San Francisco Pride is confronting financial challenges after losing significant sponsors and city funding, crucial for the event's success. Although gate revenue increased, it has not kept pace with rising entertainment costs. The city's budget cut eliminated a usual contribution of $150,000, further impacting the organization. Officials emphasize the need for budgetary adjustments while acknowledging the event's economic importance to the city. Discussions about potential strategies, including imposing fees to bolster funding, reflect the urgency of ensuring the viability of future celebrations.
"Expenses for entertainment have gone way, way up. And our revenue that we're seeing from our donations at the gate, it rose this year. It's just not enough to keep pace with the cost."
"We have a long-term budget shortfall that we need to address. We need our government and workforce to get smaller, and we need to pair back our grant making, so there are very difficult times."
"I'm going to tell you, there's a few events in San Francisco that really mean a lot to the bottom line, because of the amount of people that they bring to our city, the amount of economic activity that they generate."
Collection
[
|
...
]