2019 is in Louisville and 2021 is in New Jersey. Where is 2020? Thanks
Overland Park, KS. June 9 - 13, 2020.
Just curious as to how far out do they plan these events? 2 to 3 years out seems like it would be the max. 2021 in NJ sounds good and it would be nice to go to KC again. We lived near Overland Park in Shawnee.
Overland Park is pretty close to me in Des Moines, Iowa. I go to KC on business a lot. That being said, Overland Park seems like a poor spot for a GN. I know, it's easy to be an armchair quarterback so this is meant to be more of a generality statement, I am sure the event will be fine.
BUT -
My sister lives in O.P., my mom did until she recently passed, and my dad was in Independence, Missouri. Just thinking about the where, leads me to one of the nice ritzy hotels just south of I435. Nice enough locations, but it's essentially a concrete jungle. I can't picture driving tours, or tours to attractions.
Greater Kansas City has their usual suspects of Union Station and the Plaza, and maybe a homes tour, but not sure what else - for an old car club event.
BCA had their National meet in Springfield, Missouri on Route 66 a couple of years ago. That lends itself to route 66 nostalgia and less hustle and bustle of a smaller location, with scenic tours of the Ozarks coming, going.
I think the future of GN's should take them out of major metro areas where some older Cadillacs might struggle and find yuppie commuters who don't care about your car. Seemingly smaller venues which can still easily support a GN. And which might offer scenic driving tours and tours to museums and events which might help support those museums, many with decreasing attendance.
Also early June is not prime time vacation time.
Sorry flame me but that time frame makes it difficult for those not retired.
Yes I understand the heat but it might as well be January in the snow belt.
Yes you cannot please everyone, but the CLC GN was often in late July early August.
The 2010 GN was held in Overland Park (KC) and
if I remember correctly it was in August. The heat
and humidity were intense. OK for a few hours
but I was judging and we had 15 cars to do. It
almost killed me!!
Moving it to June is a wise decision -- but as you
stated, you can't please everyone!
Mike
Hello all,
My personal preference is for a late July or early August date. If you live in Maine or Minnesota, the ice is barely off the pond by early June, so there is not much time to give your car a few good shakedown cruises.
I wonder if there is any correlation between Scot Minesinger's observation (previously posted) about the declining number of cars entered at GNs, and June GN dates. Who would have the data on the number of carts entered for each GN, and has anyone charted the number of cars entered and the calendar dates of the GN?
Respectfully submitted,
Christopher Winter
We were still getting snow here (close to the Maine border) in May. It was early June before the 70 came out this year.
I remember the heat and humidity was so bad I mowed my lawn at night after the sun went down! If I recall that's still tornado season. Not much in the line of activities, I think you listed all the ones that might be of interest.
Except for the heat, I enjoyed my first trip to KC in my '79 Fleetwood. There were the usual tours and activities and I think it was judged a successful meet. I will be able to give you first hand (well, probably second hand from one of our local car club members who is going to be on the committee,) relative to a "small town" hosting a national GN type of meet. The Packard Club (don't know which one) is going to put on a GN type show in Lafayette, IN next year. And unless it is connected to Purdue, there's not really all that much to do close by. So that means trips to Indy or South Bend. We are going to have a longer than usual bus ride to the Corvette Museum ourselves in 2019. And while we have a fair amount of nice hotels, none are large enough to take care of being a "host" hotel that we generally enjoy.
The GN for 2021 is in NM, not NJ. It was planned for NJ in 2021, but the hotel suffered complications. I agree that early June is not optimal schedule wise, but probably more affordable.
I looked at the web site for the 2020 Grand National Host Hotel, Marriott Hotel KCOP. It looks like a nice property but it is a business hotel located in a modern office park. A representative of the hotel was taking reservations at the Louisville GN last week but the room block has not been released for general reservations on the Marriott web site yet. My reservations have not shown up on the my account yet. The representative told me they would not be entered until the room block was released which is apparently true.
Here is a link to the hotel if you want to see what it looks like.
https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/mciop-marriott-kansas-city-overland-park/
There was no information on the host hotel for the 2021 GN in Albuquerque New Mexico (and no Americans do not need a passport to travel to New Mexico, it is one of the 50 states, ;D ;D ;D) at the Louisville GN.
So let me get this straight, 2020 is in Overland Park Kansas, 2021 is in New Mexico, 2022 is in Chicago. 2023 was supposed to be in New Mexico but they took 2021. Have they figured out a new place for 2023?
3 years out is pretty good. They can work on a good site for 2023.
I am familiar with that motel/hotel and it is a nice hotel, secure and scenic in the respect that they have allowed some wooded areas to remain. Good BBQ nearby. As I mentioned, not sure what too see in greater KC that many of us have not already seen.
Efforts are being made to resurrect New Jersey for 2023.
Maybe one of these decades it will be on the west coast again. No, Albuquerque doesn't count. 1100 miles for me, so the cars will stay home.
Quote from: David Greenburg on June 20, 2019, 03:33:49 PM
Maybe one of these decades it will be on the west coast again. No, Albuquerque doesn't count. 1100 miles for me, so the cars will stay home.
2579 miles for me. LOL.
Yes, but you've had NY, Boston, and apparently New Jersey coming up. And even DC was closer to you. Since San Jose in 1999, there has been exactly one GN on the West Coast, LA in 2006, plus Vegas in 2016, which was within range for me, or would have been except fort the imploding water pump.
It'd be great if we could have them in Dallas every year, I like close to home. The only problem is not too many Cadillacs are around here. They seem to cluster around the New England area, which is not Dallas
How does the GN location get selected? I assume a region has to put in for it and Headquarters makes the choice?
Another question, which may have been previously answered. Do we get "professional" help in planning the GN or is it planned by the region members and HQ? Is the only pro help we get is the host hotel and the busses?
As a side note, the Embassy Suites was pretty nice, I suggest one of those for an upcoming event. ;) Fridge, microwave, free b'fast, free happy hour drinks, two rooms, what else? The free stuff helps offset the cost of hi-test fuel for my thirsty Cadillac.
Chris,
I will attempt to answer some of your questions while my understanding of what the CLC does is elementary these are the points i have heard from more then one source when I have asked.
Yes, a Region puts in a proposal to host a GN. It takes a large number of volunteers to put on the event. In McLean we started with about 40 and approximately 30 spent the week working the event. The CLC Board then approves the proposal and then the work starts.
The CLC has hired a conference planner to assist with working with the hotel which is selected by a team of volunteers lead by Ronnie Hux of the Valley Forge Region.
In the past the Region had greater control over the event. The McLean GN was the last. Now the the CLC Board takes a greater roll. Specifically CLC has taken the lead in managing the finances. You may have noted that we now send the event registration and car registration to CLC Headquarters. In the past the event registration went to the sponsoring region which managed the finances and the vehicle registration went to CLC Headquarters. At McLean we had a retired lifelong banker serving as the chief financial officer and were very lucky to have his outstanding support. Some Regions do not have a member with that experience so CLC HQ took over that roll.
The buses are handled by the region in that they seek out firms and get proposals from various tour bus companies to fill that requirement.
I concur that the Embassy Suites San Marcos was the best hotel we have had for a Grand National in recent memory even better then the Hilton in McLean. However, there is one small problem in that Hilton which owns Embassy Suites has only three properties like the San Marcos hotel in their portfolio. That property and its two other twins were not duplicated across the brand. You know things are bigger in Texas and that hotel was really nice. I agree the perks were great but most Embassy Suites are Business Hotels with out the conference space and oversize parking that the San Marcos property had.
I hope this has helped answer some of your questions.
Also, when I worked in the Big D in the late 1980's and early 1990's it seemed everyone drove a Cadillac what happened???? ;) ;) ;) ;)
Lynn
Quote from: BJM on August 01, 2018, 10:08:20 AM
I think the future of GN's should take them out of major metro areas where some older Cadillacs might struggle and find yuppie commuters who don't care about your car. Seemingly smaller venues which can still easily support a GN.
As a member of the GN Planning Committee for the CLC, I can confidently say large hotels are a requirement for today's Grand Nationals, due to the number of room nights sold and the number of cars expected to be on the show field.
The host hotel for Lake George, NY in 2014 sold out in one day, and at least a couple of hundred people had to be seated in another building to watch the Awards Banquet via a video hookup. And in 2017, the host hotel also sold out in one day and if memory serves me correctly, our members crashed the Hilton's computer reservation systems trying to book rooms.
The CLC tries to sweep back and forth across the country in a windshield wiper fashion. Ultimately we need a location that can provide a hotel that has adequate parking and can accommodate the # of guests expected, a reasonably nice hotel yet something we can get a group rate that is affordable. I have heard that finding hotels in the LA, San Francisco and other large cities on the West Coast is extremely hard. The fact is while many members may pay $129 a night, there are not as many ready to cough up $199 a night for a room. So cost and finding a hotel that can provide all of our needs is a major constraint.
Back to the windshield wiper approach. I am in central North Carolina and have attended all GN's since 2012 except 2017. The 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017 GNs were on the East Coast (although they spanned from Florida up to New York!), however 2015 (Wisconsin), 2016 (Vegas) and 2018 (San Marcos) were on the other side of the Mississippi for me and consider that "out west". I would love to see a GN on the West Coast, however, the cost/facility issues has been a constraint.
Finally, regarding San Marcos Embassy Suites, I was also told there were only a couple of hotels in this configuration. Someone mentioned them by name and it did not include Charlotte, NC. My wife's work sent us to the Charlotte Embassy Suites hotel just after the 2018 GN and it was like walking into a mirror of the San Marcos hotel. About the only thing different was the artwork in the atrium. As our Charlotte based Carolina region grows, I would think it would be the perfect spot for a future GN when it is the Easts Coasts turn to host. When we stayed you could actually sit out on the balcony and see the Charlotte Motor Speedway and hear the cars doing practice runs. I thought to myself, "now this is the place to have a GN to showcase automobiles and motor sports in the south". Sorry to get off topic, but one can dream.
One problem is that when a hotel, such as GN 2017 where we had 445 rooms in the hotel and we guaranteed 400 of them is that people reserve two and three rooms and then drop them later. There are always cancellations. Unfortunately there is just no way to deal with this except to get a hotel with more than 600 rooms. I feel that people bringing a show car car should receive priority.
I understand the "windshield wiper" approach. But like the stubby little wipers on my '60 Cadillac, the wipers don't do an adequate job of covering the "windshield." As a former long-time east coast resident, I can recall the perspective that west of the Mississippi is "out west." But it's not. Kansas City, Texas, and Wisconsin are as far or farther from the west as they are from the east coast. Personally, I don't mind going to a GN in an interesting place without a car, but I know many feel otherwise. And there are a lot of cars out here!
I'd like to see another come to the South East. FL., GA., N.C., even S.C. would be good. But 4 days of driving just takes the fun out of it in today's traffic.
David, you make an excellent point, the "west" is geographically big. But the subject of GN locations came up during a meet and greet with the Board last week and the subject of GN's on the left coast came up and the general consensus was that members on the left coast just don't show up. The point was made that the majority of LA members would not consider taking their car to the Bay Area and vice a versa, Bay Area members would not venture down to LA. The major point was that members from the rust belt and east coast show up. It would be devastating financially for LA or SF or Wash/OR to put ona GN and fewer then 100 cars showed up. And an GN that far west would limit the number of regulars from the north and south east from attending. David this is not a knock on your members out west it is just the general prespective of some of the CLC leadership as I understood them.
Quote from: Jason Edge on June 21, 2019, 08:29:21 AM
The CLC tries to sweep back and forth across the country in a windshield wiper fashion. Ultimately we need a location that can provide a hotel that has adequate parking and can accommodate the # of guests expected, a reasonably nice hotel yet something we can get a group rate that is affordable. I have heard that finding hotels in the LA, San Francisco and other large cities on the West Coast is extremely hard. The fact is while many members may pay $129 a night, there are not as many ready to cough up $199 a night for a room. So cost and finding a hotel that can provide all of our needs is a major constraint.
Back to the windshield wiper approach. I am in central North Carolina and have attended all GN's since 2012 except 2017. The 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017 GNs were on the East Coast (although they spanned from Florida up to New York!), however 2015 (Wisconsin), 2016 (Vegas) and 2018 (San Marcos) were on the other side of the Mississippi for me and consider that "out west". I would love to see a GN on the West Coast, however, the cost/facility issues has been a constraint.
Finally, regarding San Marcos Embassy Suites, I was also told there were only a couple of hotels in this configuration. Someone mentioned them by name and it did not include Charlotte, NC. My wife's work sent us to the Charlotte Embassy Suites hotel just after the 2018 GN and it was like walking into a mirror of the San Marcos hotel. About the only thing different was the artwork in the atrium. As our Charlotte based Carolina region grows, I would think it would be the perfect spot for a future GN when it is the Easts Coasts turn to host. When we stayed you could actually sit out on the balcony and see the Charlotte Motor Speedway and hear the cars doing practice runs. I thought to myself, "know this is the place to have a GN to showcase automobiles and motor sports in the south". Sorry to get off topic, but one can dream.
Jason, I would be willing to drive to the Charlotte area... IF the GN was held in September or October. But my guess is that many members would object to a GN so "late" in the season, for whatever reason. My reason is to reduce the chances of severe hot weather, which is over 92 deg. F.. And 71 deg. F. is NOT too 'cold'.
Quote from: Maynard Krebs on July 07, 2019, 10:11:36 PM
Jason, I would be willing to drive to the Charlotte area... IF the GN was held in September or October. But my guess is that many members would object to a GN so "late" in the season, for whatever reason. My reason is to reduce the chances of severe hot weather, which is over 92 deg. F.. And 71 deg. F. is NOT too 'cold'.
I agree. It is not just the temperature but the humidity here in NC. A humid 85 degree day here can seem like a 100 degree day in Las Vegas. I remember the 1st time I went to Nevada and it was maybe upper 90's and I was like "Really! This feels like springtime in North Carolina!" The sun in Texas and the South West is intense but it is not THICK like it is here. I like to tell people you can walk outside here on a hot humid summer day and slice the air with a knife and make a NC humidity sandwich. It is almost like being underwater. You would not want a GN in most parts of North Carolina after early June or before late August.
Gee, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Humidity? What's that? Oh, something I live in 24/7/365 here in Florida. It would just be a tad cooler cooler up there. Top down weather!!!
how about Reno, and the Grand Sierra Resort......
Gene Harl
Due to the Fall Festival I am not sure you can have a GN later than early to mid August. When you think about it, it’s probably hot and usually humid anywhere in the USA in August, and July.
Here in Iowa we have settled into 85 to 94 degrees with high percentage humidity through late September. September?! Yep - I’m 56 years old and been back in Iowa 20 plus years now. We see 80s in October frequently.
Quote from: gene harl on July 08, 2019, 05:35:59 PM
how about Reno, and the Grand Sierra Resort......
Gene Harl
That's a great idea. I hear a member would put on a big bar-b-q in beautiful down town Fallon on Friday. LOL!!! The only problem is who's gonna put on the rest of the meet???
Bob
One of the major issues in hosting a Grand National is the regional manpower needed to carryout such an event. Aside from the basics: show field layout, monitoring and guarding show field, and staffing hospitality and other posts, the Grand National has grown into a giant extravaganza of tours and time tables and bus schedules and tour leaders and tickets and meetings and banquets and receptions and on and on. It can be a very intense and stressful situation. I think that this is why many smaller regions wouldn't even consider trying to host a Grand National. As I attend more and more Grand Nationals I keep hearing people say "It's about the cars and the people" but I'm not sure that we haven't lost some of that in our annual contest to be ever bigger and more impressive than the last. (Just my thoughts)