SOS! Clubs Trying to Survive the Coronavirus

By Amy Fernandez

So far, the 2020 show year really sucks. And the worst part is not knowing when or if it’s going to turn around. Obviously, it’s for the best.  Canceling shows certainly beats an epidemic of viral pneumonia. So we wait it out.

Take some consolation in the fact that things like this have happened before. Maybe not recently but back in the 1940s World War II had the same drastic impact on the sport. Crufts was canceled, Westminster almost, and legions of clubs around the country went belly up as a result.

I realize this isn’t what anyone wants to hear at the moment, but we need to know it’s not the first time for this sort of thing. So, here’s Lourdes Fernandez. She’s been in this game long enough to know the score. In other words, a realist. She says, “Our Edison shows were the latest casualty.” As you know, Bronx and New Brunswick were scheduled for this coming weekend at the NJ Convention Center in Edison. As Lourdes explains, “We decided to cancel because of the NJ mandate limiting gatherings of over 250 people, 249 is okay apparently.”

Actually, entries at New Brunswick were very good this year, with over 1500 Friday, 1800+ on Saturday, and around 1700 Sunday. Of course, a lot of this was due to the tons of specialties and supported entries all three days, which actually translates into even more damage.

“But I get that they are trying to remove the crowd risk factor, and this is something people should be concerned about” Lourdes says. “This virus appears to be highly contagious and no one has had previous exposure to it.  And it’s going to be transmitted much more readily in confined areas like subways, movie theaters, concert halls. People catch things on planes all the time because they have closed ventilation systems. When the Italians close down La Scala during the opera season, you know this is serious. But dog shows? You are not really in such a closed environment.” Good point.

She continues by saying, “I was at York last Friday, which is set up in multiple halls. There were four or five rings and there couldn’t have been more than 100 people.”

 Of course, many clubs still have leeway and although most are opting to play it safe, with most big shows canceled through April, quite a few of the smaller ones have chosen to go ahead. Obviously, that may change as many aspects of this situation are impossible to predict.

“They shut down Louisville halfway through the circuit. And, yeah, that is a huge show but everyone was already there. So, what difference did two days make?” Lourdes wasn’t the only one asking that question but by then, of course, although mitigating potential damage was practically impossible, the show committee did the cautious, responsible thing.

 She says, “It is a legitimate safety precaution but this is going to have unintended consequences.” Specifically, Lourdes is talking about the big hit that clubs are taking. “York is small, but the Tarheel Circuit, the Concord shows, PCA, people come from all over the world for that one. And the Lab National, you’re talking over 1000 dogs at that one.”

Everybody is taking quite a hit. “Clubs like Bronx and New Brunswick, we lost our shirts on the Edison cluster. We had already paid for the venue, the catering; we are not getting anything back on those.  Some people are saying next year will be better, well there probably won’t be a next year,” she says.

Lourdes continues by saying, “Bronx is one of the oldest all breed clubs in the country. It was incorporated in 1914 and held its first show in 1916. But we’re down to a handful of active members desperately trying to keep it alive.  Any money that comes in, after we pay the bills and the judges, goes right into the next show.

“Nice venues like the Expo Center are expensive.  Unlike the fairgrounds where the state made the decision to cancel everything, this place is privately owned. And we decided that we need to be cautious.   But frankly, I don’t see how we will recover from this.”

As I mentioned, some clubs are opting to hold their shows and some are guaranteeing entry refunds in case of later cancelations. This will hopefully motivate more exhibitors to chance it because like Lourdes says they truly need ongoing support.  Many shows have more or less flatlined since 2008 and lot of clubs are barely hanging on these days.

And they’re not the only ones that are gonna take a big hit on this. “Handlers are going to lose so much business. So many people are losing their source of income. A lot of the smaller vendors don’t have any mail order business.”  The dog show ecosystem is an intricate, interdependent network. “Clubs usually don’t say anything about their dire financial state, but this could be catastrophic.”

Hopefully, this will be over by summer. And if we are invested in seeing a future for our sport, we might want to consider planning some fundraising events just to make sure we still have shows to go to.

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Posted by chesliepickett on Mar 27 2020. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.