REDLINE TV (Episode #2)

[my 1 88 u]

Re: Add'l info

Originally posted by craiglieberman
Su_Maverick: Thanks for the input, I'll be checking those sites today.

Not sure if you saw an earlier post of mine, but we had some challenges getting in the door to some of the drift events....they simply wouldn't let us in, and even D1GP gave us EXTREMELY limited access to areas of their event.

Mr. M at Drift Days was the most cooperative of the bunch, so we got quite a bit of coverage of drifting from one of his events. He was awesome, as were the people at his event.

After exhaustive negotiations with Miyoshi's people, we were finally able to get access to their Miami event. The event was small, to say the least.

Between these two events, we got quite a bit of coverage and we knew we would.

We weren't satisfied with just that, so all the while, we were in talks with Formula D. Suffice to say that an agreement could not be struck...turns out they're holding to a hope to at some point in the future produce their own TV show. Not sure if that'll ever happen, as many promoters have fallen into the same trap and years go by before anyone gets any TV coverage....this exact same thing happend in import drag racing.

What I'm saying is that while I can tell you for sure that we will not be able to reach into every corner of drifting this season, unless some promoters abandon the fantasy that a big TV will come to them, you're not likely to see drifting on TV anywhere outside of this show anytime soon....wish we had the power to change that. If the drifting community united and made our desires known to the promoters, that might change, but I'll let the world in on a little secret:

Promoters don't like TV....unless TV production companies pay them to cover it. Why? Because a person who watches it on TV is not likely ot buy a ticket to go to the event, cause they can see it on TV for free. And unless promoters feel they're making enough money from the payments from production companies, its' not going to happen.

The truth of course is that TV broadcasts can be blacked out locally, as no one from Montana or Cali is going as a specatator to a Miami drift event, so I've never bought into the notion that airing a TV show shot in Miami cost them ticket sales from the NJ and Cali ticket buyer.

When will TV production companies/networks decide to pay such royalties? The difficulty is that it'll cost a production company $100,000 per episode MINIMUM to produce a 30 minute segment to cover a drift event and promoters want a sizeable "royalty" fee above that. That would make each 30 minute segment cost between $100-250K. and there's only about $50,000 in commercial inventory per show to sell...which means a network would lose $100,000 per show....hey, a lot of people love drifting, but enough to offset a network's $100K loss per show.

No TV network is ready to commit to drifting in such a capacity at this early stage.

So, with that said, please bear with us as we beg, borrow and steal to try to get access to the pro events, BUT, the good news is that if we were able to get access to the bigger of the GRASSROOTS events, like Drift Days, we could cover the upcomers.

Looking for help from you people to tell us what those events are.

And thats why the corporate money should be spent on more nation wide drift events instead of some half-a#$ed show.

[su_maverick]

Ghost- On a serious note, they should do a 240 and a FC TII. The FC's are affordable, more reliable and have parts that are about as expensive as the 240. We ae working on a project FC out here right now for a friend.
I have been trying to link Craig up with Chris Cobetto with US Drift. People really need to get off this whole sell-out thing.
Media Coverage= More public interest=== More people in the stands= More revenue from events = More events and more locations willing to host them.
I am with you guys about not wanting drifting to turn into another TF n TF but we have to start somewhere. If Craig is as open as Ghost says and from what I have seen in limited contact, then lets give him a chance and see where this goes. My biggest advice has been to stay out of the 'show' aspect of the sport and keep it more grassroots. The last thing we need is a HIN-Drift.

[Ghost of Duluth]

He's open like a Quickie Mart. He just wants to give people what they want. Like I tried to explain before. He was CONTRACTED to build those cars, they were not his car's before TF&TF. He didn't ride around California in his riced out Skyline. He was asked to build the cars and he bought the cars to do it. Thats what a business is. Just like your favorite tuner also does rice stuff. it pays the bills. If everyone of the shops waited until a project came along that they agreed with, they'd starve.

So give the guy a chance and let him give you what you want. An FC-TII would be an excellent car to build. They are less expensive now and are a very viable alternative to the 240's. Cheap to build as well. I agree. Hard to do 2 cars though.

[su_maverick]

Well, what would be cool would be to have 2 shops/people take on each car. The segment would follow each person as they build up their cars (with some help from the show) with the final step being the competition. Each one would have a megar budget to work with and certain points they must cover. By having the 'most important points' it will give new people an idea of what they are in for and costs. Of course, you know I will always be partial to the 7.