{"id":109761,"date":"2015-09-07T20:57:04","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T02:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-owner-assumes-debt-legacy-of-rally\/"},"modified":"2015-09-07T20:57:04","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T02:57:04","slug":"new-owner-assumes-debt-legacy-of-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-owner-assumes-debt-legacy-of-rally\/","title":{"rendered":"New owner assumes debt, legacy of rally"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><!-- gallery:671c7a70-21cc-492b-a47b-41f090b1ee55 --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UerYl0HsCDc\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>When Johnny Valdez was 25 years old, he heard a motorcycle rally was going to be held in La Plata County.<\/p>\n<p>A lifelong Ignacio resident and avid biker who cut his teeth riding dirt bikes as a teenager, he was eager to volunteer at the inaugural Four Corners Motorcycle Rally, which in its 23rd year expects thousands of attendees from all over the country.<\/p>\n<p>Now 48, Valdez owns the rally \u2013 and the debt that comes with it. Valdez coordinated the Labor Day weekend event for the past three years, but eight months ago he purchased Four Corners Motorcycle Rally for the steep price of its debt, which has racked up to about $100,000 over the past two decades.<\/p>\n<p>The business exchange relieved the Ignacio Chamber of Commerce, which operated the rally since 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Last year\u2019s rally logged more than 9,200 paid admissions. About 12,000 paid attendees are anticipated this year, and the new owner expects enough to cut into the debt by at least 20 or 25 percent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe made in the realm of $25,000 last year in profit that went toward past debt,\u201d he said. \u201cWith extra effort and time, we can break even.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Valdez said the rally was headed downhill in recent years as the chamber considered giving it up, volunteers were scant and debt piled up. The chamber was making money only through T-shirt and beer sales, so Valdez approached them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said you can go bankrupt, continuing running it or have someone buy it \u2013 and I didn\u2019t even consider buying it myself at that time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The social aspect is what initially drew Valdez into biker culture and what he suspects draws thousands to the rally each year. He views the event as a party among friends that also benefits charities such as Blue Star Mothers as well as local school basketball and cheerleading teams.<\/p>\n<p>The long-standing stigma about biker culture that conjures visions of leather, long hair and chains has become farce.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the culture has changed by the idea that so many more people understand what (bikers) are. We are normal people with normal problems. People recognize that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s evidenced by event sponsors, from the Durango &amp; Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad to Thriftway, to \u201ca bunch of people you wouldn\u2019t associate with bike rallies,\u201d Valdez said.<\/p>\n<p>In the 1990s and early 2000s, the culture \u201creally exploded,\u201d and Valdez doesn\u2019t recall any negative connotations surrounding biker lifestyle in La Plata County in those days, nor when he was growing up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt that time, it was just a cheap and easy way to get from point A to point B.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, Valdez has traded the dirt bikes of his teenage years for a 2015 Indian Scout, similar to one of four motorcycles a few bikers stand to win this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Rally aside, the Southwest has long been a Labor Day destination for motorcyclists, said Jeff Grigsby, who has owned Indian Motor Works, an antique motorcycle shop, in Bayfield for 39 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the mid-2000s, the rally was a nonevent,\u201d Grigsby said. \u201cNo one owned it, but Labor Day was still a big deal for bikers. It\u2019s the old adage: It\u2019s not the destination but the journey. Everyone loves coming here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Politics, noise complaints and accusations of gang-like activity created pushback from locals in the last decade, but Grigsby said business owners like himself don\u2019t mind the traffic, which fills up the county\u2019s hotels, restaurants and retail shops.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Murray, general manager at Durango Harley-Davidson, said Labor Day weekend is his \u201cbiggest weekend of the year\u201d and reports an uptick in sales two to four times that of a normal day.<\/p>\n<p>Both Ignacio Chamber of Commerce board member Emily Meisner and Town Board Trustee Tom Atencio said Ignacio\u2019s gain from the rally is not solely profit. Earlier this year, Valdez presented the board with $5,000, which Atencio said went toward expenses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t speak for the board, but I\u2019ve always thought it gives the town great exposure and some revenue,\u201d Atencio said. \u201cThe town doesn\u2019t benefit what with the expenses of cops, porta-potties, etc. We raised the vendor fee last year to try and help the chamber out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bob Kunkel, executive director of the Durango Area Tourism Office, said the rally had its heyday in the past and numbers are not as high as they were five years ago. In 2010, Fort Lewis College business students conducted a study that estimated a $2.3 million economic impact on the Four Corners, with vendors contributing more than $30,000 to that and attendees contributing about $1.4 million.<\/p>\n<p>Going forward, new events each year is the only change rally-goers can expect under Valdez\u2019 ownership, he said. Events, musical sets and contests have grown from about 30 in the rally\u2019s beginnings to 57 in 2015. Many of those veer toward lewd and bawdy.<\/p>\n<p>Contests like \u201cPin up Girl,\u201d \u201cStripper Pole\u201d and \u201cFake Orgasm\u201d stand out on the event schedule, which Valdez says are not derogatory because both men and women participate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s for either sex \u2013 we\u2019ve seen men enter a bikini contest,\u201d he laughed. \u201cI think there are a lot of people who have their opinion about how things should be, but I don\u2019t consider that. We put on a show and organize the events. I try to leave the judgment to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:jpace@durangoherald.com\">jpace@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-scoreboard\">\n<h4 class=\"scoreboard-title\">If you go<\/h4>\n<p>The 2015 Four Corners Motorcycle Rally will be held Thursday through Monday at the Sky Ute Fairgrounds, 200 E. Colorado Highway 151 in Ignacio. Day passes are $15. Weekend tickets, which include camping passes for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, are $40. For a complete schedule of events, visit www. FourCornersMotorcycleRally.com.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Corners Motorcycle Rally in the hands of Johnny Valdez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5843],"tags":[2057,13,1235,1187,421,316],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-109761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living","tag-four-corners-motorcycle-rally","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-ignacio","tag-tourism","tag-tourism-and-leisure","tag-video"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109761"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=109761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}