This was one of my favorite shows of the year and John Organ was one helluva guy. It’s a sad situation and I hope things work out for this show to return in 2009. The following article was written on Bodysport. Reposted with permission from Bodysport.com…
No Palm Beach Show in 2008
By Kevin Myles
Since the untimely death of IFBB Palm Beach Pro promoter John Organ in May of this year, the future of the Palm Beach Pro Fitness and Figure show has been in question. Organ’s financial partner Sophie Crompton felt unable to continue on her own and less than willing to be involved with the show without her long time friend and business partner John Organ involved so she contacted one of Organ’s friends, Bodysport.com’s Terry Goodlad to discuss options. Goodlad agreed to do his best to make the show happen but knowing his time and experience was limited he contacted veteran promoter and NPC Texas State Chairman Lee Thompson who immediately agreed to help, “There was no way I would have the time or experience to promote the event on my own so I got in touch with NPC Texas State Chairman Lee Thompson who offered to work with me and try our best to make the show happen.”
Putting on an event of this magnitude takes months of hard work and planing and despite a monumental effort, it proved to be impossible to generate sponsors and properly promote the show in the short time available, “The first big problem was the venue. Where John had it the first two years was too small and the stage was not adequate. He had reserved the convention center which was huge but there were a lot of legal issues surrounding the deposit Organ had made on the venue so we had to find another place. It was almost impossible to find a suitable venue and once we did it was too late for potential sponsors to come up with the dollars required to make the show a success. Much to our disappointment as each week passed it became more and more obvious that it was going to be impossible to promote the event this year.”
Both Thompson and Goodlad as well as IFBB Vice President Jim Manion wanted the show to continue in memory of John Organ stated Goodlad, “We all wanted to do this show in tribute to John, he was very well liked by all who knew him and he always put on a great show for the competitors and fans. the competitors also looked forward to that show each year being in Palm Beach, Florida as well as being right after the Olympia the girls could try to qualify for the following year’s Olympia taking all the pressure off to qualify the next year.
It was more than a daunting task at the outset but Lee jumped in to help right away and we both did all we could to save the show this year and Mr. Manion was supporting those efforts fully as he wanted the athletes to have that show on the schedule, especially for fitness athletes who have a limited number of shows to compete in each year as it is.”
Thompson and Goodlad have not walked away from the project entirely however, “we may try to make it work in 2009, at least we have the time now to try and make that happen.”
