Thread: 4wd event

run your mud events on the last day - it is the most likely style to the most number of cars and ppl dont like sitting around in we stinky clothes for a couple of days.

Hi Dan,

I have some experience with running motor sport events as over the last fifteen years this is what I have ended up doing for a living. There are several very important things you need to decide first off before heading in any direction.

1. Is this for fun or profit?

2. Do I intend to do this again or is it a oncer?

If the answer is for fun and a oncer, then find others to assist you through a committee, decide where you will run it and try to find ways to cover the costs and enjoy yourself. Events done this way if you have a tight knit group of enthusiasts can grow into good things. However often success means people then start fighting over the future direction and who owns it.

If you are looking at trying to make it into an annual event and a business then your approach should be radically different.

You will need to put together a plan that is cost effective and attractive to industry sponsors which includes an attractive venue that is reasonably close to population areas. Your proposal will need to include how you will provide exposure for the sponsors and what exactly they will get in return for their investment. If you can arrange TV through say a 30 minute dedicated TV show then you might be surprised at how many different brands show interest and are prepared to put in money that will pay for the TV and all the big costs. You need to also show them that this will be a annual affair or you intend to expand it to run several of these types of events around the country in years to come, few will be prepared to put in money for a one off promotion. Do not ever put together an event based on paying for the bills through the return from the gate take. This is the way most promoters go broke and lose everything very quickly. The gate take should be a bonus nothng else.

Do not run it through a committee or club otherwise 99% chance it will self destruct as it gets pushed and pulled here and there. In this scenario it usually only works if there is one person with the vision and the drive to make it work. Really drive is only a part of it absolute stubborn tenacity and a belief in what your doing is really what is required to usually get things like this off the ground and successful.

Good luck, all I will say is though do not believe the storys about a man who makes a business out of his hobby never works again. If this becomes a business then often you end up with little time to enjoy the event or the hobby yourself.


cheers,
Terry