Eight months ago, the nonprofit that runs San Diego’s Fleet Week was drowning in red ink and shouting for help to plug the funding gap.

But changes in board and executive leadership, a fiscal diet, an influx of corporate donations and a timely loan from the California Credit Union righted the ship and it’s full steam ahead for the annual celebration of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

Fleet Week San Diego 2017 is slated to run Oct. 11 to 17. It will feature an evening USO Concert headlined by country singer Tim Hurley at Embarcadero Marina Park, a parade of warships and aircraft across San Diego Bay, tours of the Coast Guard’s cutter Midgett and the Navy’s amphibious transport dock Anchorage and a Qualcomm-sponsored “innovation zone” of robots, drone races and high-tech military hardware.

“Nonprofits have to be on a sound fiscal footing or they get into trouble,” said Larry Blumberg, the retired Navy captain dragooned late last year to helm Fleet Week for $1 annually. “We won’t do anything unless we can pay for it. That’s the way we are now.”


Once the annual celebration’s cornerstone event, the Coronado Speed Festival vintage auto race is gone from this year’s program. It lost $333,754 between 2007 and 2015, helping to trigger a $147,157 shortfall at the San Diego Fleet Week Foundation by the end of 2015, according to Fleet Week’s most recently audited financial figures.

“We put together a settlement plan with our vendors and suppliers and we made an offer to every one of them and the vast, vast majority of them have accepted it and settled with us, which allowed us to move on,” Blumberg said. “It was all part of the get-well plan.”

Two unnamed creditors were contacted by the foundation and remain unpaid, according to Blumberg. He hopes they’ve decided to write off what was owed to them at the end of Fleet Week 2016.

After compressing all Fleet Week events into seven days designed to spotlight active duty Marines, sailors and Coast Guardsmen, Blumberg capped the foundation’s annual spending on events and office overhead at $500,000, the lowest sum the organization has spent since 2002, according to the nonprofit’s federal financial filings.


The San Diego Bowl Game Association, organizers of the Holiday Bowl, became his model for rebuilding Fleet Week, Blumberg said. A former board member of both charities, Blumberg said that Fleet Week volunteers now act not merely as fundraisers but also ambassadors who manage key events during the celebration.

Funding flowed in from defense contractors and local authorities,such as the Port of San Diego, which donated both cash and in-kind help, according to Blumberg.

This year’s top sponsors include global aviation giant Lockheed Martin, Qualcomm, General Atomics, Cubic, the USS Midway Museum and Leidos, the spinoff of Virginia-based Science Applications International Corp., he said.

Title sponsorships for events like the Concert in the Park start at $25,000 but Fleet Week is still collecting $5,000 donations to help host the Navy Drill Team and rent school buses to transport the children of military families to the Innovation Zone.


Blumberg wants more local companies to give at least $1,000 to buy tickets for troops to watch San Diego State take on the Boise State Broncos at the Fleet Week Football Classic on Oct. 14.

Blumberg wants incoming donations to pay off the line of credit and then stockpile reserve funds to run the office through April, when staffers start planning Fleet Week 2018.

“Our books say that we can cover the events we have planned,” Blumberg said. “But here’s a caveat. That doesn’t mean that we can turn the lights on, pay the rent, keep this operation going into the next year.”

Much of the assistance to Fleet Week continues to come from the armed forces, not the private sector. Blumberg credited Navy Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, commander of the Point Loma-based Third Fleet, for not only prodding the charity to become a more disciplined organization that focuses on the troops but also for ordering an expeditionary strike group to help orchestrate the Sea and Air Parade on Oct. 14.


The Coast Guard, he added, also toils behind the scenes to stage the events, from providing a high-endurance cutter for the public to tour to sweeping the pier for bombs and positioning patrol boats to protect both pleasure craft and the Navy flotilla during the Sea and Air Parade.

“We’re still working on resourcing the force package for San Diego Fleet Week, so I don’t have specifics,” said Coast Guard Pacific Area spokesman Lt. Donnie Brzuska. “These events are normally supported by a Maritime Safety and Security Team that is equipped with tactical boats, boarding teams, underwater (Remotely Operated Vehicles) and canine explosive detection teams.”

Fleet Week schedule

The nonprofit that runs San Diego’s annual celebration of the military has released its schedule:

Oct. 11: Fleet Week kickoff reception with top military leaders


Oct. 12: Military Party on the Pier

Oct. 13: Fleet Week/ San Diego Military Advisory Council Breakfast

USO Concert in the Park

Qualcom Innovation Zone (through Oct. 15)


Ship tours and static displays (through Oct. 15)

Oct. 14: Sea and Air Parade

Fleet Week Football Classic

Navy Birthday Ball


Marine Corps Recruit Depot Challenge

Oct. 16: Enlisted Golf Tournament

Oct. 17: Enlisted Recognition Luncheon

Source: Fleet Week San Diego 2017


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