Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Outdoor Classic expo to boast significant changes
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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The Roanoke Valley's main hunting and fishing expo is back for its third summertime installment this coming weekend, with a few changes.
What was the Virginia Outdoor Classic is now the Outdoor Classic.
The show also returns to the site of its debut, the Roanoke Civic Center, after a year at the Salem Civic Center. Organizers have also altered the hours and ticketing system to encourage more attendance.
Attendance was a challenge at last summer's show.
Total paid attendance for the three-day show was just over 2,300, according to Salem Civic Center figures. That was less than half of the 5,400 who attended the debut show in August 2007.
Elliot Broyles of Sponsorhounds, the Roanoke company behind the shows, said he believes a trio of factors contributed to the lackluster attendance last summer.
Broyles said analysis of demographics showed that there was a big drop in the number of guests from outlying communities, a trend he attributed to the perception that the Salem Civic Center is not as convenient to reach as the Roanoke Civic Center.
"We had a lot less people from places like Covington, which in the past had been huge for us," Broyles said.
The economy was also a factor, Broyles believes.
"Last year there was a lot of uncertainty as to what was going to happen with the economy," he said.
The economy still doesn't look great, but Broyles believes consumers have adjusted and become less skittish, a sentiment supported by economic surveys.
Finally, last year, the show fell on the same weekend as a NASCAR race weekend in Bristol.
"What does [the NASCAR race] draw? A hundred and ninety thousand people?" Broyles wondered. "And a lot of them are from here."
Another change this year is in the ticketing system.
This year, tickets for the show will be wristband passes good for the entire weekend.
"If someone wants to come back on Saturday to see a seminar that they missed on Friday, we don't want to have to charge them twice to do that," Broyles said.
Sponsorhounds used the weekend pass approach with success for this spring's Blue Ridge Bike Fest, Broyles said.
The passes are $10; $8 for those who pick up a coupon available at Hardees.
Hours are also changing.
Friday the show is open from 3 to 9 p.m. It opened earlier on Friday, previously, but attendance in the early afternoon was sparse.
Saturday's hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with the show open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Headlining talent at the show includes Brody, a 1,400-pound grizzly bear whose handler, Jeff Watson, presents information on safety in bear country.
Also scheduled to appear are archery trick shot artist Frank Addington Jr., bass angling expert Teddy Carr and local outdoorsman and author Bruce Ingram.
Between 120 and 130 vendors have signed up to participate, according to Broyles. Vendors including hunting guides and outfitters, as well as sporting goods retailers.
Broyles said this year's show will feature more firearms and ammo sellers than previous shows, a development he attributes to the current strong demand in that market segment.
The list of vendors won't include several who participated last August but who left early Sunday afternoon, forcing organizers to refund ticket prices to some attendees who felt shorted. The offending vendors weren't invited back, Broyles said.
The show also includes trophy buck and fish contests.
More information on the show is available at outdoorclassicva.com.
Richmond deer contest goes B&C
Virginia deer hunters spoiled by the generous numbers produced by the Virginia-specific scoring system used in many antler contests can brace for some score shrinkage.
For the first time, scorers at the Virginia Deer Classic, the contest held at the upcoming annual Virginia Outdoor Sportsman Show, will be using the Boone and Crockett system.
The contest includes classes based on antler points and weapon used. It also includes a historical division, so a hunter who has been wondering how an older trophy would score under the B&C system can get the answer.
The Virginia Outdoor Sportsman Show will be Aug. 7-9 at the Showplace.
The show's headliners are popular hunting video personalities Lee and Tiffany Lakosky, stars of the shows "Gettin' Close" and "The Crush." They'll have seminars at 7 p.m. on Aug. 7, and 1 p.m. Aug. 8 and 9.
More information on the show is available at sportsmanshow.com or by calling promoter Hugh Crittenden at (804) 748-7529.
