Huntington Beach locks in Pacific Airshow for 10 years with options for 25
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The Huntington Beach City Council approved an agreement
Tuesday that will keep the Pacific Airshow in the city for up to 25 years.
The 6-1 vote granted show operators exclusive rights for 10 years followed by three five-year options.
The city is waiving permitting costs and will pay for additional public safety personnel over the three-day event.
Also approved was a city-funded environmental impact report that included an acknowledgement of the show’s projected impacts on air quality, as well as possible issues with emergency evacuations and noise from a proposed concurrent music festival.
The agreement should help bring to a close a dispute between the show operator and City Hall. Pacific Airshow LLC owner Kevin Elliott sued the city following an oil spill in 2021 that forced cancellation of the final day of the event. The full settlement agreement, which was signed in May 2023 but kept under wraps for more than a year by former City Atty. Michael Gates, paid the Pacific Airshow $4.9 million over six years.
That agreement also would have allowed event management company Code Four to continue producing the show for up to 40 years.
“We always were hopeful that we’d be able to negotiate better terms than that settlement agreement, which we’ve done,” Mayor Pro Tem Casey McKeon said. “Instead of the 40 years, it’s 25. Instead of the 3,500 parking spaces, it’s actually closer to 3,000 with more defined parking areas, which is critical.”
Under the agreement, organizers will receive all event-related revenue from parking at city lots and camping spaces until 2031. At that point, the city will retain at least $10 per parking space and $100 per camping space sold by the Pacific Airshow, an amount that will increase annually by the rate of the Consumer Price Index, a common measure of inflation.
McKeon called the air show the premiere event of its kind on the West Coast.
“Now it can be built to be so much more robust, with potential sponsorships,” he said. “We’ve even talked about creating an aviation convention during that week of the air show.”
Elliott, who attended the council meeting but did not address the dais, said in a followup interview that he considered the agreement a good financial outcome for both parties.
“It puts the air show on a firm footing,” he said. “I got involved with the air show in 2017, in the second year, and really helped it, because it was already distressed. I ultimately took it over going into 2018, when I re-branded it as the Pacific Airshow.
“The air show has had a lot of headwinds. It sort of started on a wobbly foundation, I came in and tried to fix it, and we had COVID, and the oil spill, all these issues. I think now, we’re in a place where the event can really grow. It’s a really great thing.”
The California Coastal Commission got on board last month, approving a five-year coastal development permit, albeit with 21 special conditions that operators must follow to mitigate impacts on natural resources and beach access.
Councilman Chad Williams cast the lone dissenting vote, saying he doubted a 2022 economic impact report that estimated the air show was responsible for $120.7 million.
“There’s so many numbers that we do not know, but we can know if we simply just go and do an audit,” the former U.S. Navy SEAL said. “If we get an economist to go and do the numbers, we can audit these precise numbers.”
The report found the show generated $3.7 million in tax and assessment revenues, which Williams also picked apart, saying the $700,000 in hotel occupancy taxes included the surrounding area, not just Huntington Beach.
“We don’t really know what we are receiving off the hotels,” he said. “I love the air show. I love Kevin Elliott, and I think he should be made whole for what happened, but I cannot sign off on a 25-year term like this, let alone a 40-year term. Who’s doing the negotiating here?”
Williams made a substitute motion for a one-year deal with plans to fully negotiate a 25-year contract following a stronger review of the economic impact and the settlement of the litigation. That motion failed 5-2, with only Williams and Councilman Butch Twining in favor.
Councilman Don Kennedy estimated that the air show would cost the public at least $1 million in the near future — $300,000 for police and fire department support, $200,000 for fee waivers and $500,000 for the legal settlement.
Still, he saw the benefits of hotel and sales taxes and the spending power of an estimated 700,000 annual visitors.
“Just pure dollars, I would imagine we could trace at least $1,000,001 back to the general fund,” Kennedy said. “So, that’s a profit.”
Additionally, Elliot said he wanted to move on from criticism that cast the show as political. Each of the currently elected council members have used Code Four to print campaign materials, according to campaign finance disclosures.
Code Four also produced a rally for the so-called “Fab Four” — Mayor Pat Burns, McKeon, Councilwoman Gracey Van Der Mark and now-state Senator Tony Strickland — days before the 2022 City Council election.
Elliott said he never donated to the council members’ campaigns, though he publicly supported the ticket which pledged to save the air show.
“They’ve paid for everything they’ve ever asked us to do,” Elliott said. “Every sign they’ve printed, they’ve paid for. I understand that some people may not like that, but there’s nothing wrong with it, right?
“… I’m supposed to turn away business and revenue that helps to feed the families of Code Four for political reasons? That doesn’t make any sense.”
This year’s Pacific Airshow is scheduled for Oct. 3-5.
