Miss America group logs a $1.7-million loss

The Miss America Organization lost $1.7 million last year, its fiscal fortunes plunging due to lower television revenue, according to the annual tax return of the organization that stages the struggling beauty pageant.

The pageant, which cited fiscal troubles last week in announcing plans to leave Atlantic City after 84 years, took in $3.2 million from ABC in 2004, compared with $5.6 million the year before.

The network had negotiated a lower payment because of the pageant’s falling ratings. It dropped the annual telecast entirely last October.

The Miss America Organization’s net assets dipped to $3.6 million, from $5.7 million the year before, according to the organization’s tax return, which was released Thursday.

The pageant has since signed with Country Music Television and will hold its next pageant in January, though no location for the pageant has yet been announced. The organization is entertaining offers for a new venue and might take to the road permanently, airing from a new city each year.

The tax return offers evidence of the dire fiscal picture that Art McMaster, CEO of the Miss America Organization, painted last week when he surprised Atlantic City officials by asking to be released from the final two years of the pageant’s five-year contract at Boardwalk Hall.

He said the pageant could save up to $1 million by moving to a new venue, between reduced telecast production costs and site fees potentially offered by a new location.