Surf City’s newly elected conservative majority says the city’s recent settlement of more than $5.4 million with the annual Pacific Airshow, which has brought millions of visitors from around the world since 2016, was necessary because of the event’s tremendous positive impact on the local economy.
Mayor Tony Strickland told The Epoch Times the city would have had a “huge budget hole” had the show—a spectacular of military and civilian flight demonstrations—not continued.
“When you get that kind of event here it helps us fund essential services like parks, road maintenance, and road construction. It’s an unbelievable three-day event,” he said.
Some of the organizer’s disputes with the city erupted in 2021, after the show’s final day was called off due to an oil spill where 25,000 gallons of crude oil was leaked through a cracked pipeline into the ocean.
Attorneys for the event filed a lawsuit against the city later that year arguing doing such was a breach of contract, and harmful to the show’s relationships with its vendors amid other concerns.
During a May 9 press conference, city leaders announced an agreement to settle the city’s portion of the lawsuit.
The city will pay $5 million to the Pacific Air Show, waive $195,000 in fees owed from the 2021 show, and refund an additional $149,000 in fees from last year’s event in the form of a credit, according to city officials.
A payment of $1,999,000 is required by July 31 or earlier, and $500,000 is due by Jan. 30, 2024 and for each of the following five years.
According to the settlement agreement, up to an additional $2 million could also be dished out in related funds if the city files its own lawsuit against Amplify Energy—the pipeline operator involved in the oil spill, which mostly affected Huntington Beach.
Strickland said he believes if it wasn’t for the efforts of the recently elected “Fab Four”—the council’s conservative majority, which also includes Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark and councilors Pat Burns and Casey McKeon—the Air Show would have been canceled indefinitely.
“It was already gone. The organizer was done dealing with the city,” he said. “We brought him back to the table, and we resolved the conflict.”
Strickland pointed to a study facilitated by Visit Huntington Beach over last year’s air show, which demonstrated “astronomical” financial benefits the event brought to the city, which he said shows the importance of continuing the yearly event.
According to the study conducted by Destination Analysts—a market research company for travel and tourism—the Air Show generated $70.4 million in direct spending in 2022 and attracted 690,000 attendees.
Of the total visitors, 520,000 were from outside of Huntington Beach and 91 percent were return visitors specifically because of the show.
The show’s organizer told The Epoch Times the event’s survival in Huntington Beach has been challenged in recent years.
“The last few years have been very challenging dealing with the prior [city] council, who were very unfriendly towards business, and certainly very unfriendly towards the air show,” said Kevin Elliot, CEO of Code Four, the company which organizes the show.
Additionally, the lawsuit argued the previous city council voted last September to stop offsetting some of the event’s costs through parking fees as was done in previous years, which Elliot said was an act of punishment for the organizer’s “voicing concerns over the cancellation.”
“The city always increased the parking on air show weekend. It’s just rather than using that incremental revenue to help offset some of the public safety costs last year, the city opted to keep the money instead,” Elliot said.
A lifelong resident of Huntington Beach, Elliot got involved as an investor and vendor in 2017 for the show and took it over fully in 2018.
“I’ve taken this event on to originally save it and then ultimately grow it and keep it in our community because it’s a great local driver of economic benefit,” he said. “Luckily for us, the residents elected new leadership in the city, and they are very supportive of the air show.”
Elliot said he was pleased the current council decided to stay true to previous years’ negotiations and offset some costs through parking fees, which will save the show at least $110,000 for its “Special Event Permit” fee.
“I am very happy that we were able to make it all work,” he said.
Councilors Dan Kalmick, Natalie Moser, and Rhonda Bolton—who are the city’s longest-standing councilors and part of the criticized previous council—did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
According to Strickland, the show has also helped unite the city with local leaders in Australia, who have been planning to host similar events.
“Government dignitaries from Australia were here [last year] at the air show, and it gives us energy for us to be working with [a city] in Australia … as a city here in Huntington Beach,” the mayor said.
After working up a deal for the past few years, the Pacific Airshow will debut from Aug. 18 to 20 in Gold Coast, a coastal city in the state of Queensland, Australia.
In Huntington Beach, tickets will be on sale starting June 1, and the show will run from Sept. 29 through Oct. 1, featuring the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, Canadian Forces Snowbirds, and an F-22 Raptor demonstration team, which is part of the Air Force and joining the event this year for the first time.
The full list lineup has yet to be released.
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