Robert wrote:Perhaps group9motorsports is interested in sponsoring the event??? I know we've referred a ton of transponder business to them. Perhaps you could contact the owner for us and see?
It's also possible that they have 100 or so participants. If we could get that, we could cut our prices too. Of course, you'd only get half the track time, but perhaps that's worth saving a few bucks?
Robert, I am the one who just pointed out that they had a ton of sponsors as did Gary. It is in fact likely that with the sponsor list they have explains why there prices are significantly less than ours, but more on that in a moment.
As for your referrals on transponders, I think the folks that should be thankful are the members not me. The first 20 transponders I sold at cost for
no profit. The next set (since that time to the present (total of 9)) , were sold at a $20 profit to help compensate me for my time. I would be happy to push them to the retail level which would be another $25 ($45 profit), but that is not why I proposed to the region board to sell the transponders to our members, it was to provide them a discount and help promote our new transponder system that we invested so much money in.
At any rate, not much of a profit on a $300+ per unit product. AMB is making a killing off of these units and will not offer me (or the region) any better pricing (so-called wholesale).
So how might a business like myself sponsor an event on that profit margin? Let's see, 9 transponders times $20 is $180 in profit, gee that does not even pay for my entry in 1 event in our region even if I did not pay taxes on the profit! I pass along the same level of savings on all my the products I offer. The fact is I am trying to pass along price breaks to our members, which by my calculation is already sponsoring the club, right?
Backing up to the deferred topic above,
maybe the real answer is in where the sponsor money we do get is going? As I understand it, the windblown witness costs quite a bit to print and dsitribute. Does the Golden Gate Region have a nice magazine like ours? I doubt it, but then they likely sink their sponsorship money into off setting member costs at their time trail event given the more than half price registrations and accessory fees as compared to ours. Do we have as many sponsors as they do? Do we have as many particpates as they do? I do not know, but I do know many folks complain about our time trail event rates.
I for one will continue to support our events regardless of price, but I will also continue to challenge our thoughts and policies because the alternative is a really poor place for our club to be.