Opinion: Time for Tahoe to embrace Hot August Nights
To the community,
I have participated with a classic car since the late ’80s in the Reno/Sparks Hot August Nights nostalgic car celebration that is said to draw as much as $300 million to that area just a stones throw away. The participants have all kinds of cars and most are quite valuable and some with paint jobs that cost in the tens of thousands. The car owners are generally middle aged and many are the retired boomers with money to spend.
In the last few days the news broke that after a year of upset about Long Beach being brought on board as a new venue for Hot August Nights they are now out. The city of Reno was run through the ringer about the Long Beach addition and many thought HAN might leave all together.
Instead of Tahoe being the kick-off city it was Long Beach and we were given a small spot starting before the Reno event Aug. 7-9. Last year Tahoe came alive with the hope of future expansion for the event. Everything went great in a very small way.
Harrah’s and Harveys did the wait and see and did little to promote the event and now with a Sunday-Tuesday probably wont do much again.
This should be a yearly car celebration that is the true kick-off to Reno. Many like the idea of being up in the cooler air and out of the Reno crowds. I know all our efforts are focused on Amgen, but if the people who survive up here had a clue about the potential of this massive event and the revenue it brings, they might finally do something that puts Tahoe on the another map and pumps us up like we should be. So often our struggling town just doesn’t get it right.
This door is open to a proven successful event that could and should be expanded upon. How to make that happen is anybody’s guess as we tend to go halfway with many things up here. Perhaps that could change.
Phil Blowney, South Lake Tahoe
My husband and I are classic car enthusiasts as well and agree that South Lake should try to cash in on the overflow crowd. We used to come here on vacation for HAN and come up to Tahoe to hike and swim during the day as most of the events were in the evening. Now we live here and hope to take in everything!!!
How fun it is to have more reasons to come visit our area! My hotel owner and manager friends would love to try to recover from dismal numbers and how many sold out signs do we see along 50 at anytime of the year? Even Motel 6 is mostly empty much of the time! Our lodging assn. can get behind promoting HAN and create a week of full properties if we push HAN to do more to advertise the event. My KRLT friend says HAN didnt want to spend any cash to promote on air ? I do hear that Mr. Tony O’Rourke has a great interest in event building up here. I believe he really cares and I can only hope he reads about the chance to build a week of fun with thousands of beautiful cars and the people that drive them spending money while enjoying Tahoe? Phil
Great idea. We need to be at least 12 months out in planning for something like this. I mean 12 months out with a committe and budget. Then within 2-3 months have a complete marketing and sales plan. I think we have learned from Amgen that planning events in a rush causes issues and blown opportunity. I would also suggest we leave the LTVA out till this independant committee comes up with a plan.