We spoke to the beach patrol police yesterday that ride the quads. Four HB police officers were fueling up at George’s Mexican Restaurant before heading over to the US Open of Surfing. What were their comments about the day? It was going to be busy. Next, I spoke to the frontline of beach catering and concessions…Zacks. What was going on? Massive lines of people (which is fine), but lots of zombies, someone in the background yelled out. Don’t think they worked there, however. Having gone to the US Open on Saturday, and previous final Sunday shows, I do know that the Surf City marketing is taking hold. I continue to predict that the numbers assigned to visitor attendance for this event are topping over 500,000, and are not being tallied to the fullest. What’s the lesson from such an event where beach parking fills up by 11 a.m.? Do these masses of people add money to the coffers of HB, or do they merely take up zombie space as teens and youth who are coming for the beach camps with the free beach babysitting and permission to run wild? A good marketing study should be in order to begin examining the cash value of special events and while I truly enjoy the mania of this once-a-year madness, as a taxpayer I can only hope the gridlock and expense of resources such as police, fire and lifeguards are well worth the investment. Without this type of event where folks don’t tend to spend much cash, what would you have in its place?
July 28th, 2008 at 11:12 am I tell you what I’d have. A huge concert with great bands that attract a mellow audience that spends cash.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:14 am Why not do a family thing? The US Open Sandcastle Competition in Imperial Beach is huge. It fills up all the hotel rooms. I know because I tried to stay down there to attend the event and had to book my room in Sand Diego.
August 7th, 2008 at 1:05 am I made it through US Open. It must be all that marketing that’s making it so crowded in paradise. The beach parking lots were full earlier than I’ve ever seen. Now they’ve gotta figure out what to do about all the people trying to visit your beaches, but can’t park their cars.