Tesla Club of NM evicted from International Auto Show

[Az_Rael]

Ah, but many parking garages are privately owned and are considered private property. I have been hassled several times in city parking garages when I paid the parking fee, parked my car and wanted to take photos off the roof of the garage of the city skyline. (My hobby is photography, so I usually have a tripod - you don't get hassled with a camera phone, but put your camera on 3 legs, and you will)

I didn't watch the video, but if they wanted to have a meetup in the garage, for whatever reason, they needed to coordinate that with the garage owner.

Or better yet, many car shows have areas for local clubs and enthusiasts to set up, they should have bought space in that area and set up there.

 

[Mark Z]

I hope the police enjoyed viewing the Tesla vehicles!

(In 2003, OKC Police stopped me while riding a Segway in Bricktown at 2 AM. The cop cars lined up around me. Did they want to check my BAC? No, they all wanted to ride the Segway. For the next 30 minutes, they got their ride!)

 

[SomeJoe7777]

I have run conferences/conventions that include a trade show with a client of mine for the past 14 years, so I know how these things work from the other side.

Upthread someone was pointing out that there is a lot of advertising and exclusivity involved in the conference, and he's very correct. As the conference organizer, vendors pay you for booth space, pay you for exposure in slide shows and presentations, and pay you to be included in the conference notebook and program. Speakers who are presenting generally get compensated by being allowed to sell their books/videos or other products, while other vendors who want to sell those items have to pay a fee to have their product carried in the conference sales area.

If it's a car show and you're showing your car without going through the conference organizers, that's unfair to all of the other vendors and individuals who paid the fees to be included in the conference.

In this particular case, the gray area from a legal standpoint is that the conference is being held in the conference center, while the Teslas were in the conference garage which apparently is not exclusive to the conference center. This is probably why the police could not force them to leave. However, the security person was correct in that this is similar to selling unauthorized NFL merchandise like T-shirts at an NFL game. The NFL owns rights to the merchandise sales on NFL property, you can't just come in there and sell your own stuff. In this case, the merchandise being "sold" wasn't tangible property, but instead you were accessing an audience of car enthusiasts (conference attendees) without paying for that access.

This situation falls under my self-created thumb rule:

Just because it's legal, doesn't mean it's a good idea.

 

[amallah]

I think it's ridiculous that the car dealership cartel can prevent Tesla from selling their vehicles. There were all sorts of loopholes to navigate and inconveniences when I picked up my 90D. So, I'm a big fan of putting it in the eye of those guys.

That being said, there's nothing to be proud of here. Private property security (very nicely, I might add) asked people to leave. IANAL, but isn't that trespassing? If you walk into a restaurant that's open to the public, pay for your meal and then sit down and then start telling other customers that their meal is terrible, come over to a different restaurant instead, doesn't the owner have the right to kick you out?

It would have had much more impact if Tesla Club of NM had a huge event on the same day as the car show. Invite food trucks, get some live bands to play, bring in some aftermarket vendors and services to help sponsor the thing, charge a lower price, show off the Teslas, etc. Hit the car show in attendance, that would be great. This video is not great.

 

[jeffp]

I didn't go to that show in Albaturkey JUST BECAUSE it didn't have Tesla's.