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4-day regatta hoists anchor today Boats, lights, music take center stage Thursday, August 05, 1999 By Torsten Ove, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
As the Three Rivers Regatta gets under way today, with its laser shows, boat races, fireworks, concerts and a four-day crush of some 1.5 million people, you have to wonder:
Will rotting trash still be lying around in Point State Park three days after the big event, like it was in 1998?
"Hopefully," said Jim Roddey, chairman of the regatta board, "the city will do better this year."
The city's water-air-land festival, officially the Shop 'n Save Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta, kicked off last night with a party at Coconuts on the Boardwalk in the Strip District featuring seven bands and free Coors Light from 5 to 6 p.m.
Anyone unfamiliar with this Pittsburgh-style regatta should realize by now that it's not exactly a brie-and-sailboats type of event.
Promoted as the largest inland regatta in the United States, it's a big four-day party at the Point that's heavy on beer and carnival food. The fountain won't be turned on this year because of the drought, but the big happenings are the same as always: A mammoth fireworks display by Zambelli Internationale on Saturday night and Formula One boat races on Sunday.
Roddey said he was slightly concerned about a possible drop-off in attendance because construction Downtown and on the North Shore had created a shortage of parking. Still, he said he expected a total of 1.2 million to 1.5 million people to show up during the four days.
For Roddey and the regatta organizers, this year's event is more than just another annual river bash. It's a milestone of sorts.
Less than two years after a complete overhaul of the regatta's operations, the festival is getting a handle on its original debt of nearly $800,000.
At last night's regatta dinner at the Sheraton Hotel Station Square, the regatta board handed Mayor Murphy a check for $100,000, twice the amount the board had been scheduled to repay this year.
Regatta Management Inc., which runs the regatta's operations, gave the board the money to pay the city and hopes to recoup it from regatta proceeds next year.
With the payoff, the regatta's total debt to the city for police and public works services from 1994 and 1997 has been whittled to about $190,000. The only other debt left is a $70,000 loan from PNC Bank.
No one has accounted for how the regatta got into such a mess in the first place. But in 1997, former Executive Vice President Ida D'Errico accused Eugene Connelly, founder of the regatta, of mismanagement. Connelly denied that he did anything wrong.
Roddey took over as chairman of the board in November 1997, and the board cut its members from 42 to 18 individuals responsible for paying back the money.
The regatta was originally scheduled to pay off the debt by 2004, but Roddey said it should be paid off by 2002.
"So we're two years ahead of schedule," he said. "We've been successful in getting expenses under control."
He said The Anderson Group, which owns half of Regatta Management, has done "a marvelous" job of running the regatta.
Steve Savor of Anderson said regatta management had made the event more efficient, largely by reducing the number of regatta days from six to four. Organizers have cut expenses by eliminating the opening day parade and getting rid of some events that were not sponsored.
The event's bottom line will be hurt this year, however, by the loss of a major sponsor. Pepsico Inc., which had been a sponsor for many years, has been replaced by Coca-Cola, which signed an agreement with the state for "pouring rights" on state property. That means Pepsi's out at Point State Park, along with related sponsors such as KFC.
"The Coca-Cola contract will hurt us," said Roddey. "It's significant. But Coke has pouring rights in the park, so we can't do anything about it. Things like that happen."
Neither he nor Savor would discuss how much money the regatta would lose by dropping Pepsi.
Roddey said the regatta, which the board oversees as a charitable event, would be able to give something back to the community within a few years.
Once the debt is paid off for good, he said, the board's share of the revenue will be given to projects related to the rivers from which the public can benefit. He said money would be turned over to programs such as River Sweep, the annual cleanup of the Ohio River; the Voyager river cruise operation; U.S. Coast Guard safety courses; or the building and beautifying of boat ramps, of which the city has only one.
Roddey said the annual revenue to be donated was projected at between $250,000 and $500,000.
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