Chris Cormier Update - Exclusive Media Contract

[Tre]

ALRI said he paid $20,000 for a relatively small booth and Derek Anthony said on his radio show with Romano [if you recall the episode] that GAT was paying around $50,000 for the big shows - Maybe this included staff and travel expenses and so on.  I could see these things adding up.  Supposedly the overhead banners alone at the Gaspari booth run in the thousands.  I didn't really understand why that would be but a rep for a competing booth told me that.

Someone will have to verify it, but I believe the overhead banners can only be hung by convention center personnel.  When you factor in the cost of the artwork (photography, design & layout), then the cost to produce a large banner could easily be $2500-3000, and then you've got to pay 8 union monkeys to rig the damn thing. 

[Matt C]

Where is the video of that little roided out monkey at the species booth? the two bitches there were fucked up looking, but nothing compared to that little troll thing with extreme ILS and a voice deeper then barry white's

LOL, I didn't take a video of that.  I should have but because the expo was a little smaller, it was hard to be subtle about taking videos and I felt like a shmoe.  At least the Olympia and Arnold expos are such zoos that you just get lost in a sea of people and taking videos doesn't feel like such an intrusion to the other people.  I was filming Greg Kovacs and he turned around and caught me so I pretended I was filming something else but there was really nothing else around.

Someone will have to verify it, but I believe the overhead banners can only be hung by convention center personnel.  When you factor in the cost of the artwork (photography, design & layout), then the cost to produce a large banner could easily be $2500-3000, and then you've got to pay 8 union monkeys to rig the damn thing.  

Great post.  I keep trying to explain that to those on the anti-capitalism brigade, that the cost of unions is all passed on to the end consumer.  Sure, they have nice jobs with benefits but SIZEON might cost $10 less per tub if not for unions.  Not to mention that the people who would do that work would do it for less are unemployed as a result of paying union workers.  So how do unions help "the worker"?  So the workers who would work for less and are forced into unemployment are benefiting somehow?  

I was just reading through my old PMs and found this:

If you want a bit of cock, or a piece of hot pussy of which is aching for 'free' clen or GH, then bodybuilding (with its many and varied degenerate scum) is the industry for you!!

Oh and yes, I'd nail Alise Silverstone all night long; lick her feet, fanny and ass crack just before deeply sniffing her gym socks triggering off a mass cum shoot deep into her aching, greasy pussy!!!

yeah Im just as bad I guess LOL

LOL haha

haha

LOL.  Is all this true?  Is the industry really this seedy?

Discuss.

[Captain Equipoise]

LOL, I didn't take a video of that.  I should have but because the expo was a little smaller, it was hard to be subtle about taking videos and I felt like a shmoe.  At least the Olympia and Arnold expos are such zoos that you just get lost in a sea of people and taking videos doesn't feel like such an intrusion to the other people.  I was filming Greg Kovacs and he turned around and caught me so I pretended I was filming something else but there was really nothing else around.

Great post.  I keep trying to explain that to those on the anti-capitalism brigade, that the cost of unions is all passed on to the end consumer.  Sure, they have nice jobs with benefits but SIZEON might cost $10 less per tub if not for unions.  Not to mention that the people who would do that work would do it for less are unemployed as a result of paying union workers.  So how do unions help "the worker"?  So the workers who would work for less and are forced into unemployment are benefiting somehow?  

I was just reading through my old PMs and found this:

LOL.  Is all this true?  Is the industry really this seedy?

Discuss.

1) FUCK UNIONS...worthless pieces of shit

2) Post the Kovacs vid! I missed him there

[Largerthanlife]

what the hell is CC always high on, I want some of that shit.

[Matt C]

1) FUCK UNIONS...worthless pieces of shit

2) Post the Kovacs vid! I missed him there

Great post!!  It's so one-sided to say that unions help workers.  They help their own workers while forcing others who would take their jobs at lower wages into unemployment while simultaneously raising the cost of goods that those now unemployed need.

Here's how Greg was looking at Toronto:

For some perspective, Greg was bigger than all the 2011 Ontario's Strongest Man competitors.  I'm not sure what his bodybuilding plans are but he hasn't competed for six years so I don't think he has an interest in resuming that.  He still carries a lot of size though.

[Captain Equipoise]

Great post!!  It's so one-sided to say that unions help workers.  They help their own workers while forcing others who would take their jobs at lower wages into unemployment while simultaneously raising the cost of goods that those now unemployed need.

Here's how Greg was looking at Toronto:

For some perspective, Greg was bigger than all the 2011 Ontario's Strongest Man competitors.  I'm not sure what his bodybuilding plans are but he hasn't competed for six years so I don't think he has an interest in resuming that.  He still carries a lot of size though.

Oh shit, I did see him... wow I didn't even recognize that was him!

[Largerthanlife]

Great post.  I keep trying to explain that to those on the anti-capitalism brigade, that the cost of unions is all passed on to the end consumer.  Sure, they have nice jobs with benefits but SIZEON might cost $10 less per tub if not for unions.  Not to mention that the people who would do that work would do it for less are unemployed as a result of paying union workers.  So how do unions help "the worker"?  So the workers who would work for less and are forced into unemployment are benefiting somehow?  

Discuss.

this is how it works because of modern day greed, the cost does not need to be passed onto consumer, the CEO and other parties on top in the past have not made 500% what normal employee make, so that is why the cost was regular, now CEO makes so much % more than regular employee it is just plain theft.

[Captain Equipoise]

Union's are like organized crime, they only serve their own self interests, no one else gains from their existence, it's disgusting they don't allow a company to fire a bad employee because he's in a union, doesn't matter if he drinks at work, comes to work drunk and doesn't do his job, it's absolute bullshit.

[Matt C]

this is how it works because of modern day greed, the cost does not need to be passed onto consumer, the CEO and other parties on top in the past have not made 500% what normal employee make, so that is why the cost was regular, now CEO makes so much % more than regular employee it is just plain theft.

I know CEOs make a lot of money but when you consider the fact that they make decisions that can cost literally hundreds of millions of dollars, it is a bargain to pay one $10 million.  If you owned a business and could hire a manager who could earn you a million extra dollars next year, don't you think he would be worth $50,000 to you?  It's the same concept with CEOs only on a bigger scale.

[dyslexic]

I wouldn't think Cormier has much game left in him these days...



He always looks like death warmed over.

[Matt C]

Just because a supplement company has a booth does not mean they are doing well. They have to have a booth, Species has several big problems - the biggest being distribution, not many distributors are carrying the line. They are not even on Bodybuilding.com or any of the major supplement chain stores. Without distribution you are not going to go far. Number two they are high priced for very average formulas.

14 RX forum banners at $1,000 a month works out to $168,000 a year.  One person I know who has an ad on one of the RX radio shows said he paid $6,000 or more for the year.

I would estimate that Dave is making over a quarter million a year for his stake in Species alone, not to mention the RX money.

Sounds to me like Dave is making loads of cash.  But who knows, as I said the site might have investors.  But if you add up all the ad space money alone on RX, it's tons of money.  Not sure why all the hate on the guy, other than the fake GH stuff which is obviously not cool but that doesn't mean the free content he is putting online on RX is bad.  I think Dave is doing great work.

[w8m8]

Someone will have to verify it, but I believe the overhead banners can only be hung by convention center personnel.  When you factor in the cost of the artwork (photography, design & layout), then the cost to produce a large banner could easily be $2500-3000, and then you've got to pay 8 union monkeys to rig the damn thing. 

The fact is, even when taking into account any exorbitant rates charged by the convention center for those items Tre has [validly] mentioned (items such as trolleys to bring a firms stock into the hall and lugging display stands about etc) the fact is, that all of these wankers - EVERY ONE - at the companies [claiming huge figures to finance a booth] are charlatans; idiots such as Gaspari, Author L Rea and Dave Palumbo.

Author L Rea has even put out claims of spending $250,000 (TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS) at the Arnold FFS.

Yet, what do these wankers (Gaspari, L Rea, Palumbo and Matt C) all have in common?

NONE OF THEM PRESENT ANY SUPPORTING EVIDENCE; NO FIGURES, NO ACCOUNTABILITY!

Plenty of hot air, piss and wind though

The morons such as Matt C (as you can see from his subscription thereto) love it though .. the smell of thongs and money to be made off the backs of working folks


BTW .. banners are not THAT expensive .. they don't get new ones for every show

[Palpatine Q]

Fair points on the booths but the booths have improved since the start of the company:

http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=323415.0
http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=368491.0

From this:



To this:



It's not just that they had a booth at the Olympia, but a good booth.  Not at the level of Gaspari or MuscleTech, but a good booth nevertheless.  In no way do I know of the private financial situation of Species or anything like that, it was just an observation that the company seemed to be coming along for them to have a presence at a small pro show located outside of the USA.

Who knows though, it's quite possible the company has numerous investors and that the business itself is losing money if not for that capital.  I don't know for certain, I just thought it was cool to see them at the Toronto Pro and initially thought it looked like they were growing as a company.

So then shut the fuck up already.

[newmom]

So then shut the fuck up already.

 

[insider]

14 RX forum banners at $1,000 a month works out to $168,000 a year.  One person I know who has an ad on one of the RX radio shows said he paid $6,000 or more for the year.

I would estimate that Dave is making over a quarter million a year for his stake in Species alone, not to mention the RX money.

Sounds to me like Dave is making loads of cash.  But who knows, as I said the site might have investors.  But if you add up all the ad space money alone on RX, it's tons of money.  Not sure why all the hate on the guy, other than the fake GH stuff which is obviously not cool but that doesn't mean the free content he is putting online on RX is bad.  I think Dave is doing great work.

It's obvious that you are a Palumbo fan boy and that's fine but you are purely speculating on the cost of the web banners. They are not worth that much since RX doesn't get a ton of traffic.

Also Species and Rxmuscle are two separate entities. Species won't last long. As far as RX yeah they put up quantity of content but the quality of it is not that good and now they are having virus problems that are attacking people's computers.

[Matt C]

It's obvious that you are a Palumbo fan boy and that's fine but you are purely speculating on the cost of the web banners. They are not worth that much since RX doesn't get a ton of traffic.

Also Species and Rxmuscle are two separate entities. Species won't last long. As far as RX yeah they put up quantity of content but the quality of it is not that good and now they are having virus problems that are attacking people's computers.

I admit, I like the work Palumbo has been doing on RX.  Mainly because he does have some of the best contest coverage on the web.  Plus it seems like after only a day or two there is already another radio show or video on the site.  I didn't hear about the virus problems but that's too bad.

John Romano and Derek Anthony both claimed that booths can run into the 50K-100K+ range.  John claims that VPX would spend as much as $250,000 on a booth [21:00]:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dashow/2010/10/29/da-show-33-special-guest-john-romano

Go to 28:30 and Derek makes a guess that GAT was spending 50K-100K on their booth but he admits he doesn't know for a fact.  John claims shortly thereafter that Gaspari and others are paying in the six figures at the Olympia.

Do the unions really charge $1,000 for each use of a dolly as John claims?  I could honestly believe that.  Unions benefit their workers and the rest of us have to pay for them.

A small booth told me that their cost was over $10,000.  The only booths smaller than theirs would have been the booths of Frank Zane and Samir Bannout that are off to the side of the expo.  Every company I talked to claimed that booths/costs are expensive.  No, I don't have the exact figures and for that matter, no one has posted anything detailing the total costs.

I think Species is a relatively young/small company but appears to be getting bigger.  If they are operating at a loss that can't go on forever.  I'm not claiming that they are doing $110 million a year in sales like Gaspari, but I think they are doing well.

[Largerthanlife]

I know CEOs make a lot of money but when you consider the fact that they make decisions that can cost literally hundreds of millions of dollars, it is a bargain to pay one $10 million.  If you owned a business and could hire a manager who could earn you a million extra dollars next year, don't you think he would be worth $50,000 to you?  It's the same concept with CEOs only on a bigger scale.

Matt you have to realize the system with unions did work for many many years, until the CEO and top management got money hungry and started to say we can't afford to pay you a living wage.  The CEO's are not making 10 millions LOL, that maybe a month or 10 million every 10 days, they are beyond ridiculous now.  Just look at American history with unions and how the middle class grew and America grew great.  Then greed shows up and ruins the whole show.  They can defintely afford to pay the employees 25 - 35 an hour, they just don't want to give up 200$ million a year bonus, they are scum.

Please don't use the argument about the small percentage of the unions that were corrupt that is the same argument politicians paid off by big companies use, it's a red herring to get your distracted from the real topic at hand and make you think they all are, which they are not.

Here is a quote from an article this is from the 1990 so the gap has grown much bigger.  In the 1950's or so it was 30 - 1 around.

The United States long has had the industrialized world's largest gap in pay between chief executives and blue-collar workers. CEO compensation swelled from 85 times what workers earned in 1990, to 209 times in 1996, and 326 times the following year. In 1999, CEO pay surged to a record 419 times the average worker's wage, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

[Tre]

John claims that VPX would spend as much as $250,000 on a booth

That's a huge number.  Whereas 5x $10,000 = $50,000 does seem like a reasonable expense claim, 5x THAT number does not.  To get to a $250,000 payout they'd have to have a team of 15-20 people, all flying 1st class, all getting their own $400/night hotel rooms, all other expenses covered, and so on.  Even then, I'd have to speculate they're including the retail prices of their product in that $250,000 figure.  Any large props used (like a vehicle or chain-link fence 'cage', for example) are one-time costs that can be used again and again. 

It wouldn't make good business sense, but I reckon it's conceivable that someone like a VPX could spend $250,000 at the Arnold or FIBO...but they'd almost have to be *trying* to spend that much just to say they did. 

[Captain Equipoise]

It's impossible that booths cost so much, unless it's at the Arnold or something, there is no way these companies would recoup any of the money wasted on a booth, not THAT many people go to bodybuilding show's or even expo's for that matter, does anyone have attendance numbers for any expo?

[Matt C]

Matt you have to realize the system with unions did work for many many years, until the CEO and top management got money hungry and started to say we can't afford to pay you a living wage.  The CEO's are not making 10 millions LOL, that maybe a month or 10 million every 10 days, they are beyond ridiculous now.  Just look at American history with unions and how the middle class grew and America grew great.  Then greed shows up and ruins the whole show.  They can defintely afford to pay the employees 25 - 35 an hour, they just don't want to give up 200$ million a year bonus, they are scum.

Please don't use the argument about the small percentage of the unions that were corrupt that is the same argument politicians paid off by big companies use, it's a red herring to get your distracted from the real topic at hand and make you think they all are, which they are not.

Here is a quote from an article this is from the 1990 so the gap has grown much bigger.  In the 1950's or so it was 30 - 1 around.

The United States long has had the industrialized world's largest gap in pay between chief executives and blue-collar workers. CEO compensation swelled from 85 times what workers earned in 1990, to 209 times in 1996, and 326 times the following year. In 1999, CEO pay surged to a record 419 times the average worker's wage, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

I hear you, but I think the Economics community would agree that unions on the whole have in recent years become a net economic loss, not a benefit as perhaps they once were.  Even if the companies could pay more money to workers it won't come out of their profits because they will simply raise prices.  So consumers end up paying higher prices for food, gas, etc.  That's the problem.

For all its faults, I still have yet to see a better socioeconomic model than a predominantly free market oriented one.  If people are not given the right to control their own private property, property tends to not be cared for and such systems always degrade.  Capitalism works although regulation can work at times too and admittedly saved Canada's banks in the 2008 banking collapse.

That's a huge number.  Whereas 5x $10,000 = $50,000 does seem like a reasonable expense claim, 5x THAT number does not.  To get to a $250,000 payout they'd have to have a team of 15-20 people, all flying 1st class, all getting their own $400/night hotel rooms, all other expenses covered, and so on.  Even then, I'd have to speculate they're including the retail prices of their product in that $250,000 figure.  Any large props used (like a vehicle or chain-link fence 'cage', for example) are one-time costs that can be used again and again.  

It wouldn't make good business sense, but I reckon it's conceivable that someone like a VPX could spend $250,000 at the Arnold or FIBO...but they'd almost have to be *trying* to spend that much just to say they did.  

It's impossible that booths cost so much, unless it's at the Arnold or something, there is no way these companies would recoup any of the money wasted on a booth, not THAT many people go to bodybuilding show's or even expo's for that matter, does anyone have attendance numbers for any expo?

Yeah, the figure sounded like hyperbole or maybe John got his figures wrong.  Some booths like Gaspari and MuscleTech go all out so I could believe their booths total in the six figures.  These booths don't recoup the money at shows but feel the presence is in their best long-term interest.

The Species booth at the Arnold was pretty good and I can only go based on observation as well as what a friend of Dave's told me, but it seems like he is doing well.  I don't see why there is so much hate on the guy to be honest, but I guess the fake GH issue has left a lot of people bitter.  I really admire the work he has done and to take his site to such a high level so quickly.  He seems to be a really networked person in the industry and asks good questions to competitors I think in part because he was one himself.

[Vince G, CSN MFT]

I admit, I like the work Palumbo has been doing on RX.  Mainly because he does have some of the best contest coverage on the web.  Plus it seems like after only a day or two there is already another radio show or video on the site.  I didn't hear about the virus problems but that's too bad.

John Romano and Derek Anthony both claimed that booths can run into the 50K-100K+ range.  John claims that VPX would spend as much as $250,000 on a booth [21:00]:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dashow/2010/10/29/da-show-33-special-guest-john-romano

Go to 28:30 and Derek makes a guess that GAT was spending 50K-100K on their booth but he admits he doesn't know for a fact.  John claims shortly thereafter that Gaspari and others are paying in the six figures at the Olympia.

Do the unions really charge $1,000 for each use of a dolly as John claims?  I could honestly believe that.  Unions benefit their workers and the rest of us have to pay for them.

A small booth told me that their cost was over $10,000.  The only booths smaller than theirs would have been the booths of Frank Zane and Samir Bannout that are off to the side of the expo.  Every company I talked to claimed that booths/costs are expensive.  No, I don't have the exact figures and for that matter, no one has posted anything detailing the total costs.

I think Species is a relatively young/small company but appears to be getting bigger.  If they are operating at a loss that can't go on forever.  I'm not claiming that they are doing $110 million a year in sales like Gaspari, but I think they are doing well.

Species certainly isn't paying 50 to 100k on their tables at the Arnold or the Olympia.  They have pop up banners which require no assembly and they are using the provided tables to put all of their stuff on.  For the Arnold Classic, I would say that he spend 10-20k on tables and about 1k for merchandise on the table.  I don't count product because they sell it.  The only grey area is the people working the booths and I would say 100-150 dollars per person a dayif he was paying them. 

[CalvinH]

I've never been to a bb show or expo.



.....and I'm ok with that.

[Effort]

Species certainly isn't paying 50 to 100k on their tables at the Arnold or the Olympia.  They have pop up banners which require no assembly and they are using the provided tables to put all of their stuff on.  For the Arnold Classic, I would say that he spend 10-20k on tables and about 1k for merchandise on the table.  I don't count product because they sell it.  The only grey area is the people working the booths and I would say 100-150 dollars per person a dayif he was paying them. 

x2
Dave recruits eager girls by saying that they may get a few bucks for lunch and a lot of exposure. He doesn't pay their hotel fees or airfare and if possible, has his friends drive the products to the expo rather than pay for shipping. The employees he actually flies in and puts up in (shared) hotel rooms work nearly around the clock at the Species booth AND pulling RX duties. When it's all over he bitches about them on his show.

[Stavios]

For some perspective, Greg was bigger than all the 2011 Ontario's Strongest Man competitors.  I'm not sure what his bodybuilding plans are but he hasn't competed for six years so I don't think he has an interest in resuming that.  He still carries a lot of size though.

absolutely not

not at all

[lesaucer]

2 words:  FAKE GH