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Poll for your thoughts on Contests
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Would you be down to go to a rail jam if the entry fee was $50 if there was $500 guaranteed for first place?
Would the entry fee price you out to where you would rather have it be cheaper with a lower cash guarantee or none at all?
I'm trying to put together a big contest for this season. I want to do a guarantee to make it worth while for people to travel. At the same time I'm not trying to price people out. Might have to put up the loot personally for the guarantee so probably wouldn't be able to guarantee anything other than first. Other places and best trick would be based off how many people actually came.
How far would you be willing to drive for something like that if the setup was legit and you felt you had a decent chance to win?
+K for any legit answers.
thanks
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I'd go $30 on the entry fee and have $300 guaranteed. $50 seems kind of steep and might scare some competitors off.
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yup, in the ballpark of $20-$30 or if it's at $50 I'd expect a free shirt and maybe some free prizes at the end
Posts: 51263
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Karma: 157,459
There would be free stuff in addition. Also you wouldn't need to buy a lift ticket on top or anything.
A lot of comps are in addition to a lift ticket. Even if it's discounted to $20, if the comp is 20 you're still getting up in that range.
I might go a little less on the entry and purse though
Posts: 3084
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Personally I wouldn't go for that. Something in the range of 20-30 would be ok, but I guess that's all because of my terrible rail game. If it was a freeride contest I'd definitely be down with 50$ entry for 500$ first place.
Posts: 51263
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Karma: 157,459
I should add that we'll be having 3 regular contests that I plan to keep dirt cheap and mellow. Thinking 10, $15 tops, all product giveaways. Fun course but fitting of all ability levels. Might even through in a specific grom jam at some point.
This wouldn't be our only rail jam of the year just something specifically for people who want to win some $$$ and ride a course thats built more with that skill level in mind.
I'm in no way planning on making every contest $. I just want to have 1 where there is some real $ on the line.
Posts: 51263
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Karma: 157,459
Might do make it a $30 contest with a $20 required ticket and play mind games with people.
I wouldn't care if some of the regular fuck it just enter just for fun people didn't do it. $500 makes travel much more reasonable then trying to win 200. And if you're going to drive somewhere 2 hours and beyond, 30 isn't that big of a deal compared to the amount you could snag.
I did a contest for 25 last year and even some kids from the mountain did it just for whatever. There were a bunch of prizes including a new deck but cash I think first only took home 100.
$20 is kind of just cheap mode honestly. To me 30 is easily reasonable. Might just do that or 40 and drop the guarantee down a little bit.
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Define travel.
Sponsors, guaranteed exposure, and bragging rights make the open events what they are, not entry fees. Not that there is a perfect correlation between those things...
Posts: 51263
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Karma: 157,459
Not like get on a plane travel or drive cross country. I mean surrounding states 5 or less hours kind of travel. Decently far but nothing people don't do to hit different mountains just to shred sometimes.
For sure, I agree that bragging rights are def a huge part on the more established contests, but everyone likes money. You aren't going to get the bragging rights of a 7 year running contest at a huge mountain at a first year contest at a small mountain.
That said cash is still nice. If the setup is legit, and the prizes worth while, reasonable travel isn't that bad. Might just go with 35, 40 though, and guarantee like 400. It seems more inviting and that's still a good chunk of loot.
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$50 is a bit much and would scare a lot of people away. With that prize, it's just people in it for the money in the end and the people who aren't really sure if they could win wouldn't enter
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Just make it so that the prize is dependent on how many people are in it. Cover the competition cost, and then split the rest reasonably between the winner(s) and yourself.
Posts: 51263
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Karma: 157,459
True that's why I might drop it down to 35 or 40. Still too much for the random that isn't serious about it, but not a scary number. And with good loot on the line worth it if you think you can hang.
Or I could always mess with peoples minds and make it cheaper entry like 25-30 paired with a $20 required lift ticket and add it all into the purse. Like a mind fuck that is actually for their own good.
Posts: 51263
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Karma: 157,459
That's the hard part though. No guarantees means if you drive there you might pay 30 to enter and only win 75 bucks back. Also the mountain has 0 for a local crew. There is no rail skill there yet. I need to get people from other places out.
I've done plenty of contests with the funds being split based off the entry and actually did one at this place last spring, but it isn't something that's really going to motivate people to come out.
I'm able to do this to wear everything goes to the guarantee 100% till it's covered and then the mountain can make a few bucks while money is still going into the prize purse as well for any more entries. Even though the mountain wouldn't really make anything on this, it's free advertisement for them. The park scene there needs a jump start. Need to get people to come out and shred some legit setups.
I finished building everything right at the end of the season last year and only got one contest on stuff. Then 3/4 of the stuff we have was done in the off season. I'm just trying to skip steps and make a 10 year plan a 3 year plan kind of thing.
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Get companies to sponsor it. They get advertising while you get money to give out prizes, set up, etc. Better prizes=more people=more effective advertising.
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I mean I suck but I've gone to some small rail jams just for the sake of hitting rails, and my friends do the same. I know for sure I wouldn't bite for $50 cause that's the price of a lift ticket. Making varied levels of buying in with varied prizes would be dope, like pay in $30 win 300, and pay in $50 win 500. Just my 2 cents though.
Posts: 51263
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Karma: 157,459
I've tried. Nobody wants to. They don't care at this point. Until it's stupidly legit and they know they'll 100% get a great return they want nothing to do with it. I'm not saying I don't understand, just that it's not happening.
For this one I'm trying to make money the main attraction and other prizes more of an added bonus. I mean we gave away some pretty nice stuff at the final contest last year but trying to get more of a draw from outside of the area. I think 80% percent of the people at that contest were from an hour + away.
Posts: 51263
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Karma: 157,459
We're going to have 3 rail jams that will be only $10 throughout the year with all kinds of prizes, no cash. Mellow more inviting setups.
For this the target audience would be the more advance skier/riders and I plan on building a setup that caters to them.
I'm trying to keep it uniform for prices. Also if I did $30 for 300 and 50 for 500 I would need 20 more people to come to the rail jam. We'll have rails open all season long for much cheaper so no need to enter a contest just to hit them.
Posts: 51263
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Karma: 157,459
Might just drop her down to $35 possibly with a lift ticket if you don't have a pass for $10 10 going to the mountain and doing 400 first guaranteed, and if people show up doing 400 1st, 200 2nd, 100 3rd.
It would be the same as making it a $45 jam but it would probably get more people out even though it's the same price with a smaller cash purse. $50 just sticks out badly to people. $35 is cheap enough that it's very doable.
We'll see. Thanks for the responses guys.
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