goc Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 So I thought it would be kind of cool to get an idea of the differences in travel times between the various promotions during the territory era. The only territory loops that I'm totally sure of though would be the Memphis loop which didn't vary too much outside of Thursday spot shows. So for the Memphis loop it went: Monday: Memphis, TN Tuesday: Louisville, KY (6 hours, 30 miles from Memphis) Wednesday: Evansville, IN (2 hours, 120 miles from Louisville) Thursday: Spot show (for the purpose of this exercise I used Blytheville, AR) (2 hours, 250 miles from Evansville) Friday:Tupelo, MS (3 hours, 180 miles from Tupelo) Saturday: Memphis TV in the morning & Nashville at night (2 hours, 110 miles from Tupelo to Memphis then 3 hours & 15 minutes, 210 miles from Memphis to Nashville) Plugging that into Mapquest gives me 1200+ miles a week and over 20 hours of driving time. Does anyone have a good weekly loop for Mid-South, Mid-Atlantic, Florida, etc. to use as a comparison? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 This is my wheelhouse.....real quick here is Florida Sunday = Orlando Monday = West Palm Beach Tuesday = Tampa Wednesday = Miami Thursday = Jacksonville Friday = Spot shows Saturday = Lakeland or Sarasota, St. Petersburg once a month Ocala would run different nights every month or so.....Hollywood or Sunrise would take Miami's place at times, then you had spot shows like Daytona Beach, Fort Myers, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted January 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 I guess another thing to consider here is which territories were considered a "home every night" territory. Going from spot to spot on those Florida locations gives me more miles, but I know Florida had a reputation as an easy travel territory where you could go home every night because most trips were in the 2-3 hour range. Most guys were staying in apartments in Tampa right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis Mark Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 So I thought it would be kind of cool to get an idea of the differences in travel times between the various promotions during the territory era. The only territory loops that I'm totally sure of though would be the Memphis loop which didn't vary too much outside of Thursday spot shows. So for the Memphis loop it went: Monday: Memphis, TN Tuesday: Louisville, KY Wednesday: Evansville, IN Thursday: Spot show (for the purpose of this exercise I used Blytheville, AR) Friday:Tupelo, MS Saturday: Memphis TV in the morning & Nashville at night Plugging that into Mapquest gives me 1200+ miles a week and over 20 hours of driving time. Does anyone have a good weekly loop for Mid-South, Mid-Atlantic, Florida, etc. to use as a comparison? Memphis would run shows in Eastern Arkansas or Northern Missisissippi on Sauturdays night. The main crew would go to Nashville , while a secondary crew would go to Jonesboro ,Blythville , etc. That was one reason the Rock N' Express was created by Lawler. The Fabs would always, go to Nashviile , so another team that could draw money was needed for the smaller market Saturday show. Jonesboro meet Ricky and Robert. They would also run Jackson , TN on a regular basic . Jackson was a town of 50 , 000 people . They had one TV station , which had wrestling. I would watch the Jackson show at 11.00 P.M. It came on right after Hee Haw . The building in jackson seat around 7 to 8 ,000 people. So they would gets fans from all over rural West Tennesssee. They drew pretty well because a lot of the rural fans were afraid to come to big city Memphis . The Jackson program was the arena match program . So i would get both the shows on the same day . I would put reynolds wrap on my rabbit ears and moved the TV around until I got the Jackson station . Jackson would run on either Thursday or Saturday , I cannot recall the exact night . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 Georgia before the expansion in 1980 Sunday = Marietta Monday = Augusta Tuesday = Macon Wednesday = Columbus Thursday = Rome or Albany Friday = Atlanta Saturday = Griffin or Carrollton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soup23 Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 I hate that Georgia loop every time just thinking about if that stuff still existed today, I am an hour from every spot on the Thur-Sunday loop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topropepodcast Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 This appears to be the Amarillo loop. Monday - El Paso Tuesday - Odessa Wednesday - Lubbock Thursday - Amarillo Friday - Abilene Saturday - Hereford Sunday - Albuquerque 1640 miles a week. That's just insane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 Without giving specifics due to the size of the country/area I'd assume the British guys in the 70s/80s had an easy loop so to speak. Love to see what the Stampede loop consisted of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 Stampede was brutal I imagine. It is about 9hrs or so from Calgary to Saskatoon for example. And then factor in horrible driving conditions in the winter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Farmer Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 Don Owen's Portland Wrestling was pretty simple. Saturday - Portland OR Sunday - Tacoma WA Monday - Yakima WA or Longview WA or spot show Tuesday - Portland OR (Tuesday special) or Roseburg OR or spot show Wednesday - Seattle WA (bi-weekly mostly) or Medford OR or spot show Thursday - Salem OR or spot show Friday - Eugene OR or Albany OR or spot show. Portland, Eugene and Salem were almost every week. Once in awhile Eugene moved to nearby Albany OR or into a high school due to Fair activities. Same with Salem OR. Seattle was usually twice a month on Wednesdays but there was no specific schedule like first and third week of the month. But was pretty much consistent. Towns like Longview WA was usually ran the first Monday of the Month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wahoos Leg Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 I've not had much luck tracking down any semblance of a loop for Vancouver Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dewar Posted June 27, 2015 Report Share Posted June 27, 2015 I know Stampede ran Calgary on Friday, Edmonton on Saturday, Saskatoon on Monday, and Regina on Tuesday during the 60's, 70's and early 80's. Looking at results from 1986, they still can Calgary/Edmonton on Fri/Sat, but Sask/Regina became bi-weekly towns, and they went to British Columbia (Vancouver was the main town for them in BC). On the plus side for the workers, they were getting flown to BC and back for those trips. So Calgary to Edmonton = 295 km Edmonton to Saskatoon = 526 km (Lloydminster is in between the two towns, seems like a natural Sunday night stop) Saskatoon to Regina = 232 km Regina to Calgary = 776 km That's 1829 km for the four shows they ran every week. Medicine Hat is on the way between Regina and Calgary, so when they ran there, it doesn't add to the loop. Lethbridge is south of Medicine Hat, so when they ran there, it added a bit of travel. When they ran Montana, it definitely added more travel to the total. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Farmer Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 I've not had much luck tracking down any semblance of a loop for Vancouver It changed over the years, but for the most part Vancouver was every Monday usually at the PNE Gardens. This would represent the early 70's Monday - Vancouver Tuesday - Chilliwack or Victoria BC and Seattle WA Wednesday - Burnaby (TV) Thursday - New Westminster or Tacoma WA or spot show Friday - spot show Saturday - Victoria or Cloverdale or spot show Sunday - spot show Later TV would change to Tuesdays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawho5 Posted June 28, 2015 Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 I haven't been able to find a Montreal territory loop either. A lot of stuff about that whole promotion seems really obscure besides a few people's youtube feeds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted June 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2015 I've not had much luck tracking down any semblance of a loop for Vancouver It changed over the years, but for the most part Vancouver was every Monday usually at the PNE Gardens. This would represent the early 70's Monday - Vancouver Tuesday - Chilliwack or Victoria BC and Seattle WA Wednesday - Burnaby (TV) Thursday - New Westminster or Tacoma WA or spot show Friday - spot show Saturday - Victoria or Cloverdale or spot show Sunday - spot show Later TV would change to Tuesdays. Did Vancouver & Portland not have issues from both of them running Tacoma & Seattle? Or were they never both running those towns during the same time period? I have no idea what Portland's loop was like in the early 70s. Only what it was from the late 70s-onward when you would see them list where they would be during the week on the TV show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Farmer Posted June 30, 2015 Report Share Posted June 30, 2015 It depended on what time period your talking about. But the truth of the matter Don Owen had a percentage of the Vancouver office and during the 70's when Sandor Kovacs and Gene Kiniski ran the office Don had imput. During the 60's when Harry Elliott had television and booked most of the state, he started out booking talent from the Portland office but by the mid 60's was booking wrestlers from Vancouver. Harry had a very strong television contract with the CBS affiliate and it drew huge ratings so he was able to do what he wanted. Harry and Don knew each other since they were teenagers and both broke in under Don's father Herb. They had a falling out that few know about in the early 60's and believe it or not never spoke to each other again, even though they were "partners". Because Tacoma and Seattle are so close (30 miles) apart from each other. For most of the time Tacoma and Seattle were booked out of different offices, Seattle was booked out of Portland and Tacoma was booked out of Vancouver. By the late 60's to early 70's both Tacoma and Seattle were booked out of Vancouver until the mid 70's when. Vancouver started running those Washington towns on more of a spot show basis with Dutch Savage help handle it. Then by the mid 70's Dutch got a TV deal in Tacoma/Seattle and booked talent through Don Owen. Once Don and Dutch took Seattle over they really didn't handle the market like they should have. Prior to that Seattle was a full time office with Harry booking 6 or more shows a week himself. Dutch was only running two or three cards a week in Washington with Seattle going to bi-monthly and Tacoma monthly. Both of those towns had hosted weekly cards for the past 40 or 50 years, now they were just spot shows. And the Seattle side was out drawing the Portland business and the boys made more money working for Elliott than they did Don. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted June 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2015 I never did understand why Don Owen didn't do more with Seattle. I realize that he owned the arena in Portland but it still seemed like they could have been making way more off of Seattle than what they were doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Farmer Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 Really Don ran the city of Portland. He rarely went on the road, and when cards were booked that his brother or Sandy Barr (and later Sons Barry and Mark) weren't promoting. He'd usually have another person close to the office handle the box office. Washington was for the most part was Dutch Savage's with of course Don's approval. In all honesty Dutch should have opened his own booking office but Don had the NWA connection, so Dutch would have to get his roster elsewhere. Don had other interest and really by the 1970's had been working the business for 50 years so I'm sure his motivation was directed in other areas. He was rich, owned half of Eugene Oregon and I'm sure didn't want to put too many more hours in the business. Really from 1957 when Harry Elliott got control of Seattle, it became a very profitable promotion. And yes he booked wrestlers out of the Portland office but he ran the day to day business on his own, and had his own towns. But once again Harry was even older than Don and both had been involved with wrestling since the 1920's! Off topic some but can you imagine the wrestling a guy like Don Owen saw in his lifetime? When he started his dad was booking Joe Stecher and Strangler Lewis. And when he retired he was booking Scotty the Body and Steve Doll! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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