Great Park balloon funds sought
The Irvine City Council wrestled Tuesday with how to pay the operating costs of a 75-foot-diameter helium balloon that will hover over the future Great Park and that is projected to run a $500,000 annual deficit.
The tethered passenger balloon will rise 500 feet above the old El Toro Marine base for the first time July 14 and will continue to operate four days a week after that, at a cost of $1.6 million a year.
But as the launch date looms, Irvine officials are considering using sponsorships, admission tickets and concessions to keep the orange balloon, envisioned as the iconic centerpiece of the park, aloft financially.
Under current plans, Irvine would charge adults $20 to ride the balloon after a free period that will last between a weekend and six months. But even with a 50,000 riders a year, the city would need to find more than $500,000 in additional revenue to break even.
Late Tuesday, the council voted unanimously to pursue advertising options with Lennar Corp. that will be used as a template for future sponsorships with others.
“The launching of the balloon is really the launching of the Great Park itself,” said Larry Agran, mayor pro tempore and chairman of the Great Park board.
Agran said he supported offering free rides for the first six months. “By not initially charging families and individuals ... in a way we will be creating a corps, an army really, of citizen ambassadors, who will tell people what they saw 500 feet below,” he said.
But some Irvine officials have questioned the wisdom of spending so much on the balloon before it has proved it can attract visitors.
“I have serious doubts that until the park is fully developed and people will come for other purposes, the balloon won’t attract second visits,” said Councilman Steven Choi.
The anticipated deficit has led the council to consider other ways of recouping operating costs, including selling advertising on the balloon or the gondola, charging for parking, and planting sponsored flower beds in the shape of corporate logos in the 5-acre park that will surround the launch site.
The city has estimated it could make $95,000 a year charging for parking, $150,000 a year for logo-plantings and $250,000 a year selling a banner ad on the equator of the balloon.
But several council members have expressed concerns about the first manifestation of the public park looking overly commercial.
In a Great Park board meeting this month, Mayor Beth Krom said she wanted the balloon to be a “beautiful orange orb hovering above the landscape.” She said she would not support an advertisement on its surface but was willing to look into small ads on the gondola.
Agran has called ads on the balloon itself “a big turnoff.”
Much of the money the Great Park Corp. will spend on the balloon will come from fees paid to the city by Lennar Corp., which is building hundreds of homes around the future park. Lennar bought the $1-million balloon as a gift to the city and has pledged to sponsor it for $300,000 annually for its first three years.
Choi, who cast the only vote opposing the balloon contract earlier this year, said “to subsidize private pleasure with public money for six months would be excessive.”
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Up in the air
Visitors to Irvine’s Great Park will be able to float 500 feet in the air aboard a tethered helium balloon starting in mid-July. Passengers will be able to ride free of charge at first, then the cost will be $20 for adults and $13 for children.
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Balloon: 74 feet in diameter, filled with helium
Pilot: Controls craft from gondola
Gondola: Enclosed in safety netting; holds up to 30 adults.
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Source: Orange County Great Park, Irvine, Aerophile
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