What is the Cost to Host an Air Show ?

[Speedbird1]

I am aware that again Jones Beach got to host the Memorial Day Airshow. This has been going-on for quite awhile now. Remember when Coney Island used to host it? I learned that sponsors are needed well in advance and must bid for the air show. I feel it's unfair to stage the show at the same place year-after-year. Not everybody can get out to Jones Beach. I guess to the highest bidder go the spoils.

[T-Bird76]

Well based on the attendance records..it looks like everyone can get out to Jones Beach. Jones Beach is the only venu in the New York Metro area that can handle 500,000 people. Cony Island wouldn't be able to handle half of that. JB really is the perfect location around here, there's a ton parking, public transportation, and plenty of open space.

[Matt Molnar]

Jones Beach is a pain for non-car-owning city folk to get to. It would be great if NYC had its own air show the way so many other cities do...Coney Island would be a good place for it.

[T-Bird76]

Jones Beach is a pain for non-car-owning city folk to get to. It would be great if NYC had its own air show the way so many other cities do...Coney Island would be a good place for it.

OH suck it up Butter Cup!! Do you hear us Long Islanders complaining about driving west? Its the same road east as it is west and the same distance. ;)

[Matt Molnar]

Jones Beach is a pain for non-car-owning city folk to get to. It would be great if NYC had its own air show the way so many other cities do...Coney Island would be a good place for it.

OH suck it up Butter Cup!! Do you hear us Long Islanders complaining about driving west? Its the same road east as it is west and the same distance. ;)
I'm not saying it's far, but if you don't have a car, and more than half of NYCers don't, it's more or less inaccessible. LIRR's service to Jones Beach via a shuttle bus at Freeport is a disaster.

[Speedbird1]

I realize that Jones Beach has more space then Coney Island and I have nothing against Jones, but it gets the airshow every year. Wouldn't it be fair to give it to other locations once in a while? Wouldn't rotation be fairer? What about the Jersey shore? More importantly, the sponsors who pay for the show are numerous: a local newspaper, a credit bank, an airline, a delivery service, NY state parks, 6 local radio stations and even more. I believe it costs well over tens of thousands of dollars to stage, so cash-strapped areas have no chance of ever getting an airshow.

[Derf]

They tried it....Calverton and it was a disaster....Lots of parking was fine but facilities could not handle it. Jones beach has the infastructure, not much is needed in terms of being able to handle the amount of people other than porta potties. This airshow in NY is no longer possible exepct for a few places with lots of issues. I have been to a few in NM and AZ that were not prepaired for the ammount of people. It is not as easy as it looks, and if there is a lot of prep and people needed, it cost money. Jones beach...it is the same parking attendants that work there! Everything is seamless and they still shut down for overcrowding before noon every year.


I will put it to you this way....if it is not at jones beach, it will probably be gone for good!.... I wish they had it at Sunken Medow State Park for lighting!!!! THAT WOULD BE SWEET!!!! but until then


Long Live the Jones Beach New York Airshow!!!
http://www.longislandwallpapers.com/photos/302369030_jhNJA-M.jpg
Taken very early Airshow Sunday! :borat:

[Derf]

I realize that Jones Beach has more space then Coney Island and I have nothing against Jones, but it gets the airshow every year. Wouldn't it be fair to give it to other locations once in a while? Wouldn't rotation be fairer? What about the Jersey shore? More importantly, the sponsors who pay for the show are numerous: a local newspaper, a credit bank, an airline, a delivery service, NY state parks, 6 local radio stations and even more. I believe it costs well over tens of thousands of dollars to stage, so cash-strapped areas have no chance of ever getting an airshow.


You can have an airshow where ever you want, foot the cash and that is it. The people that put on the airshow and Pay the cash CHOOSE where they want it to be. That is fair

[Tom_Turner]

I can't remember an airshow proper at Coney Island, but The Golden Knights would do their thing there, and the Thunderbirds would do some stuff over Coney Island [or even over the harbor at least one year]. That worked out okay.

There is no parking at Coney Island to begin with. People are expected to arrive by train mostly.

Before air conditioning was a routine household appliance, Coney Island hosted over a million people in those years. I am not saying its something I would like, because as far as I am concerned Times Square is big enough to host New Years Eve comfortably, but hey, it happens every year.

One more thing to consider about Coney Island (neither pro nor con) but New York City residents are fairly neutral about air shows - Subtract about half a million Long lslanders who are not going to drive into Brooklyn to see a couple of acrobat props, a few Army Parachutes and essentially a fly by and they are not replaced 1:1 by other city residents. I think Coney Island is imminently do-able.

As for New Jersey, apart from at least one airshow a year in South Jersey and an open house at McGuire some years (in 2001 Lakehurst hosted an airshow as well) there is already the Atlantic City Beach Air Show, so I don't think the rest of the Jersey shore is going to afford another one.

Tom

[Gerard]

>I can't remember an airshow proper at Coney Island<

June 6 and 7, 1998 at Coney Island featuring the Blue Angels who stayed at FRG. I "watched" the show from Floyd Bennett Field and got a real good taste
of the action as the jets zoomed over the field. It had a number of other aircraft and the shows started early. I remember the Angels came on about 12:30.

[Gerard]

>Well based on the attendance records..it looks like everyone can get out to Jones Beach.<

LOL I was thinking the same thing. Almost 400,000 people in two days is a LOT of people.

[PhilDernerJr]

It's rare, but I agree with the Long Island folks on this one. I think the wide open area of Jones Beach is as close of a venue for NYC as it can be.

Coney Island is very close to JFK and Manhattan for so many aircraft to be operating at high speeds. Traffic near Coney Island would be an absolute mess, and the subway system would have a tough time dealing with that volume I think.

Having it at Jones Beach doesn't exclude anyone, I don't think. The LIRR is actually more efficient for it than you might think.

[moose135]

June 6 and 7, 1998 at Coney Island featuring the Blue Angels who stayed at FRG.

Actually, I remember back in the mid to late '70s (after the switch to the T-38), the Thunderbirds performed at Coney Island. It was before I was driving, and couldn't find my way into see them. Also, according to the Thunderbirds fact sheet: "The largest crowd, 2.25 million people, to see a performance was at Coney Island, N.Y., July 4, 1987."

[Gerard]

>Also, according to the Thunderbirds fact sheet: "The largest crowd, 2.25 million people, to see a performance was at Coney Island, N.Y., July 4, 1987<

WOW!!! And they all went to Nathans after!! :D

[NYCMedic]

I remember going to the Coney shows by boat. it was a real nightmare because you had all of that boat traffic blocking main channels into Sheepshead Bay and Rockaway. The boat traffic also caused problems for the larger ships trying to navigate into NY Harbor. I think Jones is a better choice just based on the parking and the fact that the meadowbrook runs directly to the beach. The only auto access to Coney is via local streets after you get off of the belt. I used to work EMS in South Brooklyn and on any night the Cyclones played and every Friday when there were fireworks, the streets were unbearable. I would Estimate 50,000 to 60,000 people. Imagine Half a Million???