Terra Nova Trading Key West -  Industry Partner Program 

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION AND OVERVIEW

Objective
The ultimate objective for initiating the Industry Partner Program is to enable Key West Race Week to continue. Creating and maintaining a revenue source from within the performance sailing industry is an integral part of the new business plan for the event. This revenue, coupled with entry fees and corporate sponsorship revenue, will ensure the long term viability of this international event at the high standards established in recent years.

Goal
The goal of the program is to achieve maximum participation from within the industry with affordable levels, with fees significantly less that the lowest sponsor fees. More than 80 companies and organizations received the proposal package. Eighteen companies are current participants.

Participation

There are four levels of participation being offered :
PLATINUM (Companies in the industry who are Official Sponsors) 
GOLD 
SILVER 
BRONZE 

Partner Benefit -   Continuation of the Event

Value Added:  

* Client Awareness
* Corporate Hospitality/Exhibit Space  (available to Gold and Silver level partners) 
* Web Site Exposure
* Dedicated Media Release
* Advertising Discounts / Access Cards 

Commitment
Participating companies are asked to make a three-year commitment to the program. There is an 'out clause' enabling companies to drop out of the program, providing they notify Premiere Racing in writing before April 1st prior to the next event. 

WHY AN INDUSTRY PARTNER PROGRAM?   

The Event Director Speaks Out .....

Quite simply, without a successful Industry Partner Program the future of Yachting Key West Race Week is in jeopardy. The sponsorship picture has changed significantly and race week can not continue with the traditional business model in place. The program addresses some basic "facts of event life": 

Sponsorship and Sailing - A Changing Climate
It would be an understatement to say that Corporate America has backed away from the sport of sailing. Procuring sponsors, which has always been a struggle, is now a far more daunting task. A quick look at the America's Cup, Volvo Race, corporate support for our Olympic sailors, The Race and other major regattas reinforce what we are experiencing. Despite the fact that we more than doubled our time and effort in this area, sponsor revenue for 2001 was a mere percentage of that in previous years. 

GMC Yukon has left sailing for home gardening, Champagne Mumm has moved on to NASCAR, Boatscape.com is out of performance sailing... and the list goes on. The lack of long-term sponsor deals in sailing tells an important story about the value that corporate America places on our sport and its events. 

Providing More at a Remote Venue
A second important issue concerns the execution of this international event. As anyone who has attended this regatta knows, this is not a yacht club event. The expectations are higher and the end result on the water and shoreside reflect those expectations. An event of this magnitude is a year-round project, particularly when one takes into account the marketing, promotions and sponsor procurement / fulfillment aspects. As Race Week has continued to grow (7 record fleets in 10 years), maintaining the very high standards that were put in place years ago has become increasingly more difficult and costly, due in part to the remote location and increased staffing.

Staffing Challenges
A third pertinent issue deals with a staff comprised of 95% volunteers. The reality is that there is a limit as to what one can ask of volunteers. I'll be the first to marvel at the dedication of our volunteer staff, but I believe that we have clearly exceeded the limit of what we can ask of them. It is time to contract out some of the work in order to retain our key volunteers and maintain the standards that yacht owners and the industry have come to expect at this high profile event.

Need for a New Business Model
At an industry meeting in Key West in January 2001, we discussed options that we have been considering, including increased entry fees, a patron/donor program, a smaller, elite, exclusive turnkey event, a new industry partner program, to name a few. We explored the patron program and received a very lukewarm response. Becoming a small and elite regatta would drastically change the character of the event. Dramatically increasing entry fees would likely result in far fewer entries and hence be counter productive. The end result was a three-part plan that we consider to be a viable concept for producing the revenue required to continue Race Week and create some financial stability for the event. 

• Increasing entry fees

• Initiating a new 'Industry Partner Program'

• Securing a 3-year Title Sponsor at a reduced fee
  

Raising the Bar
We know firsthand, through participation in regattas and from fielding inquiries from yacht clubs and other professionally run events, that we are having an impact on race and event management across the country. This will have long term implications in client satisfaction with the sport and a positive effect on everyone in the industry.

Performance Sailing Industry has a Stake 
Over the years I have received considerable feedback from individuals in the performance sailing industry concerning the importance of this event to the sport, the industry and in many cases their bottom line. I raised this question at the Industry Meeting in Key West and the attendees confirmed that Race Week was indeed important in these regards. After hearing from so many about how Key West has turned the performance sailboat industry into a year-round business and how it is raising the bar for regattas nation wide, we feel confident that there is purpose and value in the Performance Sailing Industry Partner Program.

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