SHOW ME THE MONEY……..
SMRI – WHERE’S ALL THE MONEY YOU COLLECTED?
November is here and Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Inc. (SMRI) has still not given Sturgis any of the hundreds of thousands of dollars of licensing fees they collected at this year’s rally. Before the rally they are very vocal about how everyone needs to be licensed and give them money. But when the rally’s over you don’t hear a peep from them! Since they’re a not-for-profit organization, where is all the money? When are they going to present the huge check to help the citizens of Sturgis? One vendor alone, just for T-shirt licensing, paid SMRI over $100,000. Wouldn’t the city be better off collecting that money than dealing with SMRI and getting little or nothing? I think it’s about time for the city council members to realize they need to stop dealing with these SMRI scoundrels! The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally should benefit the citizens of Sturgis, but it looks like most of the licensing money collected ended up in Connecticut. Many vendors I’ve talked to want to now completely boycott dealing with SMRI. Maybe at next year’s rally everyone could pay their licensing fees directly to the Sturgis charities. At least that way, the citizens of Sturgis would get some benefit from the money collected. SMRI has screwed up this licensing program so badly that it is probably unfixable. Their board is made up of self-serving individuals who have used their position to feather their own nests. They have wasted tons of money on unnecessary law suits instead of working with established vendors and using the money to donate to the charities, not pay lawyers. It will be interesting to see how SMRI’s public relations firm tries to put a spin on a relatively tiny donation. Hopefully, SMRI will make some kind of token contribution this year. I’m sure we’ll hear their usual excuses when they keep most of the money they’ve collected. Let’s just hope that the city officials man-up and do all they can to get rid of SMRI. Join the fight to keep the words “Sturgis” and “Black Hills” free for all to use. Go to both www.concernedcitizensforsturgis.org and Facebook “Concerned Citizens for Sturgis” page.
Ken Mortimer
