So pretty much if you haven’t caught it yet. When me and Whitey went to the awards for WOW. They pretty much said “Ok why arnt people coming out here?” Got a couple responses like “Weather etc.” but that was pretty much it. Now, I really didnt feel that bad for the show due to, a situation that arose when I was at the show early morning friday. But it hit me good when I think Bob is the guys name said, “Its really up to you people to make this show what it is. Theres nothing better then people saying did you see the WOW Show in Pittsburgh”. I mean hes pretty much right.
So I know when I heard this I pretty much thought to myself “What can Pittspeed do for the show?” I mean really we have the most people from the area, to get a point across here.
I know what your saying, “Starboy do you really think they will even look at the stuff we have to say?” and my response to that is, if they dont the shows just going to take the the path its in now.
Ok so suggestions: For one I know my buddies that came to the show complained about price. The celebrates seriously arnt drawing in huge amounts of people. The Angels or whoever the f*ck they are. Not the best entertainment I seen. For me, my one big thing is not alot of imports. Dont get me wrong I love old cars and the craftsmanship of them but Im tired of seeing just old cars. Not a big selection of import, euros, anything of that nature.
Well I somewhat disagree, I think the promoter should make the show, not the participants. I mean if the participants make the show who needs the promoter?
But here are the things I would like to see:
If their is going to be celbs, make someone that something to do with cars. Screw the wrestlers and football players.
Maybe more imports, but less vets and stangs. I love mustangs, but I saw the same mustangs that were there the last I was, three years ago.
Lower cost. I understand I’m from redneckville, but if a person has two kids, they are looking at $40.00, just to get in (with parking) if they have coupons.
Lower the damn price of the t-shirts. $15.00-$20.00 for a kids t-shirt, that cost less than $2.00 to make is a little out there.
leave the daily drivers at home to drive.
leave the works in progress in the garage.
Add some events like the pit crew challenge, something to do for the kids other than look at cars. (I’m a big kid)
Less die-cast. I haven’t seen that much die-cast since I don’t know when.
If there going to have stripper entertainment, let them strip, otherwise find some other entertainment.
I know it’s a long list, and lots are going to disagree, but hey it’s my thoughts.
i would suggest that the cars be better organized. put the lifted trucks away from the lowered imports and put the mustangs and camaros in another area and ect…
lower the t -shirts prices and food prices. a hot dog and relish dont cost $10.00 even if its a foot long.
i like the die cast but feel it should be in the lobby to buy on your way out of the show.
I gotta disagree with #6. Did you see the '69 Charger that was at the GIS Automotive booth? Sweet car, even if it was owned by a 13 year old. I’ll bet he is spoiled rotten.
I was unaware there were strippers there. :eek2:
These are all great points, but cost of putting a vehicle in the show, as well as cost of parking, eating, & show entry are probably the biggest complaints of the PGH WOW. Plus the home show ruined the parking situation this year. I had to park 4 blocks away & push a stroller thru Ice/snow yesterday morning, while almost getting run over in an alley by an old fart in a lincoln. My 6 month old should not be subjected to that. There are plenty of parking lots around, but the two shows together pretty much filled them all up.
I went to the Detroit Autorama last year & it was about 3-4 times larger than PGH for the same money. Much nicer cars/trucks/bikes were on display & many Famous Builders too (Boyds, Rad Rides by Troy, Chip Foose, and others). Parking wasn’t bad either.
I had my truck there 3 or 4 years ago & they basically put me out along the wall & pretty much behind a display. Kind of insulting, especially when a daily driver with rust & a big stereo had a prime space about 25 feet from me. The layout of the new Convention center sucks. My truck was barely visible. I know it aint the sweetest vehicle there, but it was much better than alot of junk that had prime spaces. I was early, too, so I know it wasn’t from late arrival. My space was “assigned” before I got there.
#10 Add some hands on demos. I have had many hobbies over the years, and have attend shows for them all. Ever show I have ever attended had some kind of hands on demos. Be it the outdoor show with the fishing and bow shooting demos, or an RC show where they had plane building and electronics install demos. It wouldn’t take much to add a tuning, head unit install, or whatever demo to this show.
Hell I would even mind the $13.00 bucks so much then…
all good points, as for the imports , starboy if you talk to any of the old heads they all say way to many "rice burners"and the last couple of years there was a pretty even number of old and new, this year not so much and i think that is the reason, i am all about seeing the local cars in a big show like wow , but i can see 90% of those cars at the norwin car cruise every saturday night in the summer, bring in the big name cars, and that is up to the promoter. as for entering the show get some better judging. i know my car is not a crazy show car but i did not win anything and the guy with paint chipping off did because he had more ice … this show will never be what it can because its held in pa in the winter that not only stops alot of participant but also spectators
Im going to say need more imports… not because I am biased towards imports but honestly there wasnt anything import wise impressive other than whiteys + the skyline… I meen I was shocked the fact that there werent a ton of imports there… it was very suprising. I dont even think I seen one newer fbody there… this year just sucked. They really tried with those angel chicks + the halo 2 tourney. They just need better cars there bottom line thats the problem.
They aren’t gonna charge less if people bitch about price and still pay it. Thats not gonna happen. They cant just get more imports either. That purely up to attendees.
They can controll whom the let in the show. I feel they should be a little more particular. If we are going to pay for a showing of nice cars make damn sure they are all nice.
Project care are awsome. They should have a best project award. Not to be given to the kid whom puts some parts on his daily driver and calls it his project. I mean real projects. The GIS car, and the one in the back. Looked like an old olds or something.
Hands on stuff is great too. I’m sure everyone like to try to get extra money out of people but if they had booths set up that you could participate from your paid entrance it would be nice. Nobody likes walking by booths that are trying to get into your pocket.
Demo’s are cool too. When we set up a booth 2 or 3 years ago we wanted to try and do a roll cage at the show. The problem was it would have costed us alot to get the proper power to our booth to be able to weld. Maybe I’ll aproach them with the prospect of it this year if they help us out.
Get some awsome sheet metal guy in there with an english wheel and just do shit the whole time.
They need to make the show more of a show rather than a walk threw an indoor parking lot with a bunch of people trying to get in your wallet/
get rid of the olds 442 with 28+" wheels and chevelle with 30+" wheels, it’s just fucking stupid and a waste of parking spaces for nice cars. I saw a few there and it pisses me off.
I agree with the person who said more big name cars. If I can go to Caste village and see the same old mstang/camaro/import, why pay 13/person plus parking to see it there. It would be nice to see a few foose cars, a few boyd cars, hell even some overhaulin cars or something like that. Something that car people enjoy loking at. It’s lame to put on a car show and then try to appeal to wrestling fans and some movie that is 84 years old(american graffiti). I hate the new fast and furious BS but if you want to draw people in, throw a few cars from that horrible movie in the show. Try to appeal to the car people, not 13 year old kids(and if you’re over 13 and still watch wrestling, you’re a complete homo).
my .02…it needs to be bigger. I felt ripped off when I went in there. We made it around the place and saw every car in under 30 minutes…not worth $13 a person. I remember it being ALOT bigger when it was at the old convention center, they had cars downstairs when you walked in. This was seriously like walking into an actual convention, there was nothing in the lobby except for 2 bikes and overpriced shirts.
They definitely need more kid friendly stuff, and a better parking situation. Like SixSpeed454SS, i had to park all the way down in Tequila Willies parking lot, and carry my 2 year old and push my 2 month old it the freezin weather. My son was shivering for a half hour after we got in the door. He didn’t care about anything there except the Lightning McQueen car and Whiteys 240 because he recognized it from the garage, other than that…he was bored out of his mind there, those were the only two things he was happy to see.
Beer and food prices need to be lower, and if they cant lower it, then make sure my $5 can of beer is friggin cold.
And I agree with seperating stuff. make an import section, a muscle section, a truck section, a bike section…etc. And make sure people can see what you have done to your ride. I saw a ton of cars with the doors and windows closed, hood closed, trunk closed…i know what a 69 GTO looks like on the outside, I want to see what is under the hood that makes it worthy for that show, the paper in the window saying whats in it, does nothing for me.
i didnt go to the event, instead i went to the magic the gathering pre-release down the hall (yea im a fucking nerd) But i looked in from outside and it looked beat like it usally is. Most of what i saw was run of the mill stuff you can see for free anytime in the summer at a local car cruise.
tell them to make it a car show and maybe people will come. i’m pretty sure there was a money making tourist trap going on at the convention center this weekend.
You guys have made some awesome points here! someone mentioned they can’t force atendees to show their car but they can make them come back!
I pulled into the convention center with some old guy making smart comments about my car. I was out of earshot to hear what he said but I saw the snickering and pointing. So I go to the registration table and they looked for my spot for about 20 minutes. Once they found my spot there was someone already parked in my spot. I said cool, well I am going to the other registration that I had to do and they were cool with me doing that to save time. Once i come back from registering again, someone else was parked in my spot. wtf! So now i have been in the convention center for an hour and still not in my spot. No one was apologizing for the inconvenience or even giving me heads up. Me and jeff stood there and just waited.
So I finally get my spot, I start moving my car over there. And my car is somewhat difficult to drive from a start and stop situation. The way I drive it, it sounds like i am always revving it for no reason. So of course another one of the fine show employees makes a comment. I just park and start to clean.
This vendor comes in when we are cleaning the car and they put us practically back to back and his stand would be almost literally in my trunk! We resolved the issue ourself since the fine employees again had no clue!
Friday I was at work, and starboy headed down to the show. Well he was hanging out with my car to kill time. He was able to solve another issue for the fine people on the WOW staff. again the car moved.
My spot was in the corner, against the wall with pretty much no over head lighting. But whatever, I am sure that was the only place they could put my car!
IMO the show was boring. There was nothing to do, nothing to see. and diecast cars are about as cool as herpes. I am thinking this is my last time for good in this show until they improve the falling things:
Staff, no one is overly friendly.
Car quality… they ask for picture, why not use them!
Car quantity… there used to be 300 some cars in this show. I think they were lucky to hit 200.
Stick to your rules. On the sheet it specifically says no shutting down booths or car displays till the show is officially over. I saw alot of vendors already closed up and a good bit of the cars closed up too. There were still people in the building!!! wtf! why would a customer ever come back?
Lots of good suggestions here. I can at least clear up a few things that I know of that can’t be changed. As someone who attended, I can tell you that if I wasn’t credentialed to attend the show I don’t think I could justify the $13 price tag plus another $10 to park. As for the high prices of everything beyond the admission (food, etc), those are all set by the convention center, not the show promotors. All we had for our little Wexford Starlite Car Cruise table was and extension cord to run a slideshow which we were allowed to have for the low, low price of $125!
The promotor of the Pittsburgh World of Wheels is Bob Ulanawicz. Many of you might have heard his sons, Brian and Sean of Blades Rod Shop/So-Cal East on the Car Radio program on KDKA. Sean has told me in the past that the date of the show was changed on them last year since some of the other big shows at the convention center carry more weight than them. They are also at the mercy of the WoW franchise and when the traveling part of the show is available.
I am aware of a number of clubs including the Hollywood Knights who won best participating club for several years in a row don’t even make an effort to go anymore. Frankly, who has their project done by mid January? That is a big reason the car count is down.
I have to agree that the quality of the cars at the World of Wheels isn’t much better than you will see at Wexford or Irwin every week, but the WoW concept goes back to long before there were 10 car cruises every weekend. So our attitudes have changed.
And speaking of back when, while I agree that the convention center layout is not very good, is anyone besides me old enough to remember when the WoW was held inside the outer ring of the Civic Arena? Talk about a bad layout! No room to move and you really couldn’t see a thing if you weren’t over 6 feet tall.
All in all the 2007 version of World of Wheels was average at best. And having another show in the building at the same time is a big problem, but again no fault of the promotors.
the marketing and promotions people are going about WOW all worng
they are to worried about spending money and paying for advertising and getting these dumb acts in there,
when if they just put there heads together they could get alot more “sponsors” and alot more money for the show and bigger better acts…
and wont have to worry about making there money on high ticket prices…
think im bullshitting…
Wings Over Pittsburgh
we do not charge a dime for entry free…to put on an air show is incredible amount of money and all done through sponsorship…
i would even charged a dollar entry fee we wouldent know what to do with all the money
there so many avaenues out there they can use that they dont…
you have other compaines work for you///sales of sponsor ship//promotions//advertising//you make it a win win for everyone…
spending an assload of money on signs to hang in store windows is only gonna get you so far…i hope to god they didnt spend a dime…
not to knock anyone that has done this for WOW but they need to make there money work for them insted of relying on ticket sales…
god if i could sell tickets to the airshow wholy crapola…
i really need to start my own promotions company
they are limiting them selves to just a walk thourgh car look at thing…not a show…its boring dull and why the fuck do they hold the awards in a seperate room…that should be out in the show…at least they did last year…
more people selling shit…car products…fuckl tires…anything like that gives you a cut of there profit…i could go on for hours