The Canadian Open at the Crawloseum is CANCELLED

[jammin311]

you should throw a date up now for next year i bet you will feel your sign ups maybe not in the frist 30 mins but by the time next year got here it would. give peeps time to plan there vacations.

i want to go to canada really bad to check it out to go and crawl would make it better, just could not make it on short notice.

[kwkride]

Originally Posted by stampedeproject

No I wasn't there for that first rant it was one of the ones just before we started the current club... sorry I know it's hard for you to remember which rant it was.

Don't offend our Oracle again Tony. You were probably the cause of the rants.

Now get back on track. It's too bad that Shep wasn't able to get participation for this event. I hope it goes really well for him next year.

[stampedeproject]

Originally Posted by kwkride

Don't offend our Oracle again Tony. You were probably the cause of the rants.

It IS all about me.... me me me me me. What can I say, I evoke strong emotions. You're probably right... :?

[03libertysport]

Originally Posted by stampedeproject

It IS all about me.... me me me me me. What can I say, I evoke strong emotions. You're probably right... :?

And that is your WHOLE problem!

[Gatekeeper]

Is the payout going to stay the same if it is not sold out

[SVEN]

Originally Posted by Gatekeeper

Is the payout going to stay the same if it is not sold out

Sorry Austin, it has been canceled. Check page 3.

[stampedeproject]

Originally Posted by Gatekeeper

Is the payout going to stay the same if it is not sold out

Thank you for the interest, but the event is canceled.

I know for sure that they really wanted you and other top ranked folks up there for the event. Hopefully next year more advanced warning will really boost participation.

[Gatekeeper]

Originally Posted by stampedeproject

Thank you for the interest, but the event is canceled.

I know for sure that they really wanted you and other top ranked folks up there for the event. Hopefully next year more advanced warning will really boost participation.

That sucks we were getting everything ready to gomaybe next year:-P

[bmaxx245]

I hate to say it but you guy's are 100% right. All the comments and suggestions are appreciated, and will be very helpful in helping to make the future event well worth you'r trip

[JasonC]

Originally Posted by stampedeproject

Event Cancellation Notice

Despite significant efforts by both Jason, myself, numerous manufacturer sponsors and others, DooHickey Hobbies has decided to cancel this year's Canadian Open due to non-participation. According to DooHickey Hobbies, all ticket sales (all 8 of them) will be refunded.

A number of factors led to this decision:

• 8 people at an International level competition is lame
• An event of this cost and scale cannot be justified with just over a half dozen competitors.
• Participation by the 30+ local Canadian crawlers and 40+ more within driving distance was assumed, but did not result in actual participants.

Jason and I are both shaking our heads in stunned amazement that this entire event wasn't just huge and sold out immediately with a $10,000 purse up for grabs... the largest in crawler history. Maybe it was the whole "need a passport" thing, or too close to the World's, ... not really sure what the problem was, but I do know there are tons of Canadian crawler folks up there and this could and should have been a nearly sold out event just with the Canadian guys.

Solely from my perspective I have to jab a finger a bit at the Canadian guys here. Do you really think us US guys are willing to spend some significant $$ to travel, take time off of work, when the Canadian guys don't event think their own event is worth the effort to sign up for? The answer is a resounding NO. It's great that you all want some of the top guys to come up, but the reality is it isn't a cheap trip or easy trip (passport) for us and if we are just going to crawl with the same exact folks we see everywhere else in the US, then why make the trip?

You guys have a local hobby shop up there that is clearly trying, & spending hard cash to build a venue, hobby shop, and event all to strongly support the crawling segment. Geez support the guy will ya, what's the matter with you? We should have seen 50+ local ticket sales immediately when we made the tickets available. If $10,000 in cash won't motivate you to sign up for a local event, I am not sure what else could have been offered.

DooHickey Hobbies is really upset that no one wanted to compete both locally and from the US and is hoping that next year with more warning that the event will be a resounding success. Maybe next year the Canadian clubs will really embrace the Canadian Open and make it a stellar event that the US guys will die to get a chance to attend.

I usually bite my tongue when it comes to people organizing events and how they are run, since I have planned different types of events over the past few years.

But I think you as an organizer shouldn't be pointing a finger at anyone (and remember, when you point one finger, there are 3 pointing back at you). You have to just take this as a learning curve, because when people see this type of attitude, it really makes them wonder why they should travel to an event where an organizer will not shoulder blame and would rather blame others.

Why did you put so much effort into promoting a Canadian Event on this site, but so little on the Canadian Crawling site www.crawlcanada.com ? I don't know, did you try the local Ontario RC club sites as well? A post or two on local sites isn't drumming up much local attention.

There was also a fairly good sized event in Alberta last weekend, and a fair amount of people travelled to that. No payout for that, but the organizer advertised on a local site, where he frequented and was there answering questions. Again, you didn't do much over there.

I guess a lot of attitudes in Canada is that we are just wanting to have fun when we are out crawling. The TTC event last weekend was about getting out and having a good time with others, not really about the competition, but the friendships and good times that were had. But I could be totally wrong on this idea.

The short window of notification on this was another factor, July is too late to announce an event, and then to change it 4 days before the event (which is when a post was made on CrawlCanada) is too late for people to make changes for their holidays.

People pick their holidays in the spring at a lot of jobs. Other people are in the same boat. If I am going to make a trip, it isn't going to be to fly to Ontario for a weekend and fly back home when I already had holidays.

I am planning on attending atleast 1 large event in Canada next season, and it will be the event that is planned well ahead of time, there is already talk of another Tough Truck Comp next summer, all the way across the country that I want to attend, but I would go to the Canadians too. They just need to be planned well ahead of time. At this point in the year, you are going to be competing against other events, and you will have to understand that you probably won't get as many entries to the event, when the US has made their own World's, that will eliminate a large amount of the people that could afford to do one large event and want to compete at the World's.

You need to give people coming from out of Country a large amount of lead time since they now need a Passport (which is always good to have as a piece of ID). But to expect people to drop extra cash to rush an application is just asking people to spend even more money on a trip that isn't going to be cheap.

Don't forget the value of the Canadian Dollar. It is fairly high right now, if it drops down a fair amount, you can use that push the fact that people will be able to get rooms for less and you can suggest to people when they should go to the bank and convert some money over to Canadian, so they get the best bang for their buck. Just a suggestion, but when you get $125CDN for $100USD that is an extra meal or two.

[Generis]

not that 2 registrations would have kept the comp going, but I (we, me and Aaron) didn't register simply because we run scaler trucks, and could not get any clear rules from anyone on what would qualify for the scaler comps. I posted some ?'s to this forum, and pm'd stampede (who was very helpful I add) and also posed some ?'s for the locals at the comp and just couldn't get a clear answer.
That said, I can fully assure you that if the scaler rules were posted at the beginning when this was announced, I would have registered and gladly paid on the first week.... after all, I would have known our trucks could qualify and pass tech, and for heaven sake, it's only a half hour away from me... who wouldn't go?!
Just a note for next time. I'll keep hoping for a next time, and thanks to the many who made a great effort to put this together.

[JasonC]

Originally Posted by Generis

not that 2 registrations would have kept the comp going, but I (we, me and Aaron) didn't register simply because we run scaler trucks, and could not get any clear rules from anyone on what would qualify for the scaler comps. I posted some ?'s to this forum, and pm'd stampede (who was very helpful I add) and also posed some ?'s for the locals at the comp and just couldn't get a clear answer.
That said, I can fully assure you that if the scaler rules were posted at the beginning when this was announced, I would have registered and gladly paid on the first week.... after all, I would have known our trucks could qualify and pass tech, and for heaven sake, it's only a half hour away from me... who wouldn't go?!
Just a note for next time. I'll keep hoping for a next time, and thanks to the many who made a great effort to put this together.

If Generis goes, I am in! Can I crash on the shop floor?

[Generis]

haha, you can stay at the house, man hahaha.. oh, you might just WANT to be at the shop, is that what you mean!? hahaha Come anytime, really.

[STEW<CO>]

Originally Posted by Generis

not that 2 registrations would have kept the comp going, but I (we, me and Aaron) didn't register simply because we run scaler trucks, and could not get any clear rules from anyone on what would qualify for the scaler comps. I posted some ?'s to this forum, and pm'd stampede (who was very helpful I add) and also posed some ?'s for the locals at the comp and just couldn't get a clear answer.
That said, I can fully assure you that if the scaler rules were posted at the beginning when this was announced, I would have registered and gladly paid on the first week.... after all, I would have known our trucks could qualify and pass tech, and for heaven sake, it's only a half hour away from me... who wouldn't go?!
Just a note for next time. I'll keep hoping for a next time, and thanks to the many who made a great effort to put this together.

Scaler, what's that? Oh, I found it, hand held device used for descaling fish. That thing can't be comp legal!

[stampedeproject]

Thanks Austin.

Shep and DooHickey Hobbies are really committed both mentally and monetarily to furthering the crawler hobby up North of the 45.

I am confident that the more the Canadian guys set up more and more organized larger and larger competitions that they will be able to more gradually work into making the Canadian Open a truly world class event.

Thanks again everyone and best of luck to the Canadian clubs at moving big events forward like this in the future.

[Nerve]

Originally Posted by JasonC

Why did you put so much effort into promoting a Canadian Event on this site, but so little on the Canadian Crawling site www.crawlcanada.com ? I don't know, did you try the local Ontario RC club sites as well? A post or two on local sites isn't drumming up much local attention.

Yep.

On our (central ontario) clubs page:
5 pages, 62 replies, over a thousand views
http://www.rccontario.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1684

On RC Ottawa's (local to event) page:
5 pages, 60 replies, 1800+ views
http://www.rcottawa.com/index.php?topic=3196.0

Crawl Canada:
1 page, 8 posts, 279 views
http://crawlcanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6627

0 replies, 37 views
http://crawlcanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7184


I know some of our guys were planning on going, but when the date changed, it changed everything for them. Others changed their schedules and were still going to attend.

So why was there a lack of views and even replies (posts from members) in general on the two CC event threads? Even if it is senseless rambles or legit questions related to the event. There was still a lack of interest on the CC webpage. RCCO's and RCO's webpage seemed to have a decent amount of online activity.

If the event was held in BC somewhere, would the members on CC have been more active in online replies? Since its a majority BC member based page, I would assume so. Now in regards to attendence? No idea.

Would BC be a better spot to hold a Canadian Crawler Open? Don't know. Get some of the BC guys active in scouting locations and see if someone out there can get something organized. If its better then Ottawa, lets see them prove it.

If there could be 2 Canadian Opens, one in BC and Ontario bext year, that would be great.

[stampedeproject]

Originally Posted by Nerve

Yep.

On our (central ontario) clubs page:
5 pages, 62 replies, over a thousand views
http://www.rccontario.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1684

On RC Ottawa's (local to event) page:
5 pages, 60 replies, 1800+ views
http://www.rcottawa.com/index.php?topic=3196.0

Crawl Canada:
1 page, 8 posts, 279 views
http://crawlcanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6627

0 replies, 37 views
http://crawlcanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7184

Nerve - not picking on you here, but you bring up some points that many are thinking, but maybe not posting.

All good sites, but the reality is RCCrawler is the highest trafficked Crawler site by an exponential number. This is where people get the vast majority of their information. This one little thread has had nearly 2000 views... people knew.

Originally Posted by Nerve

I know some of our guys were planning on going, but when the date changed, it changed everything for them. Others changed their schedules and were still going to attend.

I got involved just over 30 short days ago and helped DooHickey pull together a doable event. Not a lot of time at all to promote an event like this, but DooHickey felt they were already committed, they did really try to offer and event, because they supposedly had a ton of people that said they would still come... obviously that didn't happen.

Prospective competitor intents may have been honarable, but waiting to sign up at the last possible moment is not fair to the event sponsors, and host... these things are not cheap or easy to put on.

Originally Posted by Nerve

So why was there a lack of views and even replies (posts from members) in general on the two CC event threads? Even if it is senseless rambles or legit questions related to the event. There was still a lack of interest on the CC webpage. RCCO's and RCO's webpage seemed to have a decent amount of online activity.

Yeah obviously there was a lack of interest!

Look, I don't really need a bunch of the Canadian guys telling me they didn't know about it or that they probably would have attended if I would have posted it here or there. Canadians are posting here so people knew about it... it isn't that big of an world. The reality is I put way more promotional effort into trying to promote this event than I did the Midwest Indoor Challenge.

Kevin Jowett from CrawlCanada.com (the largest Canadian Crawler site) was nice enough to put this on the front page of his site, Jason here at RCCrawler.com was behind this, I dumped linked all over the freaking place, DooHickey's promoted it,...etc. Hundreds maybe 1000s of people knew, perhaps all of Ottowa maybe even had plans to attend, but the reality was only eight signed up and that's what the cancelation. Again this was Canada's potentially largest event, but even with just over a month's warning many more than just eight should have signed up.

Next year guys, next year, I am sure the DooHickey Hobbies Canadian Open will be huge.

This will most likely be my last post on this event.

[Code454]

i think if there was more planning in advance to get people on board would have been better i think you will have a better chance next yr, but like it was said before hold some smaller events and get at least 40 people out to each and slowly start building up and making it a large event and if it take two yrs it takes two yrs at least there would be alot of planning and more people involved now at least people know that there is going to be an event one of these days it will hopefully bring in more people as well, so good luck and plan plan plan

[GySgt Hartman]

Ha Ha, seriously listen to the guys who have successfully planned and executed big comps, they know what to do, and how to do it.

And I will see you guys on your rocks next year! Eh...

[TKG26]

Its a shame it had to be cancled. But just to add some perspective to this... I been racing in Ottawa for the last 15 years... The club rcottawa(not affiliated with doohicky hobbies) has held huge succesful events. From Eastern Canadian Gas Nats to some large Touring car carpet events. Even during the best of times, our local scene has only topped about 70-90 racers... RACERS not crawlers. During those great years of club and trophy races. It was an unfortunate trend that when large events where scheduled the locals typically only gave about 50-60% support meaning if at a club race we had 90 racers on a good day we typically woudl be lucky to get 45-50 guys commit to a large 2 day local trophy race. I think back in the day the largest event we hosted had 130-140 entries.... Organized RC has been on the decline in ottawa over the last 3 years. We went from having a 10000sqft indoor track to closing the doors this past spring. Lack of intrest of racing is what forced the closure. Crawling unfortunatly came to ottawa as racers where pulling out. I would estimate that there are probably 20-25 guys that have ever comp crawled in ottawa. And about 15 with any regularity since crawlign started around here this time last year.... So this event according to past trends could have only really expected about 15 local entrants. The biggest group of racing in our area is 2wd electric buggy racing, we are averaging 20-25 racers per race. The crawl comps i have seen results for locally have not hit those numbers...

So the comments about lack of local support are points to be taken but you also have to realize that it woudl have taken 100% support just to get 20-25 locals entered. People here also have lives to schedule,work,vacation family ect ect. So you can understand how 100% support is almost never happening im sure even at the best of clubs anywhere...

Im hope that this class of rc does grow in ottawa, and hopefully next year with maybe a 6month lead time and magazine advertisements this event can be pulled off.... Thia type of event can only do good things for competative rc in this area.

FYI www.rcottawa.com supports all forms of rc, but its mainly a racing club, onroad and offroad. crawling is new here, and its has not nessarily sparked a much intrest or support that it has in other areas... Its different then racing, more like golf(i dont mean that as negative but its very much an individual sport). It may take more time for it to grow.