AIRSHOW COSTS ARE REVEALED
CALLS FOR COUNCIL TO BE MORE ‘COMMERCIALLY-SAVVY’ AS FIGURES RELEASED
Councillors have called on city leaders to be more “commercially-savvy” after it was revealed that less than £5,000 in sponsorship was generated from this year’s Sunderland International Airshow.
The 29th annual event took place in July with hundreds of thousands of people going along to see various air displays across the three-day extravaganza.
Officers have calculated that Sunderland City Council spent more than £611,890 to put on the airshow, with more than £193,289 brought in through trade and exhibition income, hospitality and parking charges.
Just £4,500 of the income came from sponsorship, however.
The figures were revealed by officers in a presentation to the council’s Scrutiny Committee, which stated that hosting the airshow had a total economic impact of £15million, with one in five visitors staying overnight.
Council chiefs say that they “actively” sought sponsorship for the Airshow and welcome any further interest in other events such as next year’s Tall Ships Race, before adding that they face competition from other local authorities.
An estimated 400,000 to 500,000 visitors attended the airshow, with a total of eight flying hours and 18 separate flying displays put on from teams including the RAF Falcons, the Tigers Parachute Display Team and the Red Arrows.
Conservative councillors in the city said today that more needs to be done to encourage companies to pay for sponsorship and reduce the cost to the council of staging the popular event.
Coun Robert Oliver, Tory leader, cited Durham’s Lumiere light festival as an example.
He said: “The council needs to become more commercially savvy and bring in more revenue through these events, as too often they are almost entirely underwritten by the taxpayer.
“Events such as the Airshow, the illuminations and the running festival are successfully attracting visitors from outside the city who are then spending in local businesses.
“But other councils have made more of these opportunities such as Durham, which has secured a long list of local and national sponsors for the Lumiere Festiva.”
The cost of the flying programme was £51,211, with emergency costs £115,392 and traffic management £72,089.
Putting a park and ride service on for visitors to use cost £19,633, while stewarding and casual event staff costs were priced at £56,506.
Additional safety measures cost £56,173, while the impact of the wet weather on the park and ride and programme sales was calculated at £15,722.
Research carried out since this year’s Airshow took place found that 99 per cent of visitors said they would return to Sunderland while 43 per cent said they believe the city delivers events that are worth returning for. Sunderland City Council’s portfolio holder for culture Councillor John Kelly said: “We actively seek private sponsorship for all our signature events including the annual Sunderland Airshow and Illuminations and next year’s Tall Ships, as was discussed at the Scrutiny Committee.
“Sunderland City Council is proud of its success in hosting and staging largescale events which are enjoyed by residents and visitors alike, bring millions of pounds into the local and regional economy and showcase the city to the world, but face continued economic pressure in delivering them with the decreasing budgets available.
“The council already works with a range of community and business partners to explore alternative ways of funding events including private sponsorship.”