Dear Friend
We recently wrote to you to report on the success of the 2010 tournament and to thank all of you for your support. We have recently learned that the North American Riders Group rated Syracuse the top U.S. show in 2010 and second in North America behind only the Spruce Meadows Masters. We are very gratified by this rating. That is the end of the good news.
One of us wrote or called you during 2010 to seek your continued assistance and expressed the hope that we had found a formula that would be viable and consistent with the goals and values that the Organizing Committee thought were worth pursuing 8 years ago. We reached out to you on that basis because we believed that we had both the formal contractual and informal support and assurances of the National Horse Show (“NHS”) for a tenable future.
Unfortunately we have recently been informed by the NHS that they do not intend to proceed either on the basis of our written letter agreement or on the basis of the discussions that we have had with them. This development makes it extremely unlikely that Syracuse can or will continue. This is an unexpected and sad development. We feel that our stakeholders are owed an explanation so we set out below our detailed description as to how matters have come to this sorry pass.
As many of you will be aware, in our first few years the NHS and Syracuse ran on the same weekend, latterly with the Maclay at the piers in NYC. This split meant that the riders/trainers had to make a choice and was also very financially disadvantageous for both groups and Syracuse ran at a loss. We came to understand that in the absence of a large overall sponsor, there are only so many sponsors, riders and horses, table sales, etc. for a top class show and not to put too fine a point on it, there are not enough to run two shows on the same dates. We were only able to continue by reason of our Board and supporters meeting these ongoing losses. All of the Board and others sustained large losses in order to do something we believed in and also because we expected losses in the early years while we made our mistakes and tweaked the show formula.
Beginning 5 years ago we essentially took over running the Maclay at Syracuse and one of the things we believe we accomplished was to help to restore some of the luster to that class that we were told it had lost.
The NHS was apparently also pleased with the progress for the Maclay because starting 3 years ago we entered into a joint venture to run the NHS at Syracuse beginning in 2008. After the success of the first year we entered into a formal signed letter agreement dated March 16 2009. That letter agreement expressly says: “This Agreement will automatically renew for 2011 if not cancelled by Syracuse or NHS by March 15 2010”. Neither side provided notice of cancellation by that date.
While the first year (2008) basically broke even, in common with a lot of other events in the US, in 2009 we lost a great deal of money. It would not serve any purpose to air the dirty laundry of why that loss was so large in public in this letter and we don’t propose to do so. We have never pointed any fingers. If it becomes necessary to do so elsewhere, we are fully prepared for any scrutiny and to allocate responsibility. Our financial statements are audited and publicly available. Our books and records have been and will be completely open to the NHS and indeed any of our stakeholders who have an interest. Under our arrangement with the NHS, we both funded 50% of the losses for 2009 and we were faced with a decision as to whether to go forward at all in 2010.
There were numerous discussions with senior people from the NHS. The gist of those discussions was that if we could find a way to prevent a repetition of the loss in 2010 then there would be a long term future together. On that basis as well as the bargained-for buffer year we would have from the letter agreement we went forward with a revamped formula/schedule for 2010. We all personally went to seek support on that basis.
We were and are delighted that the revised formula worked and that the 2010 met the financial goal of breaking even. We believed that there was a solid basis for proceeding in accordance with our discussions.
We were therefore extremely disappointed when in November and December the NHS began to advise us that they wished to proceed elsewhere on the same weekend in 2011. It was not just our view that this was entirely inconsistent with our discussions and deal. The Chairman of the Board of the NHS, a woman who has supported the equestrian sports in the US probably as much or more than any other individual in the country, refused to be part of what the NHS proposed to do and resigned, as she told us, on principle. We greatly appreciate and admire her position.
Those now speaking for the NHS have put forward various positions as to what they wanted to do or were thinking. We can and will make available the full correspondence to anyone who wishes to review it. While we never got clarity, in essence, we believe that the NHS wants to run a show in Kentucky on the same weekend as Syracuse. While we were asking for clarification of their plans we had also said we wanted to consult our mutual stakeholders - the sponsors, riders, trainers, owners, etc. to get a sense of what you wanted. We offered to do that with the NHS. They only finally said they did not want to be part of that canvas in late December. We said that we still wanted to talk to all of you and had begun to do so. We told the NHS that we would be in a position to discuss the way ahead in mid-January.
Notwithstanding all that, on January 6, 2011 we received a letter from the NHS telling us that they do not propose to honor our agreement for 2011 and that they are preceding entirely separately.
We got involved in Syracuse to try and do something good for the sport. It is a not-for-profit entity and our losses have been made good from our own pockets and those of our supporters. We obviously have our own views of the conduct of the NHS. Litigation has never done much to advance the interests of the sport. It may be, sadly enough, that litigation may become necessary with respect to what the NHS is doing but we are realistic enough to know that any such litigation, if pursued, won’t save Syracuse for 2011 and beyond but would rather only call the NHS and individuals to financial account for the past.
We don’t, at present, see any way to proceed for 2011. We will not have the buffer year we bargained for and thought we had to come up with alternatives. We have tried to do things at Syracuse a little differently. We have tried to live up to the admonition of George Morris (who, parenthetically, has been sensationally supportive of Syracuse) to aim for excellence in every aspect of the show from the footing, prize money, scheduling, schooling facility, etc. within the limits of an indoor one-ring show. It may be inevitable that the industry is inexorably heading to spending weeks (and months) at multi-ring factories so that there will ultimately be only 4 or 5 show facilities to survive. That may be what people want. It is not a show that we started out to run or have any interest in organizing. With what the NHS is now doing to put us back in the economically unsustainable split situation in the absence of an overall sponsor, we would have to dumb down our standards beyond what is acceptable to even try to run a show in 2011. That is simply not on the cards.
We think it important that you who have supported us over the years understand the reason for the demise of Syracuse which we believe is the unsupportable and indeed inexplicable conduct described above. If you have questions, any one of us on the Organizing Committee would be pleased to try and answer them or talk further. It is a matter of great sadness and frustration for us that Syracuse is being brought to an end in this manner. The team of people that have pitched in over the years is too large to name in a letter. We will be reaching out to each one of you personally and intend to organize an occasion, which may be too much like a wake, to express our thanks for your support more directly.
From the Organizing Committee/Board of Directors of the Syracuse Invitational Sporthorse Tournament Inc.
John Madden, Chairman of the Organizing Committee
Frank Madden
Peter Howard
Eric Hasbrouck
Paul Mahalick