Poker Run

THE POKER RUN is Bill Hutchins' subject in last week's issue of Kingston EMC. (Does anyone cover the Council beat better than Bill Hutchins?)

IT'S THE MIDDLE OF JANUARY ALREADY.

Here is the status of online marketing efforts by several prominent waterfront-related organizations for the summer of 2010.

• Poker Runs America: 2010 details online (Aug 6-7-8).
• CORK: 2010 details online, plus tentative dates for 2011 through 2014.
• City Marinas: 2010 rates and dates online.
• Kingston Yacht Club: nothing posted.
• Collins Bay Yacht Club: nothing posted.
• Kingston Dragon Boat Festival: nothing posted.
• K-Town Triathlon: nothing posted.
• Kingston Rowing Club: not online anymore.
  

That's pathetic, no?

For the most part, 2010 dates should be posted within two weeks of the end of the 2009 boating season.

It's long-past the point of anybody caring about your Summer 2009 calendar.

K.E.A.F. SPEAKS OUT about the Poker Run on the Council agenda for next Tuesday.

That's another report that's not available online for the public.

POKER RUN PARTICIPANTS DEFEND EVENT in today's Whig.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR POKER RUNS AMERICA BOATS makes for interesting reading.

You have to call it for what this truly is: a gig monopolized into four downtown hotels -- Radisson, Holiday Inn, Confederation Place Hotel and Four Points Sheraton -- all of these are owned by the usual suspects.

Most meals and the entertainment package appear to be monopolized into those four hotels as well.

Read the whole thing.

DOWNTOWN POKER RUN PLUG-UP planned between Friday Aug 7th at noon to Sunday Aug 9 at 6 PM.

Expect our spineless, gutless council to approve this.

Here's a summary of Poker Run-related news items here on K7 going back to 2006.

TWO EXCELLENT LETTERS this week in The Whig:

• Get serious about going green and cancel the Poker Run from Norm Macintosh, and
• City should withdraw support for 'sordid' Poker Run from Guy Oram of SPLASH Kingston.

Here's a summary of Poker Run-related news items here on K7 going back to 2006.

See also the articles in this Whig-Standard search on 'Poker Run'.

INFORMATION KIT from SPLASH, or "Sustainable Practices Leave A Sustainable Heritage", the group that seeks to reset Kingston about, among other things, the annual Poker Run.

More background on this here and there's a Facebook group you can and should join in support.

GROUP LOBBIES COUNCIL TO CANCEL POKER RUN from last Thursday's edition of Kingston EMC.

The Poker Run is obnoxious, and its promoter is full-of-himself. Read the whole thing. Yeah, we know, it's all about money. Now please take your freakshow elsewhere.

A NEW FORMAT FOR CORK is announced today.

According to the press release, CORK 2009 will play-out ike this:

• August 19 - 22: CORK International Event for Youth and Development dinghy classes.
• August 23 - 27: CORK Olympic Classes Event for high-performance competition in Olympic and invited "development" dinghy classes.
• August 28 - 30: Offshore and One Design Keelboat and Dinghy Classes for Offshore (PHRF) classes, one design Keelboats, Able Sail, and international dinghy classes.

This is great news on a number of levels.

For example, for the first time in many years, there is no overlap between CORK events and the obnoxious 1000 Islands Kingston Poker Run, currently scheduled for August 7-8 2009.

Another plus: better segmenting the events means better cohesion amongst participants. Youth and young sailors together; high-performance sailors together; and keelboat with international-class dinghies all together. This makes planning the all-important social packages more straightforward.

Another plus: dates for the Keelboats and international-class dinghies -- generally older adult sailors -- dovetail with the 2009 Kingston Blues Festival.

Another plus: CORK 2009 spans just 12-days of competition, compared to 18-days for CORK 2008. This will be much easier on the volunteer-base, so better regattas for all-concerned are likely to result.

Any downsides? It's hard to quibble with any of this.

Also booked for 2009 so far: cats!

• July 17-19 - Hobie 16 Women and Youth North American Championship
• July 20-24 - Hobie 16 Open North American Championship

EXCELLENT OP-ED BY JAMIE SWIFT in today's Whig Standard about the obnoxious Poker Run, which is this weekend.

A group of concerned citizens has been distributing postcards around town protesting the poker run. Here you can download the front and the back of that postcard, which is addressed to Mayor Harvey Rosen.

THE 1000 ISLANDS POKER RUN is currently scheduled for Friday and Saturday August 8-9.

That's just two days, compared to last year's 3-days.

As usual, it overlaps with the CORK PHRF and One-Design Keelboat Regatta, which makes no sense whatsoever.

It is also immediately prior to the CORK Optimist Dinghy Championship, when lots of youth sailors are on the water practicing. For many young sailors and their parents, it's an obnoxious introduction to Kingston's waterfront.

THE FINAL OF THE WFN 2008 BASS TOUR, THE CANADIAN OPEN, IS COMING TO KINGSTON, September 19-21 2008. There is $1,000,000 in prize money up for grabs.

Here's a press release with the fishing tournament's prize structure.

The lead-up events are in Georgina (Jul 4-6), Sarnia (Jul 25-27), Port Colborne (Aug 22-24), and Gravenhurst in the Muskokas (Sep 5-7), before the final in Kingston September 19-21.

Unlike the Poker Run, which occurs on an August weekend that would be sold-out in any event, this event is in mid-fall, when our waterfront facilities and accommodations in town have lots of excess capacity. Smart!

WFN.TV is a slick operation, and entering the event is not cheap. A professional angler, competing only in Kingston, must pay a $3,500 entry fee, while amateur anglers are in for $850 apiece.

If you're in, register here.

FIVE PEOPLE DIE at a poker run on Lake Texoma near Willis, Oklahoma.

POKER RUN: Today's Whig Standard lead story, complete with colour photo, proclaims: "Big boats lead to new business".

The Thousand Islands Poker Run proved (sic) it is good for more than electrifying crowds and breaking speed limits over the weekend.

For the first time in its 19-year history, the motorsport spectacle was parlayed into a showcasing weekend for companies looking to expand.

A company in town for the event, which Kingston Economic Development Corp. general manager Jeff Garrah would not name ahead of an official announcement, committed to building a 15,000-square-foot facility that will create about 16 new jobs.

To put this into perspective, your average freestanding fast-food franchise represents as many full-time equivalent jobs as this. This is evidently front-page KEDCO-lauding news in this town.

Lower down:

"We had spectator boats lining both sides of the river from Kingston all the way to Prescott," Taylor said. "That's the magnitude of this event."

Yeah, like a sunny Saturday in August wouldn't otherwise be busy with boat traffic throughout the Thousand Islands.

Our friends at KEDCO and Poker Runs America would be well advised to curb their collegial self-congratulations, and recognize the other boats standing clear for what it really was.

Here's the latest 1000 Islands CAN/AM Poker Run schedule.

The Downtown Kingston! organization has announced that August 11, 12 & 13th are dates of this year's 1000 Island’s Poker Run.

The full 2006 Poker Runs America schedule is here.