Stumbling the streets for Gator Stompin’ pub crawl has been a Gainesville tradition for 32 years.
But overspending on this year’s Gator Stompin’ may have cost the event its 33rd year — unless Jason Bowman can come up with a solution, and fast.
"The debt is mine and Pledge 5’s. We’re working to eliminate that," said Bowman, director of Pledge 5 Foundation, the volunteer service organization that has hosted Gator Stompin’ for the past nine years.
Due to an unforeseen drop in thrift store sales and an overpriced concert, Pledge 5 owes multiple employees and nearly 80 bars and restaurants various amounts — anywhere from $100 to $10,000 — for their participation in Gator Stompin’ this May.
Frustrated and without pay, some disgruntled employees have quit. Pledge 5 is currently facing two lawsuits in small claims court.
Former thrift store manager Emily Sacco, who filed one of the lawsuits on July 28, said Bowman owes her four months of pay.
"I didn’t make a dime," she said.
Sacco began working for Pledge 5 as the manager of the University Avenue Pledge 5 thrift store, Thrift 5, a year and a half ago, and she was managing all three Pledge 5 thrift stores when she left in July.
This is the first year Pledge 5 has funded Gator Stompin’ with thrift shop funds, Bowman said.
"We were in the process of opening the third store while putting on Pledge 5’s largest fundraiser," Sacco said.
The initial stores were profitable during Fall and prompted the foundation to open more. The Gator Stompin’ concert was a success last year, so this year, Bowman shot higher — Waka Flocka Flame and Grammy-nominated DJ Wolfgang Gartner would surely increase ticket sales, he thought.
Taking in to account artist compensation, venue fees and other concert costs, Pledge 5 paid close to $90,000 to bring the duo downtown.
"We realized it was gonna be a bigger event, so we staffed up," Bowman said, who grew his paid Gator Stompin’ team to about 25 members before the event.
Then spring came, and thrift shop sales went down. Average daily revenue dropped to a quarter of what it had been in the fall. Because Pledge 5’s University Avenue location is so reliant on students, it took the move-out season much harder than other area thrift stores.
"We would have been OK if our thrift shop revenue remained steady through the spring," Bowman said. "To say it plummeted would be an understatement."
The concert was paid for, but Pledge 5 had yet to compensate its employees and had no funds available to reimburse the bars and restaurants.
"The attrition was fast and furious," Bowman said.
Frustrated and unemployed, Sacco spoke to the U.S. Department of Labor in Jacksonville and filed the lawsuit, but she said she doesn’t expect to get back the money she’s owed.
"I know I will not get that," she said. "He simply does not have it."
As for Gator Stompin’, Sacco said she doesn’t see how it could continue after this year. Pledge 5 lost all its money and "lost the trust of businesses," she said.
But Bowman said he has a viable plan to get it all back.
"In the future, we’re going to separate Gator Stompin’ from Pledge 5," Bowman said. He plans to gain capital for Gator Stompin’ through an equity crowdfunding website called SeedInvest, which began after the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act deregulated certain online business ventures in 2012.
Like Kickstarter or Indiegogo, SeedInvest crowdfunds to start-up businesses. But rather than taking donations, SeedInvest sells shares.
Gator Stompin’ will have to break from Pledge 5 and become its own business in order to take advantage of investors’ money, but Bowman said he believes it’s the best option he has to get out of debt.
"You can’t call the year’s festival a failure by the event," Bowman said, "It’s a failure because we didn’t have enough capital to run it."
He said he believes the equity crowdfunding plan is viable because Gainesville residents love Gator Stompin’ and want to see it continue.
"It’ll put the event in the hands of the community," he said.
Bowman, who graduated from UF with a doctorate in psychology, said he understands that although this year’s financial decisions were his, they affected a lot of people.
"They affected my employees. They affected the business owners that trusted me to be able to make their payments," he said.
Pledge 5 has been trying to regain that trust by issuing businesses small checks as thrift store profits begin to increase again. He has a few employees working in the thrift shops and three on staff at the office, and he said he canceled the larger of the upcoming Pledge 5 community events, with most of the charity drives and volunteer service events still operational.
"I won’t feel comfortable until everything is right," he said.
Some of Bowman’s friends and colleagues are willing to lend the leeway.
"He’s a good guy," said photographer Rodney Rogers, who shot photos for Gator Stompin’ this year but was paid only $10 of the $100 he was promised.
Rogers said this is the first time something like this has ever happened.
"I have full faith that I will be repaid," he said.
Even if the crowdfunding plan falls through, Bowman said he’s confident thrift store sales will produce enough to pay everyone back by the end of 2014 and said Gainesville shouldn’t have doubts about Gator Stompin’ 2015.
"This is obviously a tragedy," Bowman said. "But I really think that we’re going to get through it."
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 8/7/2014 under the headline "Gator Stompin’ has plans to crowdfund itself out of debt"]
