Will Sams club .wal marts and otherbiggies

[rlncookinbbq]

will the monsters down the road knock out th

e smalltown bbq comps.

RLN

[bigabyte]

I think this would be better off in the comp forum.

I think it will have an impact. There will be fewer competitors at competitions held the same weekend as these events. I do not think there is a queue of competition teams waiting to fill the void. All who want to compete, are competing.

I don't think it's a bad thing though. It's just the growth of the "sport". If companies want to offer such prizes up for grabs, why wouldn't teams go for it? If other events can't compete, they go under. It's a healthy thing I think.

[Ford]

Well I think adding 20 contests is a big plus for competition BBQ especially with hte prize money. I think existing comps will still get their teams. There may be the odd struggling contest that just took a hit being on the same weekend in the same location but any solid contest should be able to stand the loss of a handful of teams. I know of a couple of contests that are not back this year but it's not because of SAMS, but rather the lack of Sponsors.

And I think that there are a lot of teams that cook 1 contest and it's usually the local home town small contest and they will continue to cook that contest. So I don't see the SAMS series having an impact.

Now if we suddenly get 10 series like SAMS then I think we will see an impact. I would like to see that happen and it would be great for the teams that compete a lot but it would hurt the smaller contests then.

[tmcmaster]

I think this is kind of a slippery slope... While the bigger contests are great for the bigger teams that can get into them, they MAY take some focus away from smaller comps, who sort of rely on drawing a bigger team or 2 just due to location or no other event that weekend. Throw a biggie like a Sam's contest that weekend, and the smaller comp may now lose it's bigger draw.

I dunno, I see pluses and minues to it... I guess only time will tell.

[DawgPhan]

I think that yesterday we saw that big time money is only important to about 300 teams or so. The other 5000+ teams that compete each year will simply go on about their season as usual. The world is not ending and your small town contest will exist despite of big money. You just can't expect that Pellet Envy or Cool Smoke are going to be at your small town contest, but that isnt really happening anyway.

But right now things are shaking out nicely for folks with skills and aspirations of cooking bbq full time. There probably needs to be around 25 contests with $100k+ purses paying through 50th or whatever to support the 50 or so teams that can seriously think about full time. Then another 100 teams or so who think they can pushing the top 50 and creating some "dead money" to support the top.

[luckyduk]

I believe it will help the larger teams or the teams willing to travel. For me Woodbury, Mn(about 4 hours) was the closest, then Indianapolis, In (about (8 hours) for the regional. Instead of Woodbury, I will go to Marshalltown which is about half the drive.
Will be interesting to see!

[Scottie]

I like to look at the positive effect it will have. The Sam's Series will allow a team that maybe only cooks less than a handful of contests a year, an opportunity to say that I am the national champion. They don't have to cook 20+ contests a year for Team of the Year,. They don't have to travel 40,000 miles to win the Kingsford Cup. that is all good for BBQ in my opinion because it attracks both the large and the small cooks.

Now the Smoke on the Water events are a bit different. Those are big money payout contest and do have a larger entrance fee. But if you had a chance to win $25,000-$35,000 for the Grand Champion, that is hard money to ignore... Still good for BBQ and for the growth of BBQ.

[roksmith]

I guess time will tell how events like this affect the smaller contests. I think there are still plenty of teams to go around, but I would hate to see a handfull of contests go under because they can't attract enough teams.

[CBQ]

Originally Posted by Scottie

I like to look at the positive effect it will have. The Sam's Series will allow a team that maybe only cooks less than a handful of contests a year, an opportunity to say thhhat I am the national champion.

That's a great point, Scottie. Although KCBS tries to level the field, to a certain degree TOY is still a volume competition.

Other than Sam's, most of the big money events are well over a one day drive for Northeast teams. The full timers can afford to spend a week on the road, but most of the teams are not full time, and they are going to patronize local contests. I don't see the big money events having much of an impact in the northeast until there are a lot more of them a lot closer.

[sitnfat]

Small events come and go the big comps like the sams series are nice big money small field

[AZScott]

We're a new team, 4 contests, and I don't see how these big contests will take away from small contests as long as there isn't a scheduling conflict. If anything, the small competitions will do better with the more exposure bbq gets. The only thing I see that could have an affect is entry fee's, fuel, and food prices continuing to rise. If I can spend $700 for a comp I'm in. When it approaches $1000 to $1500 to compete in a contest, I have a much tougher time justifying it even if the prize pool is larger.

[Capn Kev]

I think the real question is what will the competitive profile change be of the "typical" BBQ contest. With increased saturation of contests, you risk diluting the talent at each contest. Plus, how will that affect the prestigious invitational contests. Will the Jack increase the number of "draws" from each state in order to get a better representation of the talent from each state? Will all of these new contest GCs get an invite to the Royal, and be eligible for a Jack draw?

I really like the idea of local, regional, and national contest progression. It opens the door to all competitors, not just the "big boys" that can afford to tour on a weekly basis.

I don't see the local contests going away, and from what I've seen so far, only about a handful of teams have a conflict with previously scheduled contests (barring the Royal).

I'm curious to see how this changes the landscape of BBQ competition, and I'm kind of excited about it.

[guntera]

Well being brand new to BBQ and wanting to compete this year. I'm looking at it as a way for the big boys to go down a much more high profile trail and leave the little comps alone. And I'm saying this with a lack of better words I'm sure. So I dont want to make anyones blood pressure boil. Its just that I know I'm not that good at BBQ as some of the pro's are nor should I be for being a rookie, but I would rather have a fighting chance at a local comp than pull up and see someone like Johnnie Trigg (as an example) parked next to me. I might as well pack my stuff back up and head to the house.

[worthsmokin]

Originally Posted by guntera

Its just that I know I'm not that good at BBQ as some of the pro's are nor should I be for being a rookie, but I would rather have a fighting chance at a local comp.

Those pro teams are the ones that give you secrets and tips. If they don't show up at your smaller events then you can go your whole career saying your not that good bbq. We all have to learn from somebody.

I think there are plenty of quality teams out there that will keep the smaller events very competitive.

Tyler

[guntera]

Originally Posted by worthsmokin

Those pro teams are the ones that give you secrets and tips. If they don't show up at your smaller events then you can go your whole career saying your not that good bbq. We all have to learn from somebody.

This may be a dumb question, but like I said I'm new and just want to learn the process. When do the pro's give you any secrets or tips at a small event? It kind of seems like they are busy with their own pit and area rather than going around telling the new guy what he could be doing better.