First of all I would like to thank each and every one of you that attended this year's Mopar Atlantic Nationals. I also appreciate all of the positive comments and your suggestions for what it will take to "fix" the event.

Over the last few days we have had some serious discussions regarding this event. Let me ease some minds out there by saying the"Mopars" are not dead and will return in 2007.

This event is certainly not the only one to see a down turn in recent years. In fact, the entertainment industry in general has been struggling the last few years. Especially in our area. Why? I suppose we could hash that out for a couple of days at least. We seem to have a lot of work ahead of us if we want to keep our share of the entertainment dollar!

Some personal observations that may have some merit. I was able to greet hundreds of walk-ins on Saturday and Sunday morning. Being involved in the Mopar hobby for over 35 years, I recognized and was able to speak to quite a few of you. There was a trend that became more and more apparent as I talked to many of my friends. "Dude, where is your car?". "Oh, you know how it is, mortgage, car payments, kids. I couldn't afford to bring the car out. Maybe next year". Over and over again, same story.
Many of the guys who were "twenty somethings" when this show was in it's heyday are now saddled with family and other obligations. The cars are in garages. Mine has not seen the light of day in five years! At least they showed up as spectators. How many didn't show up at all? Unfortunately, a lot.
We need more vendors? Yeah, I'm sure. Do you know how many vendors tell me that they are "done" with shows? Ebay has changed things forever. Sorry, but it is true. Why load up a pickup with stuff when you can sell the same items from your living room? We'll probably see even fewer and fewer vendors in the future but we will probably see more companies promoting parts for the new generation of Mopar performance cars.
It is very possible that we will soon see a noticeable upswing in participation with the increase in popularity of the LX platform cars, the SRT4 Neons and Calibers, the new Challenger, etc. No they're not the classics, but new blood and some change is definitely in order.

Regarding promotion. It is possible that there are some Mopar fans that don't know about this event, but I doubt it. This event has a 20 year history! EVERY hardcore Moparfile knows about it. It was promoted in all of the enthusiast magazines, along with this, the biggest and best Mopar oriented website on the planet.
N.J. radio stations ran ads for the event starting ten days prior. Thousands of direct mailers went out along with an equal number of emails. Why would we not promote this event? This is a business that has existed for over 40 successful years. E-town has not forgotten how to promote an event.

I was the one trying to locate display cars for this event. We offered free admission for car owners to show their historic or noteworthy cars. It was like pulling teeth! No one seemed interested! Of the group that did commit, fully half of them did not show up. What's up with that?

Same thing with the "celebrities". Some of our heroes are just plain worn out. Don't want to do it anymore. One of them wanted five grand just to show up and sign autographs for part of one day! Holy smokes!

How do we revive this thing? It will take a lot of thought and a lot of work, but as I said earlier, we have not thrown in the towel!

Please feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions or suggestions regarding this event or if you want to discuss certain points of this post.
Walter Frey
P.S. The "burger girls" were thrilled to learn of all your praise!