Editorial: Choice makes balloon fiesta fee more palatable

There are many things to debate on a crisp, fall Albuquerque morning.

Like hot chocolate or coffee?

Sweet or savory?

And don’t even start with red or green.

In that tradition, this fall the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta will give its food vendors different options on booth rental rates this year.

Unlike last year, when new food concessions manager Ovations Food Services gave vendors the non-choice of forking over whichever was higher, 30 percent of their gross sales or the old flat rate (starting at $3,350 per 10 feet of frontage), this year they can choose to either:

♦ Pay 30 percent of gross revenue, with a minimum fee of $3,350 per 10 feet of frontage, or

♦ Pay a flat payment of $3,850 per 10 feet of frontage.

Having those options appears to have settled the 2012 food fight over booth rates. Even Perico’s founder Matty Romero — an 18-year fiesta veteran who joined a handful of other vendors in skipping the 2012 fiesta because of the rental rates — says “it’s very reasonable. It’s a good proposal. We can’t say anything bad about it.”

It’s likely that 2012′s huge jump in reported revenue for food vendors — $1.2 million gross compared to $715,000 in 2011 — helped the 2013 options go down a little easier. Ovations’ stricter accounting procedures as well as higher prices are credited with the 68 percent increase.

Also more palatable is the fact the fiesta put the concessions manager contract out to bid; Ovations won and will return to Balloon Fiesta Park this fall.

And that apparently returns visitors to the really important questions, like hot chocolate or coffee? Sweet or savory? And red or green?

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.