This was as of 2019-these are not political appointees or elected officials. The WVFA is organized as a non profit organization.
WABASH VALLEY FAIR ASSOCIATION, INC.
2019 OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS
President Mike Morris
Vice President Bill Bryan
Secretary Gary Gottardi
Treasurer Terry Hayhurst
Mark Bilyeu Anson Good James Holscher, DVM Doug Mahurin Chad Morgan
Andy Curry Kurt Hamilton John Klotz II Mike McKee Hannah Pruitt
Greg Ewing Dave Hartmann Ron Lamb Brady Meadors Larry Sample
John Fitzpatrick Sharon Hartmann Floyd Lee, DVM Jeff Michl Robert Thompson
Ex-Officio (Voting)
Kristi Whitacre Purdue Extension
Aaron Loudermilk County Counci
Five Grand Per Night Rent? No chance at that price to race more than a few really big ones.
And that's one of the major problems facing the sport. We take up a fair amount of land to do our thing. Land has value. Facilities have value. Try to finance a good portion of that on a weather dependent operation that only holds 20ish events per year.
You either need to have some sort of quasi-public venue such as a Fairgrounds (like we do at Jacksonville) and a Fair Board that realizes that having ongoing operations on the premises outside of the week or two of the fair actually relieves them of expense and maintenance for part of the facility they would otherwise absorb - and thereby charge a reasonable rent in light of that which might not make great business sense for them on paper.
Or you need to have enough money to operate a privately owned track as a hobby expense - or have the major part of the capital expense out of the way from prior generations etc. I don't see where you confidently finance more than 500k for a nice facility for racing unless it has an incredible history or has multiple uses to generate other revenue.
The only other way I can see is to just have a very, very popular venue that can draw a really good crowd like clockwork. Five grand per event almost excludes anything from mathing-out after basic expenses and purses for any event that can't draw 1,200+ fans every single time. I know you guys draw good crowds in Indiana - but there's no wiggle room for clouds at 5 grand.
Always enjoy it when you post here for a "behind the scenes" look on things.....
Originally Posted by kdobson:
Five Grand Per Night Rent? No chance at that price to race more than a few really big ones.
And that's one of the major problems facing the sport. We take up a fair amount of land to do our thing. Land has value. Facilities have value. Try to finance a good portion of that on a weather dependent operation that only holds 20ish events per year.
You either need to have some sort of quasi-public venue such as a Fairgrounds (like we do at Jacksonville) and a Fair Board that realizes that having ongoing operations on the premises outside of the week or two of the fair actually relieves them of expense and maintenance for part of the facility they would otherwise absorb - and thereby charge a reasonable rent in light of that which might not make great business sense for them on paper.
Or you need to have enough money to operate a privately owned track as a hobby expense - or have the major part of the capital expense out of the way from prior generations etc. I don't see where you confidently finance more than 500k for a nice facility for racing unless it has an incredible history or has multiple uses to generate other revenue.
The only other way I can see is to just have a very, very popular venue that can draw a really good crowd like clockwork. Five grand per event almost excludes anything from mathing-out after basic expenses and purses for any event that can't draw 1,200+ fans every single time. I know you guys draw good crowds in Indiana - but there's no wiggle room for clouds at 5 grand.
Originally Posted by ronmil:
I think he owns North Vernon
Not sure, Might own the property. But the lease was by the Brownstown promoter who sub leased it to someone with a no compete clause (Meaning no racing against them) It don't appear to have worked out.
Being a special event facility, the Action Track needs good dates (and some help from mother nature). This season has provided neither. The Sumar was as good a race as I saw this year, but if I recall it was a Sunday night. They moved the Hulman Classic from its long held date the week of the 500 in favor of Circle City. The fall race has never been well attended and my guess is Sept. 30 would have been a small crowd again.
