DRAS

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Ian Comishin
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DRAS

Post by Ian Comishin » Mon Nov 28, 2005 2:27 am

The DRAS website is now online. We are happy to say that DRAS has now been officially launched. I know most of you haven’t heard of this yet because we were trying to best organize ourselves as much as we could before making any grand announcements.

http://www.skatefast.org

THIS IS NOT A NEW RACING CIRCUIT

DRAS is more like a not-for-profit players’ union for racing skaters, our only objective is to help organizers raise cash purses for racing events. We do not put on races, nor do we interfere with the events that ask us to be a part of their program, we merely accept the responsibility of convincing sponsors to support skateboard racing.

Our goal is to see that the top sixteen pros at every race go home with some cash. Our eventual goal is that the top racers in speedboarding and slalom can actually survive off of their winnings.

Timeship Racing and GSI have already agreed to get on board and we are open to any other opportunities that may arise. This is a non-partisan organization; we are here just for the skaters. Organizations that do multiple events such as luge will not affect the cash purse we generate; we are only going to be raising money for skateboarding.

We don’t know how much we can give, nor to what races. Concrete Wave magazine has been given the contract to seek out our partners for us, hopefully through this amazing publication, our disciplines will start getting a better reward-to-risk ratio. We need to be a strong group of committed skaters united in this cause for Mike Brooke of Concrete Wave to be able to make an impression upon potential sponsors.
Membership is FREE and the more we are the stronger our presence will be in negotiating cash purse amounts.

We have set up a non-anonymous forum on the webpage for any inquiries you might have.

I hope that this is something that most of you were hoping would happen, we’ve got our necks out for racing, lets see if we can take it to another level.

Ian
www.skatefast.org
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Post by Karl Floitgraf » Mon Nov 28, 2005 5:13 pm

That sounds pretty cool, I was just wondering if you guys are talking about getting more cash sponsors or do you think all racers should pay higher entry fees inorder so the top can take home more?
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Ian Comishin
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Post by Ian Comishin » Mon Nov 28, 2005 5:25 pm

We wil not have anything to do with setting entry fees, that will be up to the organizers. We will only seek sponsorship and donations.
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Jani Soderhall
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Re: DRAS - really not for profit?

Post by Jani Soderhall » Wed Nov 30, 2005 9:26 pm

Hmmm,

Interesting concept!
Ian Comishin wrote:DRAS is more like a not-for-profit players’ union for racing skaters, our only objective is to help organizers raise cash purses for racing events. We do not put on races, nor do we interfere with the events that ask us to be a part of their program, we merely accept the responsibility of convincing sponsors to support skateboard racing.
Is DRAS not-for-profit or "more like not-for-profit"?

Are you just volunteering your time and effort to help others? Sounds too good to be true?

A better presentation of the DRAS organisation in terms of who's actually behind and ready to do the work would be appreciated.

Thank's!

/Jani

Ian Comishin
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Post by Ian Comishin » Tue Dec 06, 2005 8:32 pm

Jani...

Basically it is a simple concept that revolves around using ad space at events that isn't being used yet already. I know that slalom courses are much smaller than speedboard courses, but there is still usually a massive amount of space that could be sold to companies trying to enhance their marketing into niches such as skateboard racing.

Not for profit means just that, all the money that is raised by DRAS is going to go to the skaters who form it, and the very small expenses it will cost to run it. To date, not only have I been donating all of my time, but I've also been putting a lot of my company's resources towards this. Some friends and companies have already gotten behind me with money, products and time.

With respect to slalom, I need help in determining which events we can afford and which events merit DRAS representaion. The other component of this is how we market the organization to the potential sponsors. This means a variety of locations with known demographics.

The point is this, I've been racing, speedboarding specifically for many years now. I've seen the number of people interested in skatebaord racing grow directly to the succes of races. Races are most successful when the level of competition is entertaining to the public. The level of competition increases when racers can afford to travel to as many events as possible. Higher cash purses ease the cost of travel.

What was the highest paid slalom win this year? In Canada we had a rock/paper/scissors contest that paid $14,000 for first prize, we had a "fastest assembled toilet bowl" contest that paid $3,000 and I don't even want to get into how much money bowlers and dart throwers are making these days. Something is very wrong about skateboard racing that people aren't able to actually make a real living off of this.

I asked Mike Brooke to get invovled because he is a friend and a believer in all forms of skateboarding. It may be that some feel Mike has not done the best he can do for promoting slalom and speedboarding, but as far as I can tell, nobody else is trying harder than Mike is to create print media about what we do, and he has committed to helping me get this rolling. He loves skateboarding as much as I do.

I hope that clears up motive, maybe you guys will be willing to help me with game plan.

Thanks

Ian
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Claude Regnier
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DRAS

Post by Claude Regnier » Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:01 pm

Jani, thanks for asking the questions! Ian thanks for answering them and giving some of us a little more information.

Sounds to me like it could be great! With the European world Cup events and all the racing going on over here there is no shortage of events that could fight for contention for $$$$$.

When Hackett & McCree finalize their event schedule it will lead to bigger and better things.

One racing body out there helping the whole scene acquire sponsors and media attention is just super!!!!!!!!!!!!

Instead of having a marketing company step in and take a percentage of the proceeds sounds like we have one (several) of our own doing what is needed.
Many Happy Pumps!

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Post by Gary Fluitt » Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:20 pm

Ian,
I'm in full support. Joe Lehm and the MB let me know about the effort and I signed up the other day. I'm happy to help promote DRAS.
Jani's questions about Non-Profit status is important to me as well. We tried to set up COSS as a non-profit, and just didn't have the time to get the articles filed with the gov't. Having 501C non-profit status in the U.S. is hard to get. But it does have benefits when it comes to getting permits and sponsor dollars. In the U.S., corporations are a lot more likely to give money to a non-profit, because the corporation doing the giving can write it off as a charitable contribution, as opposed to a an operating expense for those events which are not officially run by Non-profit orginizations. In Boulder, to get the permit for a race, you need to be a 501c, or it costs big bucks (thus the races in Golden). It's not trivial to get the status in the U.S. and we were not up to the task (though Chris Barker did try hard).
So- good luck with that, and please use me to help.
I commend Jack, Hackett, and McCree for their attack on this from the commercial perspective (sell it to the media), but we DO need a grass routes, bottom up approach to attract a different kind of sponsor. It can't hurt to be going after sponosors no matter how that is done.

Ian Comishin
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Post by Ian Comishin » Sun Dec 11, 2005 11:27 pm

Thanks for getting behind this Gary. I've had respect for your approach to racing and its growth tribulations for a while now.

The not-for-profit status will be registered in Canada because we have slightly less constraints than you've previously discussed in your post... as well as this is an international initiative that includes the contracting of sponsorship seeking to a Canadian business, Concrete Wave.

Mary Beth is going to be our expert in this manner as she has succesfully created an environment for hers and Claude's saktepark to operate under similar circumstances. She has used that status to raise capital support from within the not-for-profit infrastructures that are well developed here in Canada. On that note, DRAS still will have to cough up some bucks to jump through these legal hoops so we are hoping that the t-shirt sales to members will get that first bit of garbage taken care of.

One thing to note, is that in Canada we have a strong distinction between not-for-profit and charity status, our goals do not mandate nor warrant being considered a charity.

This is really about trying to build a community within racing that will have a mechanism for supporting grassroots racing and providing incentive for the talented skaters to keep getting better. I want to look around at the top of the race course and be scared to be matched up with anyone, not just the top ten guys who can make it to every race.

This all being said, Mike Brooke has to break down some huge barriers for conventional sponsorship, any tips to him as to what companies might be in the running are obviously going to be of huge assistance. Once we get that fist company, hopefully many will follow.

Thanks
Kebbekois

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