Did you hear?… PPA reports that its members grossed between $5.6 and $10.2 million from paddlesports rentals over Memorial Day

The Professional Paddlesports Association reported that its members grossed between $5.6 million and $10.2 million from paddlesports rentals over the Memorial Day holiday. The association surveyed 415 of their retail and outfitter members on-line and received 76 responses, or an 18 percent return. Twenty percent of those responding reported receipts higher than they expected, 30 percent said sales were higher than last year, 25 percent said sales were flat compared to last year, and 25 percent reported lower sales than last year, the majority of those blaming inclement weather over the weekend as the primary reason. Receipts ranged from $7,500 to $13,600 for the three-day weekend. SNEWS® View: This was the association’s first survey in a number of years, and it showed. Eighteen percent return is not anything to hang your hat on when surveying membership. Also, how in the world does the PPA extrapolate that their membership grossed between $5.6 million and $10.2 million? That’s almost a $5 million dollar spread of guesswork. So, was it $5.6 million or was it $10.2 million or something in between? Maybe our calculator ain’t working the same way, but if you take 415 members (the number they actually surveyed) and multiply that by $7,500, one arrives at $3.2 million in sales. Of course, for this math to really work, the association needs to simply add up all the receipts reported, divide by the number of those reporting (in this case 76) and that’s the average receipt. Then multiply that number by the 415 retail and outfitter members and you arrive at a number that might be called more accurate. Maybe next time?