While the rowing community continues to express displeasure and outrage at the recently announced USRowing sponsorship deal with Nike that is believed to exclude competing vendors at association-owned regattas, some venue operators are waiting for answers on the impact to their events.
And some are considering alternatives to allow free enterprise.
"I believe this is going to have a negative effect on the LOCs (Local Operating Committees)," said Alan Stewart, Director of the Vancouver Lake Rowing Club, which is part of the Portland Vancouver Rowing Association (PVRA). The PVRA is a coalition of local clubs that will host both the Northwest Youth Championships and the Northwest Masters Championships.
"I don't believe we will have as much income as we have had in the past," Stewart said. "I think that the additional income will be reduced because any other apparel related vendors who want to come in will not be provided the access."
While some vendors and venue operators have been told the deal between Nike and USRowing is exclusive and would prohibit any company in direct competition with Nike from attending the USRowing owned regattas, one venue will not be affected.
The Oklahoma City Boathouse District will host the USRowing Central Youth Championships and has had a contact in place for months, according to Melanie Borger, OKC Director of Athletic Programs.
"I can only speak only to our specific situation," Borger said. "We have our own share of sponsors here in Oklahoma City, and these sponsorship contracts can be complicated and not clear from one situation to the next, but we have our own merchandise area that our parents put together - rowing shorts and T-shirts and things like that - and USRowing said that will not change with the Nike sponsorship.
"We had concerns and we called Friday and they said we could continue to have our own merchandise area," she added.
If that is the case in other locations, it has not yet been made clear, and regatta profits are a concern.
According to PRVA's Director of Operations, Kyle Crebar, regattas at the venue typically make "a minimal profit," and that any profit is used to improve and maintain the venue and race course. He said vendor fees are also "minimal" and run between $150 to $200 dollars, or 10 percent of the total vendor profit.
"We charge 10 percent of total sales, and if it's a $200 vendor fee and they make more than $2,000, that (upfront) fee is used toward that amount," Crebar said. "It's not anything astronomical to start out. Usually we have four to six vendors for each regatta.
"Our USRowing contact hasn't seen the (Nike sponsorship specifics), and we are taking him at his word on that. We don't know for sure who it will exclude.
"But we don't know how much money we are going to lose," he said. "We don't know who we are going to lose. One of our vendors, who does pretty well, is a sock vendor. We don't know if they are affected. So, we are questioning everything as much as everybody else is and taking a cautionary positon while we wait to hear what is in the contract."
Crebar said he is hopeful that USRowing will compensate the LOC for any lost revenues resulting from the new sponsorship. "We would hope to be made as close to whole as possible, compared to how we do at other regattas for venue fees and profits."
The ability to absorb losses from excluded vendors will vary by venue and event due to factors including venue usage costs, if there are charges for admission and parking, revenue from entry fees, and other factors. As a rule, smaller regattas and those in less populous areas tend to operate on tighter margins.
News of the sponsorship deal between USRowing and Nike was announced on social media with a telegraphic Facebook post with the comment 'Proud partners' above neighboring USRowing and Nike logos, effectively soft-launching the partnership.
The same logo was placed on USRowing's internet home page. As row2k reported earlier this week in USRowing-Nike Deal Engenders Optimism, then Consternation in Rowing Community, rumors of the agreement began circulating at the San Diego Crew Classic, and after having conversations with USRowing confirming that the terms would exclude competing vendors from attending certain USRowing regattas, Joline Esparza, founder and president of JL Racing, posted a detailed description on the company's Facebook page explaining the effect the new deal would have on the long-time rowing clothing manufacturer.
The rowing community reacted immediately with an outpouring of anger and condemnation, including over 1000 one-star reviews posted to the USRowing Facebook page in just a few days' time. Additionally, in the midst of the social media storm, the USRowing-Nike partnership deal logo was removed from the USRowing homepage.
row2k has requested detail on the terms and other aspects of the sponsorship without success to date; however, details of the still-unconfirmed deal were included in the JL Facebook post and place it at $125,000 a year. It is not certain if gear for the national team is included in that number, although recent uniform deals typically have included some cash component (often from revenue of fanwear and the like) plus the racing uniforms and gear for the national team.
Judging from interviews with vendors as of Wednesday, it is apparent that the restrictions and implications of the deal are unclear at best, in some cases even to individuals that represent USRowing.
"The president of the LOC has been talking with the USRowing Northwest Representative, and he wasn't really up to speed on any of this himself," said Stewart. "So, we're trying to figure out exactly what is coming down the pike. It may be that we can let other vendors in. That may yet come to pass, but we don't know. Our initial understanding is that no other related vendors will be allowed in."
The displeasure of having to exclude other rowing merchandise vendors, like JL, is prompting some LOC managers to seek alternatives. Stewart said that Vancouver Lake is a state-owned run park, and that any rental agreement would not include the Vancouver Rowing Association's boathouse and parking lot.
Currently, he is planning to make the parking area available to JL and any other vendors who will be excluded by the alleged terms of the deal.
"I told Joline last night that I would open up my facility to sell her goods out of," he said. "We're in the South end of the park. When a regatta is put on, the LOC rents the whole park, and we sit on park property.
"I've already talked to the Parks department and they said they don't really care. There is a parking lot on both sides of my compound and we'll set up in my parking lot and let JL, and anybody else that may want to come in, set up and sell there."
The Vancouver group is hoping that USRowing "will have a change of heart" and that all interested vendors will be allowed to come in. But they are still waiting for details of what will be allowed by USRowing, which controls all aspects of the regatta.
Other venue representatives, including Sarah Kupiec, Event and Volunteer Manager at Nathan Benderson Park, site of the 2017 USRowing Youth National Championships - one of the largest of the USRowing owned regattas - are also waiting for details of the Nike arrangement to determine which vendors will be allowed on site.
"I honestly can't tell you because I haven't heard from USRowing what the parameters of that are. But it is something we will have to look into," Kupiec said. "We do have a conference call with USRowing coming up and that will be a topic."
Nathan Benderson Park has emerged in recent years as a major event venue for rowing and other sports, and will be the host site for the 2017 World Rowing Championships. Events there typically have a large selection of vendors for food, apparel, and regatta- and rowing-related merchandise.
Kupiec added that Nathan Benderson Park said authorized vendors are determined by the contract with the organization staging the event.
"There are different contracts with the event holders and it is beyond our control," she said. "They run the event and manage which vendors come to the event. That's a USRowing decision and not something we are privy to. It's just something we will have to deal with and work around."
She said an alternative vendor location would not be allowed. "Our venue is spectator friendly and everything is set up to be in one location. It's a great location for vendors and athletes to be in one location, so going offsite is not something we would be doing.
Nathan Benderson Park vendor fees can be viewed on line and range between $150 to $600 for food and $100 to $500 for 'non-consumables.'
"It varies by event, depending on the event," she said, adding that USRowing and other venue contractors can set their own vendor fees. "If it is a USRowing event, it will say that and then they will have to work with whatever their vendors fees are."
"It will be interesting," Kupiec said. "But we will figure it out as we always do. It won't affect the racing, that's for sure."