Air/Space America Scales Back Show Amid Money and Contractor Woes

Less than a month before its second air show is scheduled to begin, Air/Space America has been forced to curtail the scope of the aerial extravaganza because of severe financial and planning problems.

The problems are so serious that some people who have worked on the show now doubt that organizers have time to prepare Brown Field for the event.

The organizers, however, say the show will go on.

“Every ounce of energy of our staff and the many volunteers working on the show is dedicated to the proposition of having a show in May,” according to a statement issued by Air/Space America executives last week.

But, with the May 4 show date fast approaching:

* Air/Space America only last week received city approval for parking and traffic plans needed before crews could start transforming Brown Field into the site of an elaborate, international air show. As a result, the organizers may be hard-pressed to complete preparations.

* At least three companies hired to help stage the trade show and to direct precision aerial exhibitions have quit, saying they have not been paid in several months. They will join a long line of creditors from Air/Space America’s initial 1988 show who are still owed more than $2.5 million.

* Some corporations that paid for exhibit space in Air/Space America’s aerospace and electronics trade show have yet to receive information packets that most such shows send out months in advance. Several exhibitors at the 1988 trade show told The Times they will skip the event in favor of other, more established trade shows.

Last week, Air/Space America executives maintained that the show is in good financial condition, based on “rescaled” plans.

Air/Space America Vice President Kay Bodkin on Friday declined to discuss specifics of the show’s finances, but she said the organization is “on target on the financial plan, which was submitted to the city.”

Air/Space America executives hoped that the event, which is scheduled to include public air shows on the weekends of May 5-6 and May 12-13 and a trade show on intervening weekdays, would erase some of the debt and bad memories generated by the ’88 show.

Like organizers of hundreds of similar events nationwide, Air/Space America hopes to raise money through ticket sales to weekend air shows featuring aerial acts by such well-known performers as the Air Force Thunderbirds, a precision flying team.

Unlike most air shows, Air/Space America also plans to host a trade show in which aerospace and electronics companies exhibit their wares to potential buyers. The organizers charge exhibitors for space and collect entry fees from visitors.

But some observers believe that Air/Space America is repeating mistakes made in 1988, when show managers raced to complete Brown Field in time for the show. That year, spectators endured traffic jams and parking problems. Participants complained that the exposition lacked adequate air conditioning and sanitary facilities. And organizers lost a mountain of money.

A show spokesman acknowledged that only 163 exhibitors have signed on for this year’s show, far fewer than the 450 who bought space in 1988, but “more are being added every day,” said Bodkin, who predicted that the show will draw 350 exhibitors, “all of them paid.”

But some exhibitors and contractors questioned whether Air/Space America can surmount financial difficulties left over from 1988.

The city of San Diego, uncertain about its liabilities, withdrew the organization’s 1990 show permit, along with $300,000 in transit occupancy taxes earmarked to market the show. The permit was reissued, however, after vigorous lobbying by former Congressman Bob Wilson, founder and chairman of Air/Space America. Council members, with Bob Filner as the lone dissenter, also reinstated the $300,000.

The city did require Air/Space America to secure a surety bond that protects the city in the event of damage to the field or financial losses. It also established checkpoints that Air/Space America has, for the most part, met, city officials said.

After a recent meeting with Air/Space America, Mike Tussey, manager of city-owned Brown Field, said that “they have chosen to reduce the scope of improvements (needed at Brown Field) and the size of their show. . . . They’re talking scale-back time.”

Bodkin said the scaled-down show excludes one large exhibit tent that was called for in the original plan. The tent will not be needed, she said, because the show will not attract the expected 450 exhibitors.

With just weeks to go before the show, some creditors are threatening legal action against the show’s management and the city.

Air/Space America “is broke; they don’t pay people,” said Chuck Hoover, president of an Arizona-based company that Wednesday stopped providing services for show organizers “because of non-payment of their contractual obligations to us.” Hoover said his company was hired in November to direct the aerial performances.

Hoover said Friday that, if payment is not forthcoming by midweek, he will turn the matter over to his attorney. “I’d like to do the show, but I can’t afford to if I’m not going to get paid.”

“Without knowing what’s going on inside, it looks like a repeat of the mismanagement that occurred two years ago,” Councilman Filner said. “The airport preparations seem to be behind schedule, the number of exhibitors is down considerably from last time, and I’m not at all confident about their management.”

“It’s very disappointing that all future shows (in San Diego) might be in jeopardy for what amounts to be a lack of sound business practices,” he said.

At Brown Field, a small tractor has cleared weeds from one part of the field that will house a portion of Air/Space America’s show. The only evidence of the event is a promotional sign posted near a gate on the south side of the field.

In coming weeks, Air/Space America must grade other parts of the field, install utilities, pave show areas, set up bleachers and install luxurious chalets for the corporate sponsors.

Bob Stellman, general manager of Rock Paving & Grading, the El Cajon contractor that has agreed to prepare the field, last week estimated it will take about 15 days to complete that work. Crews are scheduled to begin work next week, he said.

Air show executives are still trying to book performers to fill the skies over Brown Field during the two weekend shows. The Thunderbirds will perform during the first weekend, but Air/Space America has yet to book a high-profile jet team for the second weekend, and military spokesmen said groups such as the Thunderbirds book shows months in advance.

Executives of several companies that are owed money by Air/Space America now wonder if the show can proceed as planned.

Air/Space America has evidently lost the services of Epic Enterprises, a San Diego-based company that was hired in August to help manage the show’s planned 10-day trade exposition. Epic “hasn’t done any specific work in the last couple of months . . . (because) we haven’t been paid in several months,” said Howard Schwartz, the company’s president.

Epic usually needs about 12 months to prepare for a show of the size and scope of Air/Space America, Schwartz said. The show spokesman said Epic’s duties are now being handled by volunteers and staff personnel.

Air/Space America is also operating without Greyhound Exposition, a company that helped run the 1988 trade show. Greyhound has “not done any work recently,” said Mark Anderson, Greyhound spokesman. He declined to comment on the firm’s role in the show, citing potential legal action against Air/Space America.

Air/Space America did not renew its affiliation with the American Electronics Assn., a trade organization that played an integral role in marketing the 1988 show and exposition. About a third of the 350 companies represented at that show were AEA members.

“We were helping them do a job, primarily functioning as a sales agent (for the 1988 show) to the electronics industry,” said John Baumeister, vice president of conferences and new ventures for the organization. “We’ve not been involved with this particular show, and I’m not up to speed on how things are going.”

Some of Air/Space America’s problems can be traced to a continuing management shuffle that began shortly after the 1988 show, when former President Bill Walsh, a retired Navy admiral who directed the troubled first show, was replaced by a new team that included Robert McHenry as president.

McHenry, who was unavailable for comment, left early this year, shortly before contractors stopped working. The most recent departure was by Doug Blaylock, the Air/Space America official in charge of site preparation. Blaylock declined to comment on his departure, and an Air/Space America spokesman said Blaylock’s duties have been assigned to staff members and volunteers.

Bodkin acknowledged that the show has management problems. But she maintained that the current staff has “every intention” of fulfilling its contractual obligations.

Some veteran exhibitors questioned whether that staff has the expertise to improve the quality of the show.

“No one has asked us to exhibit,” said a frustrated executive of one company that paid $25,000 to become a sponsor of the 1988 show. “They’ve not communicated with us,” said the defense industry executive, who asked not to be identified. “We’ve not heard a word from them.”

“The (show) information hasn’t been as available as for some of the other shows,” said Bob King, director of corporate development for San Diego-based Science Application International, which contributed $25,000 to the initial show.

Bodkin said an information packet will be mailed out early this week.

But company executives say that information is woefully late.

“We haven’t heard anything about where to ship exhibits,” said Howard Ruggles, a district manager in San Diego for Hughes Aircraft Co.

Hughes might not exhibit at the show, despite the fact that it theoretically has $80,000 in credit with Air/Space America because of its $100,000 donation to the 1988 show. (The $100,000 payment corporations made to join the “Founders Club” was to be used in $20,000 installments during the first five shows.)

Aerojet General, which made a $100,000 contribution to the original Air/Space America show in 1980, has made “an absolute decision not to exhibit at the show,” said Tom Ellick, a spokesman for Aerojet, which last year moved its corporate headquarters to Sacramento from La Jolla. Aerojet will instead focus on other, more established aerospace trade shows worldwide, Ellick said.

San Diego-based Cubic Corp., like other companies contacted, has yet to receive an information packet. “We spent $25,000 (two years ago), but we haven’t made a decision on whether to exhibit yet” at the 1990 show, said Jerry Ringer, Cubic spokesman. “It’s not our intention, as far as I know, to go beyond the $25,000 we spent two years ago.”

Ferranti Signal International, a Pennsylvania-based company that contributed $100,000 to the initial show, probably will not return in May. Although Ferranti has credit in its account with Air/Space America, the company has been beset by internal problems and will probably not attend, said Richard Metz, Ferranti spokesman.

Still, Ferranti “never did get any kind of package which you’d normally get from a show organizer,” Metz said. “We have had a couple of people call us, but they’ve never sent us the rules, regulations and that sort of thing.”

Aerospace industry executives said Air/Space America’s upcoming show must be wildly successful if it is to compete against two new trade shows.

A 16-year-old public air show in Dayton, Ohio, which for the past eight years has included a regional trade show, recently unveiled plans for a $7-million facility to house the “United States Air and Trade Show.” Dayton show organizers plan to slowly build the trade exposition in the coming decade, a spokesman said, adding that funding for the facility will be “private.”

And Abbotsford, a small town near Vancouver in British Columbia, last year unveiled “Airshow Canada,” a trade exposition that ran in tandem with a weekend air show created 30 years ago.

Unlike Air/Space America, both of those shows are operated by experienced management teams that have won government backing, observers said. The Dayton show, for example, is strongly supported by the local government and Chamber of Commerce. The Abbotsford show has financial backing from British Columbia and the Canadian government.

Air/Space America’s 1988 show, which was marred by hot, dusty conditions, failed to impress many aerospace industry executives.

A spokesman for United Technologies, one of the nation’s largest military and commercial jet engine manufacturers, described it as “a very local or perhaps regional air show. . . . They’re obviously starting 16 years behind Dayton.”

“I think I’ve gotten more information from the Dayton air show,” said King of Science Application International, who acknowledged that his local company could conceivably wait until the day before the show to set up its exhibit.

“If I were an East Coast company, I would have to consider not participating because we wouldn’t be assured that it was going to happen,” he said.