- Joined
- Aug 11, 2003
- Messages
- 22,948
- Reaction score
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- Points
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- Age
- 64
- Location
- Long Island, NY
On Edit: *** The previous threads with assumpions, accusations, whining, complaining and continous bashing has been taken down. *** It served no purpose to beat this up over again and again.
***********************************************************************************************
I’m not going to sugar coat this post. I just spent several hours on the phone with grill kings. I’m going to present the facts either as presented to me, or what I have seen first hand.
If Grill Kings was a regular business as people perceive, the business would take any losses in stride, and continue to try to grow the business. Any business model has losses built in for the first 5 years.
Well, that is the assumption, and most damaging. Grill Kings is NOT a business.
We will call Grill Kings founder, Mr. X. Mr. X owns several high $$$ ventures. Real businesses. However, Grill Kings, to Mr. X is a hobby… A persons hobby. It is basically one man and some trusted help. That one man funds the event for love of the sport, and the fun of it. He could give a rats ass if Grill Kings makes any money. He funds his hobby the same way we do, out of pocket, but on a grander scale. I have known this man for 3 years, as I know others involved in Grill kings since 2004. Mr. X is quiet, laid back and usually just stays in the shadows and enjoys himself. Dean, everyone knows. He’s the front man. They have never shown interest in making money, in FACT THEY HAVE REBUFFED IT FOR THE FIRST 5 YEARS. And I have heard it every year since Grill king began. They hoped after 5 years, it would grow on its own. Now, if someone came into your yard, ate your food, spit it out, left and trash talked it to everyone. Even if you knew the food sucked, would u invite them back? I know I would not. Anyway..
Liken the founder of Grill Kings as being the owner of a minor league team.
He rents the fields, buys the equipment and watches the game and to some extent pays the players. For the big game, all initial expenditures come out of HIS pocket. He sells hot dogs at the game and charges admission to maybe offset some costs. On game day, he gets blamed because the weather sucks, and the stadium has plumbing and security problems. He is being blamed, WTF. So to him, its personal. He is NOT a business.
Mr. X knew there were problems at the event, and was willing to work to fix them.. After the event, I scanned thru the thread of all the venting and complaining that came with some offers to help fix it. Anyone who offered to help in that original thread, was invited to a meeting with Grill Kings organizers. Most attended, some remained bitter but those that continued to attack and were outright counter productive, were not invited. We addressed all the issues, and came up with solutions for each. Letters explaining some of these solutions were sent out to all the teams. GK was taking a course of action for 2007 of which WillyB, myself, and 7 other members of this group were directly involved in. As experienced competitors, we knew we would make things better for all the teams. However, a short time after our meeting, Mr. X read one specific, targeted attack on the event and took it VERY personally. Then he watched a BBQ forum(not this one) as another individual, fueled the flames and started a pile on by a small amount of others.
Here it is. Plain and simple. Mr. X, the man that bankrolled Grill kings is justifiably pissed off. Period. It is HIS pen that makes the stroke, and he has taken his pen and left. Pissed off and fed up. This is Long Island, everything is expensive, and paid for up front. Grill kings was predominately privately paid for. Now, no one is left to fund the event.
Regardless of the support he received from many of us, and our offers to help this year. He IS pissed. He/they stewed for months. Last month they came to a decision.
Paraphrased:
“The voices of those few that attacked us were much louder than those that helped or thanked us. We know there were problems, but people were vicious in some of the accusations. They do not know what happened and published their versions of what they think happened. Our friends, family, employees, sponsors all saw those attacks. That event took months to prepare, my family helped, my friends helped a lot of people worked very hard, and yes, their were problems. But we were kicked when we were down. We tried our best and some things went wrong. We wanted to fix them but were beaten down for weeks. We regret that this will hurt all those that supported us, but we need to take a break and concentrate on other ventures. This was a very difficult decision and not made lightly. Grill kings may be back next year.”
So, the people responsible for bringing us Grill Kings has said “f*ck it”. YES!!! They took their toys and went home. That’s all there is to it. They were relentlessly and publicly attacked, justified or not, and have turned and walked away. It is their right to do so. They need no vote and no ones permission. They did the event out of enjoyment of the sport and the enjoyment was taken away by a small, yet vocal few. Internet sites fueled the flames without regard to those people that worked to make Grill Kings happen. “I’ll never go back”, “it sucked”, “all they wanted was money”, yada yada yada... Those words stung and they were dominant on several internet sites.
Even after things cooled, and we met with them and had a game plan, the attacks continued. Weeks later, Mr. X read things from a couple of people that they think they can do it better, so he has decided “They want to do it, let them try.” Those are his words. Call it a punishment, call it a wake up call, call it a challenge, call it fed up.. but I call it screwed. This was brought on by the bombardment of bad press.
Here is an idea of the expenditures it takes to run a contest on Long Island.
Grounds: $27,000 Belmont or $8,000 (Hecksher)
Insurance: $15,000 either
Electric: $15,000 belmont or 7k (hecksher)
Permits: $6,000 either
Advertising on WBAB $10,000 (needed in order to get sponsors to agree)
Incidentals: Ice/Water/Trash about another $10,000.
Prize Money: $15,000 (estimate)
Nearly 0$ was collected from the sponsors. They ALL supply product instead.
So, do the math. $50-$100K is needed to run an event out here on the scale that Grill King tried to do. Thats is not in our cards here, thats for sure.
Bottom line, Grill Kings IS gone for 2007. Some of those involved in Grill Kings plan on doing some competitions this summer, others will concentrate on other ventures. They may be back in 2008. I will try to meet with them one more time in the coming weeks.
There were two camps after Grill Kings. Those that offered solutions and those that caused more problems. The later won. The reaction to all the bad press was not the reaction I would expect from a business. A business would let trash talk bounce off. This is the reaction of a person, who tried to do the right thing and was abused when it didn't go right. Abused by people he thought he knew, and knew them personally, some he even considered friends, some he has known since the very first event.
A business may stand up to a drop in stock prices, and try to recover..
A person doesn't have to. Right, wrong or indifferent, he has walked away.
Now, we all lose.
DISPUTE THIS IF YOU WANT, JUST DON'T DO IT HERE. IT IS NOT MEANT TO START ANY DEBATE. ANY FURTHER DEROGATORY POSTS DEGRADING THE EVENT OR ACTIONS WILL BE DELETED. ITS OLD NEWS AND COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE TO REHASH IT AGAIN. AS WE SAY, NO NEGATIVE KARMA.
EDIT:
My biggest fear is that this post gets copied, edited and misquoted to other forums or media. These are cold hard facts. Nothing more, nothing less, and not to be taken out of context.
***********************************************************************************************
I’m not going to sugar coat this post. I just spent several hours on the phone with grill kings. I’m going to present the facts either as presented to me, or what I have seen first hand.
If Grill Kings was a regular business as people perceive, the business would take any losses in stride, and continue to try to grow the business. Any business model has losses built in for the first 5 years.
Well, that is the assumption, and most damaging. Grill Kings is NOT a business.
We will call Grill Kings founder, Mr. X. Mr. X owns several high $$$ ventures. Real businesses. However, Grill Kings, to Mr. X is a hobby… A persons hobby. It is basically one man and some trusted help. That one man funds the event for love of the sport, and the fun of it. He could give a rats ass if Grill Kings makes any money. He funds his hobby the same way we do, out of pocket, but on a grander scale. I have known this man for 3 years, as I know others involved in Grill kings since 2004. Mr. X is quiet, laid back and usually just stays in the shadows and enjoys himself. Dean, everyone knows. He’s the front man. They have never shown interest in making money, in FACT THEY HAVE REBUFFED IT FOR THE FIRST 5 YEARS. And I have heard it every year since Grill king began. They hoped after 5 years, it would grow on its own. Now, if someone came into your yard, ate your food, spit it out, left and trash talked it to everyone. Even if you knew the food sucked, would u invite them back? I know I would not. Anyway..
Liken the founder of Grill Kings as being the owner of a minor league team.
He rents the fields, buys the equipment and watches the game and to some extent pays the players. For the big game, all initial expenditures come out of HIS pocket. He sells hot dogs at the game and charges admission to maybe offset some costs. On game day, he gets blamed because the weather sucks, and the stadium has plumbing and security problems. He is being blamed, WTF. So to him, its personal. He is NOT a business.
Mr. X knew there were problems at the event, and was willing to work to fix them.. After the event, I scanned thru the thread of all the venting and complaining that came with some offers to help fix it. Anyone who offered to help in that original thread, was invited to a meeting with Grill Kings organizers. Most attended, some remained bitter but those that continued to attack and were outright counter productive, were not invited. We addressed all the issues, and came up with solutions for each. Letters explaining some of these solutions were sent out to all the teams. GK was taking a course of action for 2007 of which WillyB, myself, and 7 other members of this group were directly involved in. As experienced competitors, we knew we would make things better for all the teams. However, a short time after our meeting, Mr. X read one specific, targeted attack on the event and took it VERY personally. Then he watched a BBQ forum(not this one) as another individual, fueled the flames and started a pile on by a small amount of others.
Here it is. Plain and simple. Mr. X, the man that bankrolled Grill kings is justifiably pissed off. Period. It is HIS pen that makes the stroke, and he has taken his pen and left. Pissed off and fed up. This is Long Island, everything is expensive, and paid for up front. Grill kings was predominately privately paid for. Now, no one is left to fund the event.
Regardless of the support he received from many of us, and our offers to help this year. He IS pissed. He/they stewed for months. Last month they came to a decision.
Paraphrased:
“The voices of those few that attacked us were much louder than those that helped or thanked us. We know there were problems, but people were vicious in some of the accusations. They do not know what happened and published their versions of what they think happened. Our friends, family, employees, sponsors all saw those attacks. That event took months to prepare, my family helped, my friends helped a lot of people worked very hard, and yes, their were problems. But we were kicked when we were down. We tried our best and some things went wrong. We wanted to fix them but were beaten down for weeks. We regret that this will hurt all those that supported us, but we need to take a break and concentrate on other ventures. This was a very difficult decision and not made lightly. Grill kings may be back next year.”
So, the people responsible for bringing us Grill Kings has said “f*ck it”. YES!!! They took their toys and went home. That’s all there is to it. They were relentlessly and publicly attacked, justified or not, and have turned and walked away. It is their right to do so. They need no vote and no ones permission. They did the event out of enjoyment of the sport and the enjoyment was taken away by a small, yet vocal few. Internet sites fueled the flames without regard to those people that worked to make Grill Kings happen. “I’ll never go back”, “it sucked”, “all they wanted was money”, yada yada yada... Those words stung and they were dominant on several internet sites.
Even after things cooled, and we met with them and had a game plan, the attacks continued. Weeks later, Mr. X read things from a couple of people that they think they can do it better, so he has decided “They want to do it, let them try.” Those are his words. Call it a punishment, call it a wake up call, call it a challenge, call it fed up.. but I call it screwed. This was brought on by the bombardment of bad press.
Here is an idea of the expenditures it takes to run a contest on Long Island.
Grounds: $27,000 Belmont or $8,000 (Hecksher)
Insurance: $15,000 either
Electric: $15,000 belmont or 7k (hecksher)
Permits: $6,000 either
Advertising on WBAB $10,000 (needed in order to get sponsors to agree)
Incidentals: Ice/Water/Trash about another $10,000.
Prize Money: $15,000 (estimate)
Nearly 0$ was collected from the sponsors. They ALL supply product instead.
So, do the math. $50-$100K is needed to run an event out here on the scale that Grill King tried to do. Thats is not in our cards here, thats for sure.
Bottom line, Grill Kings IS gone for 2007. Some of those involved in Grill Kings plan on doing some competitions this summer, others will concentrate on other ventures. They may be back in 2008. I will try to meet with them one more time in the coming weeks.
There were two camps after Grill Kings. Those that offered solutions and those that caused more problems. The later won. The reaction to all the bad press was not the reaction I would expect from a business. A business would let trash talk bounce off. This is the reaction of a person, who tried to do the right thing and was abused when it didn't go right. Abused by people he thought he knew, and knew them personally, some he even considered friends, some he has known since the very first event.
A business may stand up to a drop in stock prices, and try to recover..
A person doesn't have to. Right, wrong or indifferent, he has walked away.
Now, we all lose.
DISPUTE THIS IF YOU WANT, JUST DON'T DO IT HERE. IT IS NOT MEANT TO START ANY DEBATE. ANY FURTHER DEROGATORY POSTS DEGRADING THE EVENT OR ACTIONS WILL BE DELETED. ITS OLD NEWS AND COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE TO REHASH IT AGAIN. AS WE SAY, NO NEGATIVE KARMA.
EDIT:
My biggest fear is that this post gets copied, edited and misquoted to other forums or media. These are cold hard facts. Nothing more, nothing less, and not to be taken out of context.
