So what would you like then Vince?
Goldenvoice, who promotes Stagecoach is a concert promoter, not a BBQ contest promoter. They are in the biz to make a profit. We are part of that profit making, so in turn we pay a price for that. Just like the Lemonade vendor that pays a price to the promoter, just like the beer gardens who pay a price to the promoter, just like the pony rides that pay a price to the vendor.
Goldenvoice can tell Thom they are not interested in having BBQ teams at their concert site, because Goldenvoice can make more money renting out the space the give us to a Merry go Round or a Deep Fried Whatever booth. There is a reason the promoter put up such big prize money for Best Booth. The BBQers are nothing more than a sideshow attraction.
I would like to hear how you would make it better, or how you would go about putting on a major BBQ event at one of the largest music festivals in the country.
Gary, I understand what Stagecoach is all about and how the barbeque event fits into the grand scheme of things. I know they're in business to make a profit but then again, so am I. If you recall, I was one of the leading voices last year in telling people that this contest is like no other event they would likely participate in because the concerts are the main course and the barbeque contest is just one of the many side dishes. In other words, they don't
need us there, they
want us there. I have no bones about how all that works.
What I'm talking about is the larger concept of PC/ToQ as an on-going thing from contest to contest. I know you did a number of events this year but I think most, if not all, were in California. I don't recall if you did the Boulder City event so forgive my bad memory if you were there this year. PC/ToQ is handled quite differently outside of the Golden State. It is seen more as a true vending operation instead of a contest. In your comments above, you talk about the lemonade vendor and the beer garden having to pay a price to the promoter but I can assure you that the price they're paying is a fixed price and not anything close to 50% of their gross sales. Why then should we be asked to pony up that kind of money? Probably because not many teams have ever stopped to think about it in terms of operating like a business because the truth is many of us are simply competing at events out of a love of the game and not to try and make money doing it.
You and I have talked in the past about how much fun it is to serve the food we've worked so hard to cook to people and the joy we get out of the happiness it brings as they eat it. We put a lot of our heart and soul into our competition cooking and the looks on those faces is almost as rewarding as the accolades we get from our fellow competitors when we're fortunate enough to take a walk up to the stage during the awards ceremony. I know you know what both feel like having taken those back-to-back 1st Place Brisket walks at Fairfield and Clovis this year.
Why should we have to pay a 50% toke to the promoter when they're taking a much smaller percentage of the actual vendor's revenue? As Thom pointed out in post above, the revenue from PC/ToQ is a drop in the virtual bucket and doesn't make even a tiny dent in the cost of running an event as large as Stagecoach. My team cooked and served a lot of food at the event this year. We were one of the last teams to run out of food on both days so I'm not talking out of school when I tell you that we barely broke even on our food costs and worked our butts off to keep up with the line we had in front of our booth. Do you know of many businesses that work all day just to break even? I don't.
Speaking specifically of Stagecoach, since that is something you asked about in your post, I think that if the folks putting on the event want us to "put on a show" then they should give us the opportunity to really make a couple of bucks profit as we serve and entertain the concertgoers with our food and banter. I'd be much more willing to put in the work necessary to put on that show if I knew I could really offset some of my expenses instead of just treading water while giving them what they want.
Please don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm criticizing the people behind Stagecoach for how PC/ToQ works. They're concert promoters not barbeque event promoters. They want their concertgoers entertained and fed and as long as that happens, I'm sure they'll be happy to keep us coming back time and again. I don't presume to tell them how to run their concert but I also don't presume to let them tell me that I have to work for nothing just for the opportunity to participate in the competition. Remember, my team's primary goal is to win the competition and if PC/ToQ gets in the way of that goal, it isn't hard to guess which activity is going to get my attention and which one isn't.
