HAMMOND — Plans for a 2015 South Shore Air Show are in a holding pattern until board members at the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority decide if they want to let the event fly again.
Speros Batistatos, president and CEO of the SSCVA, said planning for a 2015 air show is “nowhere.”
“This time last year we were securing acts. We are not securing acts. I’ve not discussed this with the board, but we are still evaluating what, if any, future the air show will have.”
Last year, the SSCVA, in an attempt to capture a $20 per car parking fee and more national sponsors to help pay for the event, moved the air show from Gary’s lakefront, where it began, to Fair Oaks Farms in Newton County.
The change in venue ignited a firestorm pitting Batistatos and the SSCVA board against Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. and other north Lake County leaders. McDermott opposed the move of the air show out of Lake County and using the county’s hotel tax dollars to support the event in Newton County.
Both Newton and Jasper counties have contracted with the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority to provide tourism-related services for a fee.
Whether the decision to move the air show would have proved to be the right move became moot after excessive rains flooded the farm’s fields and forced the cancellation of the show weeks before the event.
Evansville officials last week announced they would be canceling their 2015 air show due to cost. But on Thursday, the Vectren Foundation stepped up with a $50,000 donation to help pay for the Evansville event. Hadi Shriners spokesman Dale Thomas says the group has seen a decline in corporate sponsorships and faced rising costs for its annual Evansville Freedom Festival.
McDermott said the South Shore Air Show is an event worth the cost if it takes place in Lake County.
“I know the convention and visitors bureau learned a lesson,” he said, adding if the event is going to take place on farmland, some years it will be washed out. “That never happened in Gary.”
McDermott said he would be “totally supportive” of the event if it was moved back to the lakeshore even if it costs money. Festivals cost big dollars, especially when admission is free.
Hammond’s Festival of the Lakes is a free event, although the city charges $25 per car to park.
“Still, quite frankly, it is not enough. Our goal is not to profit off the fest. We want to be as close to zero as possible. That’s the magic formula,” McDermott said.
Batistatos said there is a need to capture parking fees for the air show to keep it viable. What is happening in Evansville is indicative of what is happening to air shows across the country: The events come with a high price tag.
“Absent major corporate sponsorship, absent the ability to collect revenue, we are in a difficult situation.”
Batistatos said the move to Fair Oaks was about nothing more than capturing revenues to help sustain the long-term viability of the air show. The SSCVA took the air show over from the city of Gary in 2006. At the time the event was about $450,000 in the red. The SSCVA has been able to make the show more cost effective, but it still loses about $160,000 a year.
Board members will have to decide if the $160,000 spent on the air show during a time of year when the area’s hotels are already booked at an 85 percent to 90 percent occupancy rate would be better spent on an event during seasonal down times when occupancy rates are at 30 percent.
“My advice is not going to be terribly positive if they ask. The Evansville situation puts the nail really in the coffin. It is an indicator of what is going on nationally with air shows. Absent the ability to capture significant revenues, they are not viable,” Batistatos said.
McDermott said he would like to see the air show continue.
“I maintain if Speros moves the air show to Gary he would find a huge supporter in Hammond, Indiana. I think it’s great for the region. I think that’s the kind of thing the SSCVA should be doing.”