With the cancellation of the sanctioned Hollister Motorcycle
Rally, for now, some business owners likely affected by the
decision have backed council members’ rationale while others have
continued to criticize officials.
HOLLISTER
With the cancellation of the sanctioned Hollister Motorcycle Rally, for now, some business owners likely affected by the decision have backed council members’ rationale while others have continued to criticize officials.
Mike Corbin, owner of Corbin Motors, said the city isn’t largely against the rally, but that the event must pay its own way.
“I’m in the motorcycle industry so I support the rally, but the council did the right thing financially,” Corbin said.
The July rally was the second year under a private promoter and the first in which the San Benito County Chamber of Commerce was involved with oversight. It also marked the first attempt at Hollister selling merchandise, on which the city lost $96,000 and leading to a total city loss of about $222,000.
Chamber President Jessica French said the organization that promotes local businesses “understands” the reasons for the cancellation.
“We’ll wait and see if someone steps forward and starts another committee,” she said.
The Vault owner Ignacio Velazquez, meanwhile, was among business owners disappointed in the decision. With the event being canceled, he said the city will lose more money because people will still come and taxpayers have to foot the bill for the police. He sees it as a great money maker.
“I have a hard time seeing how the city can’t make money from this rally,” Velazquez said.
Johnny’s Bar and Grill owner Charisse Tyson, who has been as outspoken as anyone on the issue, responded by saying the city is being “stupid.”
“I just don’t think they have a clue what they are doing,” she said.
Tyson, who said she has worked tirelessly on ways to save the rally, doesn’t feel she is getting anything accomplished from her efforts.
“I’m highly upset,” she said, adding there that many avenues the city hasn’t tried. “They don’t want to get off their butts and do something.”
An economic impact analysis the city council received prior to the Monday meeting, done by a local graduate student, contended that around $6 million in business was handled at the July rally. Velazquez pointed to that and said “$6 million is a huge chunk of change and it can pump up the community and people forget about that.”
Velazquez said the city needs strong leaders to make this event happen.
“We need to sit down and display leadership,” he said. “The city should be gaining hundreds of thousands of dollars – it’s a sad thing.”
Not all of the bars in Hollister strike it rich during the rally. Cheap Seats owner Rick Hernandez said the level of money that comes into his bar during the rally is comparable to other events in downtown.
“Every time there is something going on downtown, we are just as busy as during the rally, or even busier,” he said. Hernandez added that “the rally was a good weekend for us, but not a great weekend.”
Raul Gonzalez, owner of B&R Barbershop, closes his doors on the Friday and Saturday of the rally. While closed on those days, he loses quite a bit of money, he said. But if the event really was beneficial, he would close his doors for even longer.
“If the city really benefited on it,” he said, “all the charitable organizations, the high school football team and the baseball team – if they could put their booths and make money, I’d give them the whole week.
“But they don’t do that – it’s all about money. And there’s just very few who make it. The outsiders and some of the fortunate ones, bars and restaurants they do great.”
Two local businessmen noted that the original point of the rally was to support local charities and nonprofits in the area.
“What seems to be forgotten most often is that what originally the rally set out to do, its purpose and its mission statement, was to support local charities and community organizations,” said Hard Time Cafe owner Terry Woodard. “If that was accomplished, then they were successful, because that’s where the moneys were supposed to go.”
Tyson contended there are various reasons the city has made it unsuccessful. Tyson pointed out that the leftover shirts from the city’s merchandise sales are sitting in piles.
“That’s money going out the window,” she said.
Tyson suggested they could be sold in her bar or on eBay for $5 and the city could recoup some of the money lost from the rally or make it go toward funding the 2009 event.
She would also like to see the bikes back on San Benito Street. Corbin agrees that moving the motorcycles and moving the event from the Fourth of July weekend has been a cause for the city’s loss.
He said there was a “series of mistakes” – the combination of moving the event and gas prices to name a couple – partly to blame for the loss of money.
Another element is timing, he said. He gave the example of the biker who normally has the weekend of the Fourth of July off but doesn’t have off the next weekend.
In the end, the sentiment of the council was that the city could not support the rally with taxpayers’ money. Business owners like Hernandez agree with that view.
“If the city is spending all this money, with the rally not as popular as it was, I think the city had no choice but to vote no on it,” Hernandez said.
He added that with the rally turning into a swap meet, many bikers are turned away from coming.
“It seemed to be dying down every year … It wasn’t as popular as it used to be,” Hernandez said.
Even as a businessman who benefits from the rally, Woodard also understands the decision.
“As though it benefits myself as a business person and restaurateur at Hard Times, its hard to see the event continue for the amount of money that’s been lost over the years.”
