If you build it, he will come.
I thought of the famous line from the movie, Field of Dreams, when putting together my thoughts about the 2013 Red Bull Wake Open.
In the 1989 film set in 1972, Kevin Costner plays a Iowa farmer named Ray Kinsella who plows part of his cornfield to build a baseball diamond because a ghost-like image of Shoeless Joe Jackson encourages him to do so. After initially facing financial ruin because of his decision, thousands of people eventually come to visit the baseball field thus saving the family from going bankrupt and ultimately revitalizing the town's spirit.
Kinsella obviously faced an uphill battle with his decision. He had to convince his wife to let him do it and he had to ensure his brother-in-law that the baseball diamond would result in positive effects, but more importantly, he had to get people to come to the field if he wanted to save his farm.
How'd he do this? Through a type of indirect grass-roots approach that created a word-of-mouth buzz and national media interest.
So, how does all this relate to the Wake Open?
Well, in the words of one attendant manning the parking garage next to the Tampa Bay Times Forum, "it's just not nearly as busy as we thought it would be or it should have been."
Or better yet, where was Ray Kinsella when Tampa needed him?
Despite the Red Bull website proclaiming a crowd of 30,000 in attendance, I got the feeling from several people, including police officers, business owners and hotel managers I talked to, that this year's version of the Wake Open had far less people lining the Garrison Channel at the Tampa Convention Center than last year, when the energy drink's website estimated "approximately 25,000 fans" showed up to watch the competition.
Unlike sporting events held at the Forum, where official numbers can easily be tracked, an outdoor gathering that is free is difficult to judge. When I asked Tampa Police Department spokesperson Andrea Davis if the city of Tampa makes estimates, she said, "We used to do so, but our numbers were always far less than what the organizers estimated, so to avoid any dispute, we just let them do it now."
For me personally, I went back and forth from Tampa to St. Petersburg each day pulling double-duty covering the Wake Open and the three-game series between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Chicago White Sox at Tropicana Field and in doing so, I noticed far more people at the Trop than I did at the Wake Open. For perspective, the highest paid attendance for the baseball game occurred on Saturday when a paid attendance of 21,047 was announced, a number that is usually much higher than the actual attendance.
Mind you, I'm no expert on measuring crowd numbers, but having covered a plethora of events at the Trop, the Forum, Raymond James Stadium, various college contests and a host of other competitions, I think I have a good sense of crowd attendance. that being said, if I were to put a number on it, I'd say the crowd at the Wake Open hovered around 15,000, which is nice, but nothing what you might expect at this gathering of 35 of the world's best wakeboarders.
This is in no way to knock the Wake Open event itself. Red Bull does a marvelous job staging an extravaganza from the inflatable Red Bull arch welcoming fans to the massive ramps emblazoned with the Red Bull logos installed in the water for the wakeboarders to the cute Red Bull mini cars parked outside the Marriott Waterside to the Wake Art wakeboards set up along promotional row to the giant video screen planted in the middle of the walkway outside the convention center.
And of course, you add some high-flying athletes like the wakeboarders who participated this past weekend and you get a high-intense sport. I just thought more people should have known about it and more people should have been there.
For some reason, the type of grass-roots marketing that Kinsella would have done was hardly present in the weeks leading up to the event.
Heck, the only place I saw the 3-by-5 inch promotional cards being handed out were the day of the event as soon as people were literally a stone's throw away from the water.
I never heard a mention of the event by any radio hosts throughout the week. I never saw any of the Red Bull-clad interns walking around South Tampa, Ybor City or downtown St. Pete over the weekend leading up to the event like Kinsella would have done.
I didn't see any planes with banners flying along the beach marketing it.
I didn't see any billboards along the highways and byways.
I didn't see or hear much advertising.
And in this day and age of social media, I did not see a campaign plastered online like it seemingly could and should have.
It just seemed like people who attended the event fell into it.
"The only reason I knew it was here was because I looked out my window one day and saw them setting up," said David Craig, a financial advisor who works in the PNC Bank building in downtown Tampa. "I didn't hear anything or see anything about it and I'm in the downtown area all the time. I'm just surprised there wasn't a bigger build-up to it. I mean, this is great for the city. It brings life to downtown. It just seems like it could have been bigger."
While the numbers may not have been as great as anticipated, businesses like Jackson's Bistro fared well, especially considering this is the slow season for tourism in the Tampa Bay area.
"It definitely brings more people here than usual," said Jamie Stilson, 26, a cocktail server at Jackson's. "Of course, Gasparilla and the (Red Bull) Flugtag event bring way more people, but this is great for business because it usually is a lot less busier this time of year."
Numbers are still being estimated by the City of Tampa in terms of a financial impact, but probably the most positive effect for the area came with having the event nationally televised on NBC. According to Nielson, the Wake Open received a 0.6 TV rating on Saturday afternoon which meant approximately 685,000 people tuned in to see what Tampa had to offer.
"This event is just another big-time event that helps create a promotional postcard for the area," Rob Higgins, director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission said.
Let's just hope next year, more people know about it.