The jump from Cult to National

[Donners]

Is there any more significant jump in size in the game than the one from Cult to National?

 

I find that a lot of my booking is defined by who is on written contracts - I try to build the shows around them, since they're being paid anyway. Starting as a Cult fed like DAVE, you have a handful of people on written contracts, but they will only sign Pay Per Appearance when it is time to re-sign, and no new workers will sign written contracts.

 

That tends to send costs through the roof, particularly as even mediocre workers tend to demand far above market rates in re-negotiations - which are more frequent on PPA due to the shorter contract length. Plus there's the problem with the big promotions stealing your workers.

 

That makes the move to National critical, since that way you can sign them to written contracts, but it's a pretty tough process - with pretty much nothing but B-B+ shows for a year, I'm still not there.

 

Apparently it is supposed to be harder with a hardcore fed like DAVE. Is it significantly easier with another style? Are there other really tough or significant jumps in size?

[olympia]

just curious along this level.

 

it seems like when you have a weekly tour show and weekly tv show, you can't book these in your home territory??

 

the attendance seemed to drop like a rock (projected 1500, so I opted to book the larger building since the previous week we drew 1800. the 2nd week only drew 1100).

 

I've just been playing around a little testing things out in the Mid-Atlantic territory of DOTT

[jackwad]

In answer to the OP, I sometimes find it frustrating to jump to international booking a japanese fed. You need exposure in order to get more popular, but you need to be more popular in order to get exposure. There are no crossover TV networks or PPV carriers unlike in North America or Europe, so you're reduced to running many, many poorly-attended shows in order to expand. It's especially frustrating having to book your Main Eventers as curtain jerkers because no one outside of Japan has heard of them.

 

olympia: I've definitely noticed a drop in attendance when I run many shows in one area. I usually just suck it up if my promotions pop. is increasing the way I want it to. My feeling is I should stick to no more than one show a week in the same area.

[Teh_Showtime]

In answer to the OP, I sometimes find it frustrating to jump to international booking a japanese fed. You need exposure in order to get more popular, but you need to be more popular in order to get exposure. There are no crossover TV networks or PPV carriers unlike in North America or Europe, so you're reduced to running many, many poorly-attended shows in order to expand. It's especially frustrating having to book your Main Eventers as curtain jerkers because no one outside of Japan has heard of them.

 

olympia: I've definitely noticed a drop in attendance when I run many shows in one area. I usually just suck it up if my promotions pop. is increasing the way I want it to. My feeling is I should stick to no more than one show a week in the same area.

 

this too

 

I try to not overexpose regions (this is for US) because I had 3 TV shows, 1 on tuesday and 2 on thursday (one aired on monday) and when I moved th taping the monday show on saturday for a few weeks we visited regions too much