Businesses react to Thunder by the Bay departure

For the first time in nearly 20 years, Thunder didn’t roll through downtown Sarasota.

On Jan. 7-8, the main festivities for the Thunder by the Bay motorcycle festival took place not on Main Street, but in Lakewood Ranch. The new site was a response to feedback from merchants and residents who said the event had a negative impact on business downtown.

After this weekend, the question of whether Thunder by the Bay was good or bad for downtown remains open. Some businesses were happy to have a more quiet weekend, but others observed a noticeable downtick in activity.

Here’s what a few downtown merchants had to say about life after Thunder by the Bay:

It was less noisy. Other than that, we didn’t miss anything. On the contrary — it was nice and peaceful and quiet without the group of people closing the street and scaring business away. I’m very much for “Thunder by the ex-Bay” to be whatever they want to be, except on Palm Avenue. It would keep our clients away. The people that came with the motorcycles were not clients. Nothing against them, but it’s not our clientele.

— Sergio Baril
President, Mariposa Designs, 53 S. Palm Ave.

The noise levels of the music was one of the major complaints. All we had to do is maybe adjust the volume, not remove the event. I think there was little effort in finding a solution to keep it here, rather than a solution to remove it. When I closed my doors here at the restaurant, even in the middle of dinner, you still could not hear yourself talk because it was so loud. My suggestion was to turn the volume down.

Like anything else, you need to tweak it — and I don’t think they made it an effort to tweak it.  After a while, you wonder if they’re going to get rid of the farmers market, if they’re going to get rid of the Fourth of July events, if they’re going to get rid of the Christmas parade. When does it stop?

— Raffaele Perna
Owner, Clásico, 1341 Main St.

It was really very slow (this weekend). Normally, after New Year’s Eve, we slow down for two weeks and then the season will pick up. We were looking forward to Thunder by the Bay, because it really helps us a lot on the slow weekend before season hits. Everybody had fun working Thunder by the Bay weekend. We didn’t have a problem with it. Hopefully, next year they’ll bring it back here. Even the people that aren’t motorcyclists were really disappointed that they moved to Lakweood Ranch out of nowhere. This year, even though it was cold, if it was on Main Street, we’d be packed.

— Merly Soliano
General Manager, Patrick’s 1481, 1481 Main St.