Commentary—The Trouble With Miami

Commentary—The Trouble With Miami

Like every exhibitor I’ve spoken with this year for the annual speedonthewater.com  “Countdown to the Miami International Boat Show” article series, I have a like/dislike relationship with the annual Miami event, which is set for February 12-16.

GSX/Glasstream is one of several exhibitors that opted out of the Miami event this year. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

What do I like about it? The annual Friday Florida Powerboat Club/Speed On The Water Miami Boat Show Bash and the club’s Miami Boat Show Poker Run to the Upper Florida Keys the following weekend. Both are worth covering and give me time to hang out with readers and advertisers in a pleasant environment, as well as thank them for their ongoing support.

So what do I dislike about it? Pretty much everything else.

Let’s start with the distance between demo boats in the water at the not-so-demo-friendly Venetian Marina across Biscayne Bay and the displays at the Miami Convention Center in South Beach. You easily can log 20 to 30 minutes each way in the show’s complimentary shuttle. South Florida causeway traffic most-often leans toward nasty.

But at least the shuttle is air-conditioned. That’s a plus.

You could say I’m paid to be there and I am, so I should just shut my pie-hole and report. You’d even have a fair point, though I will ignore it in service of this commentary.

But what about would-be performance-boat buyers who aren’t just paying to be there but are being asked to consider purchases that start in the mid-six-figure range. You know, the people who are supposed to be pampered like the golden geese they are?

Now the Venetian Marina, the Miami show’s in-water location is across Biscayne Bay from the Miami Convention Center.

Call me picky and demanding, but I don’t believe shuttle rides to a congested marina for demo rides with long idle-times or strolling convention-center aisles under weak lighting make for a delightful customer experience, much less one that sets the mood for a big-ticket purchase.

High-performance powerboats are luxury items. No one has to own one. And yet the Miami Boat Show experience is anything but luxurious.

It’s kind of, well, brutal. At least for my money.

And my money—some $3,000 to $4,000 in expenses for lodging, food and travel to cover the show—is a rounding error compared to what exhibitors pay to be there. Every boat-builder I have spoken to so far ahead of this year’s show described the cost to exhibit as either “absurd,” “ridiculous” or “insane.” One builder called it “ungodly.” Another got fancy and went with “exorbitant.”

But I like ungodly.

Though the show’s former Virginia Key location was difficult to access, boats in the water and indoor product displays were in walking distance of one another.

Because they are not just paying display fees. They are transporting boats across the country in the dead of winter. They are housing, feeding and watering the small armies of staffers who will represent them at the show for five days, as well as those who have to be there for move-in and stay for move-out.

All in, you’re talking about a two-week commitment on the road. Being on the road is expensive. Ungodly so, even.

Last but not least, there is return on investment—or the lack of it. Once again, every boat-builder I’ve spoken to so far has brought it up. Legitimate buyers are fewer and farther between, at least in the high-performance segment, in Miami each year.

While it isn’t cataclysmic, it is noteworthy that Fountain Powerboats and Donzi Marine won’t display at the Miami event this year. Nor will GSX/Glasstream or American Marine Performance. Skater Powerboats and Mystic Powerboats have opted out since the event returned to its South Beach headquarters in 2021.

Cigarette Racing Team will have it usual spectacular Miami Convention Center display this year, but the company will offer private demo rides by appointment in Coral Gables. Photo by Matt Trulio.

Cigarette Racing Team, MTI and Nor-Tech made their usual massive convention center display investments this year, but it’s worth noting that their in-water, by-appointment only demos opportunities are not at the Venetian Marina venue. Nor are those of Performance Boat Center for the Sunsation Powerboats or Performance Powerboats brands it carries.

None of this rant will endear me to the good folks at Informa, which produces the Miami and Fort Lauderdale shows as well as several other powerboat showcases. I don’t pretend to know their challenge, though I imagine producing a boat show in a major metropolitan area is an ungodly expensive nightmare.

I love my job. I’m pretty sure I’d hate theirs.

But exhibitors are the canaries of boat-show coal mines. And every year before and after Miami, their chirping gets louder and louder—and harder, at least for this reporter, to ignore.

Related stories
Countdown To The 2025 Miami International Boat Show
• Countdown To The 2024 Miami International Boat Show
• Countdown To Miami: Inside The 2023 Miami International Boat Show
• Countdown To Miami: Inside The 2022 Miami International Boat Show
• Countdown To Miami: Inside The 2020 Miami Boat Show
• Countdown To Miami: Inside The 2019 Miami Boat Show

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