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Uploaded: Tuesday, January 22, 2013, 11:21 AM                                             

Annual Concours d' Elegance auto show shifts to San Mateo
Annual auto show will be held at San Mateo County Event Center after 38 years at Stanford

by Ranjini Raghunath
Palo Alto Weekly Staff

Posted by Tim, a resident of another community, on Jan 22, 2013 at 7:33 pm

Sounds like the event will be held indoors. Sad.

Posted by Gus L., a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Jan 22, 2013 at 10:20 pm

Stanford's recent policy change regarding non-university events Is why they are moving to San Mateo.

Will all "Non Stanford University Events" be banned from the campus? Why ban such a Benevolent charity like the Lions?

Posted by charity?, a resident of Stanford, on Jan 23, 2013 at 8:53 am

They are charging $30 per person for this event, but they only donated $1.7 million over 40 years (about $40,000 per year). Sounds like the vast majority of that entrance fee is going to the club, not to charity.

Posted by Mike, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Jan 23, 2013 at 11:50 am

The club is a non profit. The Concours cost a surprisingly large amount to conduct each year, which is where a lot of the ticket money goes. If it were not for the large contingent of volunteers, sponsorships and spaces for commercial entities this event could not happen.

There is no money retained-it all goes to charity.

Posted by charity?, a resident of Stanford, on Jan 23, 2013 at 12:10 pm

I have no problem with local groups staging expensive events. Just don't call it a charity event if very little of the revenue actually goes to charity. Legitimate charity fundraising should be giving at least 75% of their revenue to the designated charities.

Posted by Mark, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Jan 23, 2013 at 1:14 pm

Stanford's University's bad neighbor policy toward the City of Palo Alto--which is tied to the University by a shared property boundary--continues down a slippery slope whereby Stanford University, which has been blessed with so much, is now drawing a very defined line in the sand stipulating: "What the University wants, it expects to get" and if it doesn't there is a gaggle of highly paid lawyers who will argue on their behalf-regardless of the moral nature of the action--and as far as giving back to the community that Stanford looks to to facilitates the personal lives of so many people who work for and live at Stanford University--forget about that--even when their good neighbor Palo Alto, a world class community, is simply asking for some space on which to park some of the most beautiful and well taken care of vehicles in the world so as to be able to charge money for an entrance fee, all of the net profit from which will simply be given to those who Stanford would likely argue--or pay someone to do argue for them--that those are the people on the planet that really need help from well funded organizations like Stanford University.

[Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]

Posted by businessdecision, a resident of another community, on Jan 23, 2013 at 2:55 pm

Less of a light in the world, now, wouldn't you say? Vocational now.

Posted by class car nut, a resident of Menlo Park, on Jan 23, 2013 at 5:00 pm

I have been made aware that some of the people involved with the concours have been paid, therefore, not all money collected is donated to charities.

Posted by Not an issue, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, on Jan 23, 2013 at 5:00 pm

Mark-- [Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.}

For too long palo alto has tried to extort money from Stanford. Stanford land s private property-- no obligation to do your bidding, mark. And mark, have you inquired as to why Stanford has denied the locale for the show? I bet you have not.

Posted by Shaun, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Feb 10, 2013 at 11:24 am

It is time for Palo Alto as a city to step up to the plate on this one and support the Lion's in their decades long effort to simply help charities and provide a venue for this event. If not this year then certainly in future years.

Palo alto has many other smaller groups that benefit greatly from large tracks of city land and I am sure that one of the cities sites could be used for such a fun, well attended and charitable event.

The golf course, the airport, Gunn or Palo High, Foothills Park etc all have enough parking and enclosed space to make the concours viable. It would just take the will from city officials to help in obstacles and for one of those venues to give up 1 weekend of 52 to help such a well meaning group.