Attention, Tractor Show

I know some of you are familuar with and others that have attended our show. It is now official THERE WILL BE NO BUCKEYE FARM ANTIQUES SHOW at Wapakoneta, Ohio this year. The show was always Memorial Day weekend for the past 26 years with a fall swap meet usually in Novemer. The fair board got too greedy and the club pulled out. The club would like to be able to find a different location for it but time is short for that. The fair board would this year have made $1,476 per day for the 3 days of the show, 2 days for the swap meet and 2 setup days.There are quite a few members that are heavy in running the show and meet. They like to camp on grounds to make sure things are as supposed to be. A small fee for utilitys is reasonable and has been good for years. Everybody except the fair board was OK with $5 day for electric even tho actuall electric costs for campers would for most have been under a dollar per day so fair board was making big on that along with the rent. Now the fair board is demanding all of them to pay a $25 dollar a day fee for 7 days to stay for putting on the show, that would be $175 out of the members pockets to put on the show, also all venders or exibitors that want to stay on grounds would have to pay that $25 day. How many venders could afford to on top of paying for their vender space could do that. The venders would not come and also the exibitors would not spend the cost to bring an exibet and then pay that much to stay for show, they would not come. So without exibitors, venders or help a show could not be put on. When the show was first started the fair board was happy to have the club and they have made verry good money every year. The club is a non proffit club. Someware around halfway through the total number of shows put on the club had made enough money to fut up a very nice big building on the grounds with the county bosses that own the fair grounds that as long as the club is in extinance the club owns the building, if the club disbands then the building will go to the fair grounds with the fair board controling the building. It was after the building was completed, big storage building with a full meeting room completely finnished, only thin missing is bathroom and fairboard would not extend sewer or water, well anyway after it was all completed I do not know total cost but and with club members doing a lot of the work I think in the around $50,000 range. It was after that the fair board got hard to work with. I think they are trying to get rid of the show and club will disband so they can take over ownership of the building and then rent it out. That will not happen for years as the club has several hundred members. The show and the swap meet were filling the motels so a lot of money comming into the town. With the fair board making the desion to charge so much as to get rid of the show the community will loose in the neighboorhood of a hundred thousand dollars a year. And if the town just would have been interested enough to do like Portland, In. does in having town wide garage sales that weekend could have doubled the money comming in. It is going to hurt the comunity heavy. The club is looking for someplace to hold the show that was schedualled 3 years ago for feature. The admission for the show has always been $2.00 per adult admission and for the swap meet everybody except the workers buyer, seller or looker paid just $200 per person per day. The fall swap meet seller paid for 2 days just $4.00 for as large an area he wanted. So sellers loved it here. The clubs thought were keep the cost to get in down, then people would be able to support the food venders plus possibly buy from other venders. That ment that a family of 5, parents with 3 kids under age 12 could come out for the day for $4.00 and be able to eat. Some of the shows around that are loosing visitors are charging $5.00 per day or $25 for that group, are people going to come to pay that much. Don't think so. I have been a member from the first public orginational meeting 2 years before the first show and we have now had 26 shows and 22 fall swap meets.

The club regrets that things had to happen like this for everybody. Some venders would already have thier spot spoke for for over a year and all the people that have to change plans because the fair board was getting too greedy and therefore will loose thousands of dollars. If anybody that know the area would know of a plave that could handle the show the club would like to know about it.

One hundred grand for the community and fair board cannot make 1,500 for use of grounds? Campers that use dollars a day in electric? Vendors who operate a cash business cannot afford 25 a day? Unfortunately most fair grounds are billed on a peak demand rate and big shows raise that rate for one day and the rate allies for the whole month.
Can fair board be hard to deal with.? Absolutely!!!!! There is a cost to do business. It's not free to swing the gates.
Too many folks still think 2 eggs bacon toast and coffee should be 1.99 ...

I don't know what you are complaining about Leroy.If it is just the camping fees then they are plenty CHEAP,most Fair Boards get $300 to $400 for a seven day stay.If that is what it is,then you need to count your blessings on the camping fees. How about the grounds at Waynesfield??

Liability insurance is the killer of events. Wonder if the rates went up ?

Sounds like your best interest would be to try to negotiate a better deal from the fair board you deal with now. At least for one year until further plans can be made. It is a lose /lose now.

The club carries all the insurance for everything

How many workers do you think you would have to put on the show if they had to pay that out of their own pocket to put on a show? I know most of the workers could not reasonably do it. So without the workers how could there be a show. And I know of one show that raised vender spots so much there are no more show as the venders when they got there they simply turned around and left. Anouther that raised vender prices so much there were last year only half the venders from previous years. And what grounds at Waynesfield? Don't know of any place there.

Profit/ non-profit it's still a business and needs to be treated as one. Club needs to make show profitable. Go out to eat Friday or Saturday night 6pm at the Long Horn let me know if there is a wait? People will spend a few bucks when they want to do something.

Would raising the price of admission to $5 for adults, kids under 12 free, have solved the problem? $2 admission sounds 20 or 30 years out of date.

Negotiating strength will depend on if the fair grounds can rent the weekend to another show by next year. If the weekend goes unused, they will have some strength to negotiate. If the weekend is taken, the date is lost.

Can't tell you the road name,but think it is the second road north of 33 west off of Waynesfield rd.Some Civic club owns or did 5-10 yrs.ago.I know other clubs renting fairgrounds for shows and most have their campgrounds fairly well filled during their shows.Do like Georgetown,I think they own their own ground.Your building a building on non owned ground wasn't the smartest move knowing you could lose it at any time.(Just a matter of WHEN) IF you don't have a show there (WAPAK).this year,then you could be in default on the building owner ship.

... and you'll probably never get it back then.

Has anybody checked the cost of insurance? Penfield and Rantoul shows are very pricey.

There has been an amateur radio show(hamfest) at Shelby, NC for years at a fairgrounds. Some years ago the fairgrounds got greedy and tried to raise the rent. The hamfest moved a few miles to another place. Local businesses who made money off the show were VERY unhappy and complained to the fair board. The last i heard the fairgrounds had seen the light and reduced the rent and the hamfest was going to comeback, but I haven't been back in years.

A very good small resturant locally closed because the property owner raised the rent beyond what the resturant could operate profitably on. Building is still vacant.

I suspect the fair board mentioned by the OP will see the light eventually.

KEH

The club I don't think would go back next year. They say we want to go where we are wanted. The fair board knew back in Feb of 15, yes a year ago what the club responce would be as at that time they were demanding $20 a day for the 3 days for the show and were told in no way would the club go along with making the workers pay to put on show. The fairboard gave in then now this year they are demanding the workers pay $25 per day for 7 days for total time of show and swap meet even if worker would only be there for show and not swap meet. Not having a show will not hurt the club very much. The ones it will hurt is the community including the 4H kids that the club spent a lot of money buying their projects and then turned around and gave the project at times back to the kids, Then the downtown merchants that say those days are some of the best days they have in the year. And the fairboard was getting a 3% raise in rent per year. And in direct costs to fairboard they did not have probably $500 and to stand to loose thousands so can go back to county comminsiors that own the grounds and ask for more subidasys to cover the loss of income so it will cost the tax payers more in the end. I think there are some members of the fairboard that don't realize the food has to come from the farmer for the grocery to get it. And some would like to turn the fair into a complete carnival and get rid of everything else. If the club can find a location to have a show this year I will post time and location. A few years ago some of the other fairgrounds around were trying to get the club to move there but the club hated to move from where the show was started and people knew where it was. And every year we had people from about 10 states and Canada.

No it would not have helped. Show about 70 mile away did that and atendance has dripped to half and the venders has dropped way down. And tractor exibites are also way down. Our club at one time helped put that show on, now the ones that helped them don't even go up anymore. And the kids were always free.

The club carried all the insurance, no cost to fairboard there.

No we will not be in default on the building as long as the club is in extince as that contract is with the county and not the fairboard. As long as there are enough club members to fill the officers positions the club is in existance so untill there are no more club members that cannot happen. The idea when it was built was thatas non profit that when no longer a club it would go to commisinors. And altho I do not know I think the club as non profit cannot own any real estate. And I think you are talking about the small auto race track that has no buildings for anything, no room for campers and probably has not enough room for exibitors, venders and visitors.

What is this 20-25 a day for workers fee?If it is for use of campground for camping,then let the club rent the campground also.Why should the fairboard PAY you to use their Electric and water for 7 days.There is more to it then you are saying too,maybe you should look internally a little closer.It wouldn't be the first time a show-event lost their home because of a big mouth-big headed club officer-member started telling the ground owner what they could or couldn't do with their property.

(quoted from post at 01:10:34 02/01/16) The club carried all the insurance, no cost to fairboard there.

Click to expand...

The fairboard will still have their own insurance, if they don't they are extremely foolish. Your insurance covers your group activity with the board probably being an additional insured. They still have to have their own in case yours doesn't pay off.

That insurance would still cost them the same if the grounds were in use or gates locked up so no one could get on the grounds so it would not be a factor in rental rates.