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Pittsburgh Regatta loses top two sponsors Shop 'n Save, Pontiac pull out, but organizers say summer show is still a go Wednesday, May 09, 2001 By Tom Barnes and Teresa Lindeman, Post-Gazette Staff Writers
Does Pittsburgh gotta regatta?
Some major questions hang over the popular early August event now that its two largest sponsors, Shop 'n Save and Pontiac-GMC, have decided not to kick in their usual big bucks for the summer spectacle.
And at least three smaller sponsors -- the Port Authority, Dad's Pet Foods of Meadville and St. Francis Health System --have also withdrawn.
"It's troublesome," Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey said yesterday.
"I hope there will be a regatta this year. We should have had sponsors lined up already, but there is still time. I think [regatta managers] have a good chance to get some new sponsors. The next 30 days will be critical."
Roddey, a former regatta chairman, said that as title sponsor, Shop 'n Save paid about $250,000 a year -- about a fifth of the event's $1.3 million budget. He estimated that Pontiac paid almost as much.
What has really hurt, he said, is that the regatta no longer gets up to $500,000 a year from either Coca-Cola or Pepsi for "pouring rights" to nonalcoholic beverages at the regatta, which is centered in Point State Park.
Instead, the state, through an exclusive contract with Coke on all state-owned property, gets that income.
Richard Hamilton, the current regatta board chairman, expressed confidence yesterday that replacement sponsors will be found and the regatta will be held on its scheduled dates of Aug. 2-5.
"As of this moment, there's going to be a regatta," he said.
The management company hired to run the regatta, U.S. Events and Marketing, a subsidiary of Renda Broadcasting, is looking for a new title sponsor, Hamilton said.
Ida D'Errico, who runs the regatta for U.S. Events and Marketing, there were some new sponsors this year, such as Pfizer Co., the drug company that makes Viagra. But so far, no major sponsors have been found.
"The regatta is a significant regional asset," she said. "There are lots of corporations out there interested in aligning with it. We are contacting a number of major corporations, both based in Pittsburgh and nationally."
Shop 'n Save has been title sponsor for the regatta for six years, while Pontiac-GMC provided the official cars for 14 years.
Neither organization would disclose exactly how much they spent on the sponsorships. In addition to putting Shop 'n Save's name on every sign and brochure associated with the regatta, last year the grocery held a sweepstakes event that included distributing 2 million scratch-off cards through its stores.
Pontiac-GMC offered special edition vehicles, including Regatta Edition Grand AM SEs and GMC Jimmy SLEs with 24-karat gold-plated Regatta emblems on the hood, side and rear panels.
For Shop 'n Save, the regatta just got too big, said Ray West, spokesman for food distributor Supervalu's Central Region. Supervalu owns 19 of the region's 87 Shop 'n Saves, while the rest are owned by independent operators.
The regatta draws people from a sprawling geographical area, reaching into places where the residents can't find Shop 'n Save stores, said West.
Earlier this year, the Pittsburgh-area grocery owners voted to drop the sponsorship and reallocate those funds to projects that would have a more direct impact on their local markets.
Pontiac's decision to drop out wasn't an easy one, said Rick Asher, assistant director of communications for Pontiac-GMC. "It has nothing to do with us being displeased with our sponsorship at all," he said.
Asher described the move, which was discussed with local car dealers, as a business decision based on the cost of the sponsorship and the total amount of money available for marketing. The same budget covers regional advertising.
Sponsorship money is crucial to the regatta, covering about 90 percent of its expenses. Some regatta funds are generated by sales of products.
Shop 'n Save signed on as the first-ever title sponsor of the event in 1995. At the time, former regatta chairman Eugene F. Connelly was quoted as saying a big-name investor was critical.
Port Authority spokesman Bob Grove said his agency had been a sponsor for only one year, last year. "It's just a business decision," he said of the cancellation.
Meadville-based Dad's Pet Foods sponsored an event last year featuring the Famous Flying Frisbee Dogs, but it won't be back this year.
The company decided instead to focus on efforts such as an adopt-a-pet program that more directly reaches all 13 states where its products are sold, said Michele Huerbin, a public relations account manager at HMS Hallmark who works with Dad's.
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