Chamber apologizes for air show

The Hayden Chamber of Commerce is apologizing for its air show flop and is calling a special election Thursday to select a new board of directors.

In an open letter of apology, the chamber board writes that low ticket sales and insufficient sponsorship for Thunder Over the Prairie are responsible for sending the June show into a tailspin. As a result, the chamber has $130,000 in unpaid bills with only $55,000 in the bank.

Initially the chamber owed $238,000, but several creditors have forgiven the debt including one that was owed $65,000, said Scott Jamar, a board member who is acting as interim vice president until the election is held.

Jamar said he can’t disclose the creditors’ names. He also couldn’t reveal how much total revenue the chamber collected during the two-day event or how much it paid to creditors before realizing the severity of the shortfall. There was $55,000 in the bank when the chamber stopped paying its bills and hired Post Falls attorney Freeman Duncan to audit the finances. The letter said the chamber is working on a plan to distribute all the air show funds to its creditors.

“There was a lot of really good revenue but we outspent it,” Jamar said, adding that cash wouldn’t have been a problem if more paying spectators had attended the show.

Jamar said he doesn’t believe any money is missing.

“We haven’t found any evidence of tampering,” Jamar said Monday. “There wasn’t a lot of good control on the spending sides of things, and that’s particularly what got us in trouble. People have to answer to that.”

That’s why the entire 13-member board, which currently only includes eight members, is up for election. Jamar said several people have resigned in the last six months. President Randy Giddings, who was also the air show executive director, also resigned. The board supported the decision.

“We were not prepared for the magnitude of this project, and the complexities that developed as it unfolded,” the letter stated, adding that the directors offer apologies for lack of oversight, lack of preparation and lack of responsiveness in dealing with the air show.

It’s unknown exactly how many people attended the air show. Jamar said the chamber has accounted for about 13,375 stubs, but it’s impossible to figure out how many of those were paying spectators versus people who had complimentary tickets.

Regardless, 13,375 tickets are far below the 40,000-person turnout that organizers expected.

“It’s boiling down to not a lot of paying folks came through the gate and that’s what we were shocked by,” Jamar said.

As for parking, Jamar estimates that 11,025 cars were parked in the fields near the Kootenai County Airport.

Tickets prices topped out at $10 and parking was $3 a car. Adjusting for discounted tickets and freebies, if the average person paid $9, including parking, attendance would have brought in $108,000 to $180,000 based on the estimates of 12,000 to 20,000 spectators.

Bankruptcy is one option for the chamber, but Jamar said nobody wants that to happen. Instead, the chamber will try to settle with creditors and perhaps raise the money needed to pay the remaining bills.