City: Come back, Dad Vail, oar else

The Dad Vail battle isn't over yet.

Mayor Nutter and U.S. Rep. Bob Brady met yesterday with area universities to discuss holding a regatta on the Schuylkill next year on the same weekend as the Dad Vail race, after organizers of the storied contest said that they would decamp to New Jersey for their 2010 event.

"That was a significant topic of discussion, whether we would house a Philadelphia Regatta or a Mayor's cup race with many of the premiere schools locally, regionally and possibly nationally," Nutter said.

Organizers of the Dad Vail - held on the Schuylkill since 1953 - last week said that they would move the event to Rumson, Monmouth County, for May 7-8, 2010. Backers from Rumson offered $250,000 toward the event, which costs up to $500,000 a year.

Dad Vail organizers said that they had lost sponsorship money and couldn't afford to hold the race in Philadelphia, where city costs have grown in recent years.

Nutter and Brady said that the city hadn't been given a fair shake to work out the city expenses and help with fundraising.

"We raised enough money in three weeks to do the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia," said Brady, who organized yesterday's meeting. "We're trying to do everything we can to get the race back here."

Nutter also said that the city would prefer to get the Dad Vail back over launching a rival event.

Dad Vail Chairman Jack Galloway was unmoved last night by the requests to reconsider the race location - and disputed the notion that organizers had not properly warned the city of their financial situation.

"We've been trying to tell the city this for a long time," Galloway said. "We have now begun to detail some past correspondence so they can review that notice has been given on many, many occasions."

Despite the possibility of a rival regatta in Philadelphia, Galloway said that he believed that they would have a strong race.

"We are certainly hoping and expecting our traditional competitors to be there," Galloway said. "Six out of the 130 universities are in Philadelphia. [For the others,] whether or not they're coming to Philadelphia or Rumson, they want to come to the Dad Vail Regatta."

At the meeting with Brady and Nutter yesterday were coaches and athletic-department representatives from at least a half-dozen area colleges and universities, including St. Joseph's, Temple and Drexel, said mayoral spokesman Doug Oliver. The schools are expected to discuss tomorrow whether they would consider joining a Philadelphia race instead of the Dad Vail.

Don DiJulia, athletic director for St. Joseph's, who attended the event, said that he was taken aback when he heard that the Dad Vail would be moving. "It would be very challenging from a fiscal standpoint to send our whole team out of town - it's not one boat," DiJulia said, explaining that going to Rumson in 2010 would cost St. Joe's an additional, unbudgeted$15,000.

The Dad Vail Regatta is the largest collegiate rowing event in the country, drawing about 3,500 athletes as well as thousands of spectators and supporters from across the country.