Right. At the end of the day, the customers are the sailors.
Some of you guys run businesses, right? Aren't your relationships with vendors also a critical part of your business? In my experience, they can make or break you.
You may think vendors (host clubs) are replaceable, but treat them all badly and eventually you'll run out of them. Then how will you serve your customers (sailors)?
And for those of you still living in the past, even IF we could get 10 boats to show up at every qualifier, and they were properly run per the rules (and in what decade did those two things last happen), you couldn't charge enough to break even without raising the prices to the point that no one would come.
US Sailing said that there were no strings with the Rolex money (I know, shocking news for the haters). We tried to offer a discount to those who attended and won their qualifier, but since none of them were run correctly, we were justifiably concerned about legalities (appeals from sailors). Yes, there is precedent for this. Rather than write a blank check to the club, we decided to add a clinic and use a portion of the money for that.
