after all, I haven't brought my '62 down to be judged (yet), I'm just there for the Corvettes and don't really need a lot of other amenities. Those things are certainly going to need to be part of the mix to keep the event successful - they just aren't that important to me personally. I do appreciate the improved parking situation, the free admission, and I think the Hot Rod Show was a nice addition which my wife and I both enjoyed. All in all, well done by all.

I will be back next year.

Mark_Milner

Thanks, Tyler, for your message.


The show is what it is. The sad part is, the show is at a great location, but we have been spoiled by Kissimmee for 17 years. It is hard to compete with a location where you get to be at the Corvette show all day, can walk to several really good restaurants, maybe even to your hotel, while the rest of the family go play at Disney or Universal or something.

(Realistically, they can still do Disney from Lakeland.)

The reality is very few shows past or present come close to that anywhere else in the country. Several don't come close to Lakeland.

I'm not crazy about the big wheels/loud radios group, mainly because I have seen a couple of other shows that brought this group of car enthusiasts into the main show, and within a year or two, the original show had been consumed. I think the NCRS Winter Regional could simply be overwhelmed by doing so, even though the influx of money and people is probably needed.

Now if you can really keep a limit to the number that enter as entrants, then they will bring in a great crowd of spectators and not overtake the main theme of the show.