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Car Show and Cruise Night Input Needed

2K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  HemmiGremmie 
#1 ·
Hello Guys,

I wanted to run an idea past you guys and get some input, and maybe experience and relative input.

To preface this, I am the President of an Alumni Board for my College fraternity. They have come up with an idea of trying to set up a car show and cruise night as a yearly activity and fund raiser. Since I have never organized a show, I am not sure how they are usually put together. Is there usually a small charge, say $20-$30, for an entry fee and then a cash payout based on number of entries? I know some are free and you get a dinky trophy, but I dont see that drawing a crowd. If we do this, we want it to be big.....but managable. If it is a success, it would become an annual event.

Any input you can offer on this would be helpful. I am trying to decide whether or not a car show is a valid fund raiser. I am sure that these larger shows that are giving away cash prizes are not just doing it for the heck of it. There is always money involved it seems to me. May be that sponsorship is the key.

Oh yeah, and I expect all of you Texas boys would come out for cruise night and show, right;)

Help me out guys.......

Chris
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Well I've never organized any shows or cruise nights but I can tell you about most that I have gone to/participated in. Most of the guys I know all say the same thing - "why should I pay to show my car?". My advise would be to keep the entry fee to a minimum. Most of the shows I go to charge around $5. Where you want to make money is in food, refreshments, and contests. Food can be whatever you can handle best, some shows have burgers and hotdogs, snacks, etc. and some refreshments. Contests like 50/50's raise lots of money. Some shows raffle off coupons to local businesses. This would require you to visit your local retail establishments to ask for donations in the form of discount coupons. Then you raffle off those coupons. Ex.= You have a coupon for a free pizza from a local pizzaria. You have people buy chances at 50 cents each. The more chances you sell the more you make. One show I was at had a 'dunk tank' set up. For $1.00 you got two chances to hit the target and dunk a cheerleader. The show was to raise money for the schools athletics department and the cheerleaders were helping out. It's also a good idea to have some free entertainment. I always liked the 'muffler rap' contest. All interested line up their cars and one by one drive in front of a judges table, stop their car, and then rev the snot out of it to see who can sound the coolest. It is not just the loudest but you also look for that 'crackle' as the driver lets off the gas. Spectators usually stand nearby cheering drivers on. There are a lot of things you can do but try to not go overboard. You don't have to make a killing. Another thing I have found is that unless it's a big professionally judged event you don't need the biggest trophies in the world. If you want a good croud make it an event (lots of activities like mentioned) that will have people talking about it for months. Most of the shows that my friends and myself go to repeatedly are the ones that we have a great time at, not the ones with the best trophies (since most participants won't win a trophy anyway). One of the towns here has a show every 4th of July. They have a police escorted cruise through town in the AM which is timed to end at the parking lot when the show starts. I love that one. Now a 'cruise night' is different. Most of the clubs have a regular night that they get together and hang out. This could be monthly or weekly for a busy club. One club here got the ok from a local diner to use there parking lot once a month for a cruise night. Much smaller than a show, mostly that clubs members and locals it isn't intended to make money but more as a get-together. Usually just a DJ for some tunes and a 50/50 to make a little money. The biggest thing I would stress for a show is to keep the entry fee minimal so that all can enter, even though I have a car I like to show doesn't always mean I have extra money to blow (especially with three kids). Get everyone in as cheap as possible and then make what you can after they're there with fundraising stuff like mentioned. You would be amazed at how many times I went to a show and then ended up spending a bunch of money after I got there, but if you told me it was $15 just to show the car I would have stayed home. Spectators are usually free entry, get money out of them after they're there too. If I was in Texas I would be there in a heartbeat dude!


 
#3 ·
Chris, Don hit the high spots quite well. Around this area, $10 fee is about standard. Each entrant becomes a judge that gets a slip of paper with 10 blanks and his entry #. He/she then looks at the cars and puts down the entry number of the car they like best , second best etc. The small trophy/plaque is awarded to the vehicles that have the lowest scores. since there are usually classes, you need to let each know that they can pick the best in class, but still can only list 10 vehicles. Most shows/cruise ins have a sound system that has 50/60s music going when not in use for announcements etc. 50/50 tickets here are usually $1 each or 6 for $5. You have to be present to win the drawing and will keep drawing until there is a winner. Some will split the proceeds to go to 3 winners, particularly if there is good participation. I have seen as high as $850 given out. I'm like Don, don't like to pay money to let others look at my car/PU for free unless it is for a good cause, so you have to be up front as to the purpose of the show/cruise in. Do ask all the nonparticipants to make a voluntary donation for being able to take part in all the fun things for free. You would be surprised as to how many will make a small donation and it adds up and is 100% gain. Another thing to think about is the timing. Since you are in the DFW area, you don't want to fight the heat of the 4th of July as well as all the other activities. Work around the late fall or early spring when it is cooler and you odds for better weather is in your favor and check out dates the Cowboys/Mavericks/Rangers may be having a home game, or that you are not competing against the State Fair and the UT/OU slug fest at the Cotton Bowl. Last, let all your Buds on HR.com know the particulars and some may just show up!!

Trees
 
#4 ·
Turbo,
If you have enough space, you can rent out a small square to vendors, other clubs and merchandise reps.

For the first one, I would keep the food sales to hot dogs and hamburgs and condiments, plenty of soft drinks and water. You could go as far as having street hotdoggers come in and charge them a set price for the first show and help the economics around your area. I agree that food stuff is almost 90% profit.

You will need volunteers to help with parking, serving food and general crowd control. A way to do this is get other clubs involved and offer them an amount of money for the hours they participate. If they man a food booth they can take home 5 to 10%of the net gross for their club. Free event t shirts are enough for other folks to help park cars. If there are enough folks everyone shares the load and still get to see the cars.

Plenty of giveaways, go around to all the auto dealers, part stores, Walmarts and however and see what they will donate with their name on the product. Mention it as the give away is being completed.

It will take good leadership and coordination, I know it will be well worth it.
Dutch:thumbup:
 
#5 ·
Hey Turbo.
Ive always noticed that if your having a fund raiser type show, you can charge a little more entry as people dont mind helping out.
Do a lot of announcing. Maybe tell Advanced, Autozone, ect... that you will include there name on the flyers if they donate prizes for raffle's or let you announce the show for a few days on there sign out front.
DO!!!! If your allowing Imports, have a seperate trophy for them! Hotrodders hate nothing more than to have a Probe beat there 55 Chevy.
Imports can bring xtra funds, so keep it in mind.
Ive got more, but Im late 4 work. HG:thumbup:
 
#6 ·
Turbo...initially you will have to shell out some cash for trophies and dash plaques. Althoiugh you will get that back in entry fees. You will have to advertise and the more you do the larger the show. Also you will need some kind of draw card to attract the people. One is door prizes, another is a DJ playing some oldies and mix it up with some music for the younger rodders. Figure in some porta-jons. Hook up with someone that has a concession trailer. And plan on getting some electricity from somewhere. You will have to use some of the profits from the car show to pay for that stuff but might have to shell some out of your pocket too. At least for the first year. I would also look into making the show a worth while deal and any profits donate to a worthy charity. Mainly something like Make-A-Wish or something alomg that line. You could probably get in touch with the heads of the organization and they could give you some pointers on what to do. You could also go around and solicit donations from various places to help bring it all together. There are many things that you could do for a major draw card. Make-A-Wish for kids, donations for abused women, something along that line. Good luck and keep us informed if you go thru with it. I've often thought of the same thing.

Kevin
 
#7 ·
HEY TURBO: I started a car club here in Noblesville, Indiana and we have both a Car Show and a weekly Cruise In see our website at www.CIVV.FREESERVERS.COM The secret to both is to get the word out about your event. Best way is taking flyers to other events where car shows are taking place. You can list your event on a number of websites at no charge try www.usamotorevents.com www.hotrodhotline.com www.hemmings.com It takes a lot of planning and a couple of car type guys to promote and organize. GOOD LUCK....DAVE
 
#9 ·
Hey guys,

Thanks for all the input. Keep it coming.

You guys have pretty much confirmed what I thought: It can be done and will work. We have about 40 guys in the fraternity right now and a few local alumni that are car and bike nuts, so we should have enough guys to man everything. I had already decided if we do this deal imports will be welcome. There is a huge following and maybe we could get a few of them interested in the real iron. As for charitable contributions, the fraternities national philathropy group is the boy scouts which we sometime donate to from certain fund raisers. It would be a given in this situation. We have O'Rielly, NAPA, Auto Zone, and Car Quest locally so I figure we could get at least one big sponsor for the announcement/music area. We are also only 60 miles from DFW area where we could do alot of advertising along with handing out flyers at the swap meets and shows up there. We are looking at possibly doing this deal in the spring, so we will have to get advertising now I suppose and step it up as it gets closer.

We are used to organizing big events and I suppose I would be the primary organizer, but we are usually organizing things more like bikini contest and bar bashes. Of course the bikini contest is always an option here as well. I just dont want to offend anyone????What do you all think??


Thanks,

Chris
 
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