Weather hinders Spring Fling profits, ability to repay UA loan

Leigh-Anne Brown Arizona Daily Wildcat ASUA's Spring Fling, held on the McKale Lawn, was canceled Thursday and Sunday. The 25th annual carnival, scheduled to be a four-day event, was unable to raise enough funds to fully repay its loan the UA budget office.

"It's unlikely that the entire loan will be able to be paid back," said Spring Fling's Director Chantelle Brewer, adding that profit statistics are unavailable.

Harsh weather forced Associated Students officials to shut down Spring Fling on Thursday and Sunday, and profits from the other two days will be insufficient to repay the loan.

Brewer said the University of Arizona loans Spring Fling $190,000 each year. The UA budget office, however, agrees to forgive the debt if the carnival does not collect that figure in ticket sales.

If the carnival opened on each of it's four scheduled days, "we would have profited more than we did last year," Brewer said.

Almost 18,000 people passed through the gates on Friday and Saturday, and predicted attendance would have broken prior carnival records with seasonable weather, she said.

The rainstorms also damaged the carnival's grounds and equipment - including the "Mardi Gras" exhibition, Brewer said.

"We had booths that were totally blown over and standing water on the field," she said. "The winds were so strong and the water started hitting the booths and blowing stuff over."

Despite the inclement weather, Brewer said the event was profitable for participating UA clubs and organizations.

"Revenue for those two days was incredible," Brewer said. "The clubs did fairly well considering the two days of rain."

But some club members who worked at one of the carnival's 50 booths disagreed.

Jessica Thompson, president of the Honors Student Association and an architecture junior, said the group broke even, making between $20 and $50 by selling caramel apples.

She said the association brought in about $500 last year.

"If we made anything it was minimal," Thompson said. "That seems to be the consensus - that most clubs broke even."

Rob Meadows, president of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, said the group "lost about half" of its predicted earnings because of poor weather and the cancellations.

But Daryl Nauman, Wildcat Habitat for Humanity president, supported the two-day closure.

"It was pretty miserable," he said. "I don't think it would have been worthwhile."

Brewer said she has not received any complaints about the cancellations.

"I haven't heard any disputes - no one has come to me and asked, 'why didn't we open'," Brewer said. "Every year, there's some type of weather issue. Any outside carnival would take a hit with weather like this."

Brewer also said refund requests are being handled on an individual basis.

"We have a no-refund policy so we'll go on a case-by-case basis," she said. "At this point, no refunds have been granted."