Mike Corbin knows a thing or two about making something work from the bottom up. He helped to build a major motorcycle seat company now located in Hollister – the widely proclaimed “Birthplace of the American Biker” that will relive its roots, once again, for this weekend’s rally.
Corbin has been a huge supporter of the city’s signature event and organized annual open house events in recent years, even when there were no sanctioned rallies over the July 4 weekend. With the rally back for a two-day revival, though, his San Felipe Road business will hold another open house and will make it “even bigger” than prior years with about 40 different industry vendors surrounding his event area.
The keen businessman that he is, Corbin takes full advantage of the visiting bikers – attendance over prior three-day events was around 90,000 – coming into Hollister over the holiday weekend.
He pointed to steep law enforcement costs of prior rallies – topping out at around $120,000 per day versus $57,000 daily this year – as the only reason the internationally known event went away. He said that now, the “whole environment is more favorable” – especially with different leaders in law enforcement.
“I think the city manager and mayor and city council, they’ve got a good handle at running it at a profit and not spending money they don’t have,” Corbin said this week. “The chief is doing a good job with the cost of public service.”
And those doing all that planning behind the scenes had a fairly small window to get their jobs done.
Hollister council members in January unanimously revived the city’s signature tradition – the downtown motorcycle rally officially launched in 1997 to commemorate the Boozefighters’ so-called “invasion” of Hollister in 1947 that inspired Marlon Brando’s “The Wild One.”
Sparked by the November’s election of a longtime rally supporter and downtown restaurant owner, Mayor Ignacio Velazquez, the council was once again on board with an event that the political body abruptly canceled after the 2005 and 2008 events due to those security costs – which for years far outpaced the per capita costs of other major rallies throughout the U.S.
The main thing in the first year back, organizers and officials say, is getting the event established and building a reputation for the long term. Velazquez believes that the big returns, financially, would come in year two.
“What we’re trying to do this year is make an event happen,” the mayor said.
Velazquez, meanwhile, confirmed the recent sale of his downtown building – he previously said he would sell it to prevent a conflict of interest in making rally decisions – which houses the former Vault restaurant. He sold it to the owners of the Pendergrass Restaurant across the street. While the sale is going through escrow, he said he would not be involved in anything relating to building over the busy weekend.
Historically, rally weekend has meant big business for places like The Vault, which drew steady streams of people during the day and packed club-like crowds and lines out the door at night during some years. Velazquez this week reiterated his old reference that rally weekend had equated to about two or three months of profit for The Vault, which otherwise had a low-key restaurant atmosphere.
“It’s the Christmas season for a lot of the downtown shops,” Velazquez said.
Velazquez is one who believes that a rally can help rejuvenate the economy throughout the year, too.
Corbin subscribes to that notion as well and said the city has to capitalize on the history of the Hollister rally.
“We’re missing the boat by not having a museum downtown, giving people a destination year-round,” he said.
Corbin said systemically here, there is a “fabulous opportunity.” It’s the reason why Corbin’s company moved to Hollister in 1998.
“Hollister is the birthplace of the American biker,” Corbin said. “Most motorcyclists agree with that, throughout the world actually.”
For details on the rally, go here.
