Michael developed this club so that it belongs to all of us. But I don't blame him for not wanting to spin his wheels while carpetbaggers exploit all the hard work he has put into building AZ Barbecue. Got a suggestion for any event? Post it up and see what develops. Summertime is the perfect time to enjoy all things BBQ including exploring the plethora of new BBQ joints together. You may not accrue almighty points doing it, but you'll have a lot of fun and meet some terrific people. Borrowing a line from the Reimann family's real estate business...that's the Reimann way.
Mike did create this for everyone and it went very well and was really fun for a number of years. I won't go into what went wrong here
but it's my understanding he's decided to slow it down and instead focus on small events and try to bring the "fun" back to bbq.
Being that he's got 2 business' to deal with (Real Estate and catering/vending) and being that it's the busy season for R.E. and the work involved finding/booking vending events, then add in all that's happened to him and the
fact that he can't even VEND at a BBQ event without people coming after him I'd be shocked if he bothered with any bbq events ever again. I know I'd be deeply offended,hurt and just plain ticked off if it were me.
As someone who really enjoyed going to/working at BBQ events I'd say that the group that wanted AZBBQ gone pretty much got their wish and the result is a total lack of local (ish) "fun" events. If all you want is an event where you toss your meat on the smoker and wait to see if you get any money, well, there's certainly a few of those types of events around but nothing like the fun factory that was AZBBQ.
Maybe things will change over time, who knows but for now it is what it is.
Say what you will, nobody can deny Mike definitely put on FUN events.