Since I've been going (8 years now) the camping area has be decreased by about 2/3s. We used to get all the way to the autocross tent and up the hill but they've been decreasing it and turning it into spectator parking for years now. One year we showed up on Friday afternoon and the small fenced off camping area that was previously the RV area was the only designated tent camping area. They had the rest set aside as overflow parking. Overflow parking for a show with an attendance that is supposedly dropping. Overflow parking that wasn't apparently needed previously when the show was more popular. That fenced in camping area was already 90% full of RVs and some tents too. We would purposely camp away from the RVs so we wouldn't have to hear and smell their generators all weekend, and now they were forcing us into a tiny area like sardines. We protested the change and told them we would never all fit and they let us set up on the grass where we had been for years (because we basically already did), but they didn't like it and were jerks to us the entire weekend. Never emptied the trashcans and were constantly giving us dirty looks when we came and went. The next year they had some non-fenced in grass set aside along with the fenced in area but we still ended up pretty packed in because of how many people camp, and every year now the proceed to park "overflow" daily spectator cars right on top of us.
On top of that, the "overflow" parking never fills up all the way so there is always open grass at the top of the hill, where if they started the spectator parking at the top of the hill, we'd end up with some open grass between us and 200 cars coming and going all weekend. As it is every year now, I have to worry about my stuff getting stolen or run over all weekend by spectators. The first few years I went none of that was an issue and attendance was supposedly higher. So if the attendance is dropping, why do they need the overflow spectator parking on what used to be the camping area? To push us out, that's why. I've even noticed that they park cars in with the camping first lately instead of the huge parking area over by the vendors. On Saturday afternoon last year the vendor side parking was about 3/4s full and we had spectator cars on top of us for what really felt like no good reason at all. It certainly feels like they've been pushing out campers for awhile now, and areas around the camping that used to be set aside for show cars and motorcycles and were usually mostly empty at earlier shows are now considered parking and fill up quickly. Again, why more parking for a show that's been supposedly in decline??
I'll say it again. I'm not going next year. The Saab and Audi guys have been talking about bailing completely too and finding somewhere else to go. They split the two shows 15 years ago for a reason and they'll quickly realize that undoing it was a bad idea. And maybe the should think about their entry fees. Attendance felt like it declined when they practically doubled the fee to enter your car and camp for the weekend a few years ago. I understand that it's the price of doing business sometimes and prices need to be increased every once in awhile, but when it's already a financial strain for attendees when the economy isn't great, you'd think they'd give us a little more for our money instead of the same old or worse like we've been seeing. Maybe they shouldn't complain about attendance decline when they brought it upon themselves. I wouldn't be surprised if all of this was on purpose to decrease attendance so they could have an excuse to bring in a different show on the old weekends of the other shows or some other political BS.