Booth rental alone for the circuit is well in excess of $60,000. NY by itself is about $5,000 for a 20ft by 20ft space. This is only the base beginning.
Then you have to buy state and local licenses, pay union workers so you can roll your own bikes in to some houses. Pay an electrician if you need a light bulb replaced in some cities (can't do it yourself), carpet is another $800-$1,000.per city (can't use your own) .Then there is the cost of transporting the bikes which can easliy run another $50,000-$60,000. Add in travel , hotels food and wages for people to work the booth and it really gets to be a big number.
All of this is for the modest type of space that URAL has had or that we have had at the larger shows. Triumph quit going a couple of years ago. Their bill was over $1,500,000. I cannot imagine what Harley and the other big guys pay.
The promoters (Advanstar) are only in it for the money, but they are good people and do a good job. I have no gripe with them at all. The cost is not out of line for similar space in other industries.
It costs a lot of money to rent the space and turn on the lights. Go behind one of buildings some time and take a look at the number of huge trucks. It is sort of amazing.
By comparison a full page ad in Cycle World runs aroung $8,000-$15,000 dependinig upon how many you run a year. Rider is about $5,000 and good old Walnecks is about $1,000 (our best producing ad). A page in the souvineer guide that they give out at the IMS shows is about $3,000-$4,000.
The prices amaze me especially in the day and age where fewer and fewer comapnies are buying print advertising.
By far and away the Internet is our best tool. Havingf said that nothing beats seeing one in person and having somebody to answer questions.