“We slept on it for a couple of nights, and we said, ‘You know, we can do it,’” Executive Director Terry Grevious said in a new interview.
U.S. Air and Trade Show Inc. board members ratified the decision in a special meeting May 17.
“It was a big relief, immediately,” said Scott Buchanan, chairman of the non-profit organization’s board.
Tim Gaffney, a pilot, longtime air show watcher and former show board member, likened the feat to executing “two 180-degree turns” in a short time.
“It’s not easy to completely reorganize an air show like that,” Gaffney said.
The CenterPoint Energy Dayton Air Show Presented by Kroger returns July 10 and 11 to Dayton International Airport, headlined by the Air Force Thunderbirds and a string of familiar acts — the U.S. Navy Super Hornet and Legacy Flight demonstration team, the Air Force C-17 Globemaster III demonstration team, the U.S. Army Golden Knights, the AeroShell Aerobatic team, the Shockwave truck, more than 50 “static” airplanes on 120 acres and more.
The Dayton area appears to have responded.
Grevious and Buchanan said ticket sales as of late June were close to normal. Pavilion ticket sales were up more than 10% compared to a more “normal” year. Even pricier Blue Sky Chalet sales were up 15%.
Those sales can be seen as bellwethers for the event as a whole, Grevious believes.
“We feel good about it right now,” he said.
‘Accumulated demand’
Dayton’s identity is wrapped up with its place in aviation history, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — and a long affinity for flight demonstrations, said Gaffney, a former Dayton Daily News reporter who covered the show for decades.
In fact, the local appreciation for air shows goes all the way back to 1910, when the Wright Brothers refined powered, piloted flight above Huffman Prairie, Gaffney said.
There wasn’t a “show” then in the modern sense, but investors and residents did line the road along the prairie watching those early flights.
“It’s the way the community celebrates our aviation heritage and the aviation industry we have here that supports the economy,” Gaffney said. “It’s kind of unique for Dayton.”
The local air show organization would have been hard pressed to endure a second straight summer without its signature event.
In June last year, some three months after COVID first sunk its claws into the United States, show leaders reluctantly announced the first cancellation of the show since its founding in 1975. A postponement had initially been announced in April 2020.
The announcement closed the door on an event the Dayton-Montgomery County Convention and Visitors Bureau says adds $2.32 million to the local economy each year (a figure based on the 2019 show).
“There were simply too many unanswered questions significantly increasing the risk of not being able to produce a safe and successful show for the community,” Buchanan said in 2020.
Jacquelyn Powell, a show board member as well as president and chief executive of the local Convention and Visitors Bureau, credits Grevious and his team for quick adaptability.
There’s almost certainly an economic impact attached to the show beyond the $2.32 million in direct spending, Powell said.
“There are a lot of things that call attention to our community because of this big event happening,” she said. “It has a very good draw, and it’s great family entertainment.”
Tough to survive
The pandemic forced similar air show cancellations across the nation.
One show that usually flies in mid-spring was cancelled last year and possibly this year, as well. Such events could conceivably go from the spring of 2019 to the spring of 2022 with zero revenue, said John Cudahy, president of the International Council of Air Shows.
That’s tough to survive, Cudahy added.
“For sure, if we had had another year when the air show business was completely closed, we would have lost 15 to 20% of the shows (nationally) at a minimum,” he said.
But the health of the business right now isn’t necessarily the future, he added.
Cudahy sees reason for cheer. Today’s appetite for air shows and other live events he attributes to the “accumulated demand” of 15 months without such events.
“Everybody who would have gone to any event last year still wants to go to some event,” he said. “And all of a sudden, you open the gates, and you say, ‘OK: Now you can.’”
He added: “It’s understandably going to be a rush.”
“You’re seeing people get back out and wanting to do more,” Buchanan said.
Air shows in the past few weeks appear be enjoying “big numbers,” Cudahy said. It was all but impossible to get a hotel room for the OC Air Show in Ocean City, Md. on the weekend of June 19-20, he said.
Although they are non-profits, these shows need to operated with a close eye on expenses and revenue.
“We are a self-sufficient small business,” Grevious said. “Anything we spend, we have to make.”
Before the health orders were lifted, Dayton’s show leaders in late March announced a new format for the 2021 event — doing away with the array of “static” parked airplanes, trading a “county fair” atmosphere for a tailgate-style “drive-in” format for guests. Visitors would be able to watch flights, but only from within or close to vehicles.
Then government orders were lifted, and that opened the door to a traditional show, the first since the summer of 2019. In mid-May, with COVID numbers plummeting in what seemed to be a sustained way, Gov. Mike DeWine declared he would lift the state’s array of health orders June 2.
The resulting domino effect was swift. Great American Ballpark returned to full capacity for Cincinnati Reds games. Kroger lifted its mask mandate May 19. Soon restaurants and other businesses were electing not to enforce face covering requirements.
The outdoor nature of the show also assisted in the decision to restore the show’s normal format, leaders said.
Today, the Dayton show is small but financially solvent, its leaders say. Thanks to some 1,000 volunteers and a list of for steady sponsors, the show is in the black and retains a fund balance, Grevious said.
“Our business model would not function without sponsors,” he said.
Grevious declined to say what that fund balance currently is, but the show has a $1.6 million annual budget. The organization has only a few paid employees.
Challenges now include finding employees for crucial vendors — shuttle drivers and workers to raise tents, mow lawns and handle other tasks. Grevious said the show is working through those issues.
Tickets for the 2021 CenterPoint Energy Dayton Air Show Presented by Kroger are on sale at www.daytonairshow.com. They may also be purchased at more than 100 Kroger stores in the Dayton and Cincinnati regions.
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