SVRA: Operating losses force Coronado Speed Festival's discontinuation

After 19 years, the high cost of operating the Coronado Speed Festival in San Diego is forcing the cancellation of the event after its organizer, the nonprofit San Diego Fleet Week Foundation, was pushed to the brink of insolvency.

The foundation ran the Speed Festival as part of San Diego Fleet Week, an annual celebration of troops and their families and presents at which the festival was its cornerstone event. But The San Diego Union-Tribune reports it has suffered huge losses since 2014, with the Speed Festival causing its biggest deficits. The foundation is broke and negotiating with creditors to settle debts.

Recently hired executive director Larry Blumberg told the Union-Tribune that the "vast majority of our vendors have graciously agreed to the settlement" that Fleet Week's board offered to liquidate its debts, with advisory board member and food vendor Lisa Richards saying she hoped other vendors would "put this behind us and stay committed to Fleet Week." Blumberg believes Fleet Week should be solvent in 2017 and will continue with some events in mid-October minus the Speed Festival.

An analysis of records by the Union-Tribune shows the Speed Festival lost $333,754 between 2007 – when the foundation began charting Speed Festival's revenues and expenses – and 2016, and lost money in six of those nine years, compounded by the fact that title sponsor Chrysler dropped its sponsorship in 2007 and a replacement sponsor was never found. But Blumberg said organizers wanted to keep it as a marquee event for Fleet Week.

"The vintage-car guys (were) convinced this is in the best interests of the sailors and Marines," he said. "They're putting on a show and you talk about sailors and cars and Marines and cars and stuff like that, and they think that's important.

Public filings the foundation submitted to the IRS show that foundation expenses exceed revenue in most years since the group was founded in 2001. It attracted between 20,000 and 25,000 spectators, but 10,000 of them were military families admitted free of charge.

Several sponsors, such as Navy Federal Credit Union, Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman will continue to provide financial support, Blumberg said.

The SVRA received notice in November that the 2017 Speed Festival would not be able to take place. The Naval Base Coronado executive officer citied ongoing construction, including runway and taxiway repairs at North Island Naval Base.

"I cannot articulate how much this event resonates within me personally, and throughout the racing community," said Tony Parella, SVRA president and CEO. "We are hopeful and optimistic that we may continue the Coronado Speed Festival's great racing traditions in 2018."