Carnival Space as published by EzineArticles.com

Carnival Real Estate
By Sam Staffen
In the outdoor amusement industry, otherwise known as carnival, there is a whole bunch of real estate being sold all the time. Every fair, committee, and other entities sell the real estate for a wide range of reasons. Nonetheless it is being sold, sold, sold, and in great volume.
A concessionaire new or old to this business often buys real estate that just flat wasn't worth it. On many occasions a concessionaire would not have paid anything for the real estate they received had they had any kind of hindsight. The rent was too high for the net profit to be anything of value.
I have been in this industry for nearly 20 years and have purchased locations for my games that just did not pan out. I have worked for other people that i was unable to get any significant amount of net profit for on several occasions. Some of the worthless occasions have happened a year after that same location at that same exact festival had been successful. Go figure.
Many times when a person does good at a fair they brag about it. They tell everyone how good spot X or Z was. The next thing you know everyone knows about this jam-up spot. Many times the information of this jam-up festival doesn't come back to haunt the poor fella that went back looking for the same rewards. But many times it does.
One of the main reasons is that real estate has to be sold. I have figured out sure fire ways of knowing if a fair or festival will hold out the following year through many trials and many more errors. My ways of knowing take the word of mouth factor right out of the picture. My ways of telling totally eliminate the vast real estate sales going on at every event.
Let's start by factoring in how it came about that you even booked this event to start with. Was it a carnival or the committee that you booked or the person you were working for booked with? If it is a carnival it factors in quite differently than a committee.
The committees are harder to figure out because they often times don't really know the business as it is a one time a year position for them. Most committees handle just that one fair and just are not as prone to know why your location hit or did not and can some time screw everything up the following year by placing a new stand or walkway that totally kills you location unknowingly.
Carnivals on the other hand are way better to know what can and probably will happen the following year. They know every move. But will this particular carnival even make those moves? Some carnivals only book one of a kind games while others book the same concessionaires all year. These are the ideal shows for knowing you will do well the following year because they generally won't have many more or too many repeat concessions the following year.
There are many more of the shows that will be more than willing to book the many EXTRA VENDORS THAT WILL BE CALLING because word is out that everybody hit at that festival the year before. I have seen spots, like the Mardi Gras in Lafayette, Louisiana, quadruple the number of games from one year to the next. Or maybe quadruple the food like a committee will from time to time. Or simply put 14 of the same item in their real estate sales pocket.
There is a way to know that even when you are on a show that "overbooks" that the spot will still hit the following year. Look around during the good year and see if their is any more space available to rent. If there isn't much more room to put too much more equipment in then chances are the spot will be just as good the following year based on the theory that there is no more space to sell real estate.
Take for instance the IX Center in Brookfeild, Ohio. I have done that fair when it was at it's capacity and done reasonably well. I have never made enough to write home about but it remains consistent because the building doesn't get any bigger so the carnival simply doesn't have any extra space to rent if they wanted to. That is a bad example in this nature in that the shows that usually get the IX don't usually overbook when given the opportunity anyway.
my name is Sam and I created the web site uscarnys.com/
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