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Gasparilla's corporate question

As more of the parade's viewing space is taken by corporate tents and reserved seating, some ask: What's left for the average folks?

By JANET ZINK
Published January 26, 2006

	Invasion time Are you planning to attend this weekend's Gasparilla festivities in Tampa? Yo ho, I'll be there. Aargh, maybe. If the weather's nice. No, it's too rowdy for me. No, that event doesn't interest me.

TAMPA - As a single woman, Barbara Davis preferred watching the Gasparilla parade on foot, providing maximum opportunities for socializing.

Now that she's married and a mother, she prefers paying for a bleacher seat.

"You're not standing in a mob scene." said Davis, 45. "You actually end up watching the parade."

Others, however, question the way more and more public land on Tampa's most famous street has been taken up with reserved seating and corporate tents.

Bayshore Boulevard gets subdivided for a day. A long stretch of the waterside turns into a gated community. Corporate tents line up side by side on spaces rented for as much as $100,000, and bleachers fill up, the seats selling for $24 a piece.

"Private interests are making a lot of money on Gasparilla, and the citizens of the city are not being reimbursed for their costs," said Roger Grunke, president of the Historic Hyde Park Neighborhood Association. "It's not that I don't wish people to make a profit, but first you pay the taxpayers." Revenue generated by the sale of the seats and tents does not go to the city. It doesn't go to Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, which founded the parade more than 100 years ago.

The money instead goes to EventMakers, a private company the Krewe hires to promote and organize the parade.

Taxpayers still spend more than $300,000 for cleanup, law enforcement and other costs.

A city ordinance commits Tampa to sponsor the Gasparilla parade, as well as the Gasparilla road race, the children's parade and the Krewe of the Knights of Sant' Yago Illuminated Knight Parade. The city also sponsors a Veterans Day parade.

Gasparilla Fest costs taxpayers the most money. The $312,667 price tag for the 2005 parade included cleanup, police, emergency medical services and parking.

EventMakers president Darrell Stefany declined to say how much his company profits from Gasparilla, though he said the parade is its biggest event.

Because EventMakers is a private company, it does not have to reveal financial information. But Stefany said the sale of the seats, corporate tents and vending revenue are necessary to cover the $2-million cost of the parade, which attracts more than 400,000 people.

"It's very, very expensive, and it gets more expensive every year," he said. "We're very proud of what Gasparilla has become. Having some bleachers up in the right of way for a couple weeks is just what's got to happen. I wish we could put up free seats. But we can't."

Bleacher seats generate about $368,000 at $24 each (it costs $8 each to put them up). The 35 corporate tent spaces rent for $15,000 to $100,000, generating at least $525,000. Southwest Airlines also pays EventMakers for naming rights.

Most of that money goes to cover parade costs such as advertising, security, portable toilets, insurance and fireworks.

Reserved seats have long been available at the Gasparilla parade. Twenty years ago, there were about 4,500 seats. Now there are 23,000.

"There was a desire by people to have a reserved seat to come to the event as opposed to coming out at 6 or 7 in the morning for a parade that starts at 2 p.m.," Stefany said.

Corporate tents were added in the 1980s.

Corporate sponsorships, Stefany said, increasingly help defray the cost of public events.

In the wake of last year's hurricanes, New Orleans is now seeking sponsors to offset the $4.6-million cost of Mardi Gras.

"They're looking to have to do Mardi Gras the way Gasparilla is done in Tampa," Stefany said. "We're proud of what's going on. The city's proud of it. The community's proud of it. It's great that Tampa has Gasparilla."

Stefany said there are still plenty of places to see the parade for free along a 3 mile route. The same can't be said about Tampa's Halloween blowout, Guavaween. During that event, he said, entire blocks are gated and it takes a purchased ticket to get in.

Guavaween, though, benefits the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce, and the city contributes no money to stage the event.

"We pay for our city services 100 percent," said Teresa Cox Hickey, owner of CC Event Productions, which has organized Guavaween for the past 12 years.

Hickey said she has asked the city for help with the cost of Guavaween, which attracts about 80,000 people, but was told no public money was available.

"We were advised from day one if you're charging admission to your event, you will pay your own," she said. "I do not mind paying for my city services. It only becomes unfair if other events have a form of admission. Apparently they don't consider bleacher seating and corporate tents admission. I personally do."

Santiago Corrada, the city's administrator for public services, said Gasparilla is different because most people still see the parade for free.

"Guavaween is fully admission-based," he said.

In St. Petersburg, city officials several times a year close Vinoy Park to the public for special events that require tickets, such as RibFest, Taste of Pinellas and the Festival of States.

The multiday Festival of States costs the city the most, with a price tag of about $150,000. The event draws about 100,000 people and raises $20,000 for Pinellas County schools, the Pinellas County Education Foundation and college scholarships.

St. Petersburg officials considered charging rent to organizations to close city land but couldn't determine a way to fairly assess a fee, said Jacqulyn Schuett, event marketing manager for the city. The costs absorbed by the city are outweighed by the benefits of such events, she said.

"There are not-for-profit organizations that have funds that come to them through the use of the park, and they also bring other people into the city," she said. "People might come from Sarasota, or Pasco County or Hillsborough County. It makes people familiar with St. Petersburg and what we have to offer."

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio said her city's contribution to Gasparilla is worthwhile.

"The whole event is great for economic development," she said. "It's a defining festival for the community. The return is much greater than any in-kind we do."

A study commissioned by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla concluded that that 2003 parade had an economic impact of $23.2-million.

Some of that impact might include money private citizens pay to protect their property during the parade.

Susan Meade, president of the Bayshore Royal Condominium Association, said her organization spends about $1,000 every year fencing off their property and hiring security guards.

"We're more than willing to pay," Meade said.

She said she usually tries to get out of town the weekend of the parade, even if it's just to a hotel in St. Petersburg. Last year, she went to Brazil.

But many people in her condo tower enjoy going to the parade or watching it from their balconies, she said.

"It's a Tampa tradition. When I first moved down here I thought it was a wonderful thing. Of all the things that need to be worked on in the neighborhood, that is not one of them," she said.

Mostly, it's just an inconvenience for a few days.

"When you buy on Bayshore, it comes with the territory," she said.

Grunke also said he enjoys the parade, although he rarely treks to Bayshore to watch the floats.

Instead, he sits on his porch and checks out the parade of people from Carrollwood, New Tampa and other areas.

"You can see their eyes open wide when they get out and are in Hyde Park. People always yell out across the lawn to me, "Oh what a marvelous house you have,' " he said. "It's not that Hyde Park is opposed to Gasparilla, and we're not anti-Gasparilla. But it has become a commercial event at the expense of the taxpayers and the people along the Bayshore."

Janet Zink can be reached 813 226-3401 or jzink@sptimes.com

Code enforcement $6,062

EMS services $10,050

Fire watch $1,725

Parking $16,530

Park cleanup $34,428

Police $119,189

Solid waste $16,078

Street sweeping $7,368

Transportation $101,237

Total $312,667

[Last modified January 26, 2006, 01:02:16]