Harrison, who has, by her account, thrown “hundreds” of successful events large and small, recognized the need for more manpower given the increased size and scale of AFBF. Organizers for AFBF consisted of eight people, who were either volunteers or independent contrac- tors. Valerie was in charge of obtaining sponsors, marketing, and management, while Jeff reported his duties of graphic design, web design and developing the map and layout for vendor placement. The chamber also hired MoWalla, Inc. for event/concert production, and addi- tional independent contractors to secure breweries, sign bands, and provide supplementary marketing. The chamber chose the USO non-profit charity to benefit from ticket sales to round out the event.
The Harrisons say that selling 7,500 tickets would cover the cost for the 3-day festival, with a donation to the USO totalling no less than a $1 of every ticket sale. Headlining bands including Blues Traveler, Grey Boy Allstars, and Pinback plus over 120 breweries gave high hopes to event organizers, but Jeff went on to say that 2,500 tickets were sold at the time of cancellation.
“The first time I think that I truly started worrying about this, is when the stadium went into the ticket sales, into our account and got a report,” Valerie said in our interview. Originally, the chamber planned on using BrownPaper-
Tickets.com because of their weekly pay- out option on ticket sales. Instead, they were forced to use
TicketWeb.com due to stadium policy. Because TicketWeb pays out after an event, AFBF organizers were forced to take any money they already had from vendors and VIP ticket holders, and spend it on necessary expenses for AFBF. Vendors and ticket holders are still at loss for the festival that never hap- pened. The Harrisons claim that if they were allowed to sell tickets on their own, outside of TicketWeb, that things would have worked out. But the fatal blow, according to Val- erie, was when Qualcomm Stadium man- agement contacted her and demanded a certified check in the amount of $8,900 just days before the event’s start. Valerie
stated that demanding the money up- front was not part of AFBF’s agreement with the stadium. Jeff Harrison added, “I can honestly see why the stadium cannot rent the facility out on a regular basis.” West Coaster requested a copy of the contract between the chamber and Qual- comm Stadium, but at the time of press, hadn’t received it.
Both Harrisons claim that some money has been refunded, including any ticket through TicketWeb or Paypal. The couple stands by their claim that they were unaware of the TicketWeb- only policy of Qualcomm. As a result, some tickets were purchased through the chamber with credit cards and cash, as the organizers of the festival sold tickets by any means possible prior to being told by stadium management to do otherwise. Now, credit card-paying ticket holders are been instructed to contest or reverse the charge, which isn’t a sure solution, and vendors, cash-paying ticket holders, and advertisers shouldn’t expect refunds or payment from the chamber for AFBF, according to the Harrisons.
So how much exactly does the cham- ber owe in outstanding debts to vendors, ticket holders, advertisers, and contrac- tors hired for the event? Valerie explains, “I can’t even give you a figure, and it’s a lot. That’s all I can say.” Up until West Coaster’s interview, Valerie and Jeff had remained mostly quiet, and Valerie said that aside from being devastated from AFBF’s failure, she had been sick with pneumonia for nearly a month. “In retro- spect, we thought, ‘Oh my god this looks like we’re bad people and that we’re taking people’s money.’” Valerie and Jeff Harrison strongly maintain that the failure of AFBF was not their fault. When West Coaster inquired directly about the use of county money toward the festival costs, Valerie defends no, that funds received from the county went directly to chamber opera- tional expenses only.
This is a developing story that West
Coaster is still investigating with all in- volved parties. Please watch our website,
westcoastersd.com for any additional updates.
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