NY State Fair's No bid Deal Boots Long Time Vendor From Spot

By Mike McAndrew
Friday, August 15, 2008

NEW YORK - (Syracuse.com) Mark Albert sold about $200,000 in beer, $1 hot dogs and $1 bottled water last year from his stand at the New York State Fair.

But earlier this year, Fair Director Dan O'Hara told Albert, a Manlius businessman, that his vendor contract would not be renewed for the 2008 fair, Albert said.

New York had agreed to give Live Nation Worldwide, a global entertainment giant, a rent free concession stand at Chevy Court as part of a no bid contract to book the fair's concerts. The deal is projected to cost the state $700,000.

As part of the deal, Live Nation was getting Albert's spot.

Albert had been a fair vendor for 18 years. His business, Showtimes at the Court, had occupied the Chevy Court spot for more than a decade. He said he sold more beer at the 2007 fair than all but one vendor. He paid the fair $9,255 in rent and another $34,501 in beer revenue in 2007.

Before his meeting with O'Hara ended, the fair director agreed to find Showtimes another spot, Albert said.

The fair is giving Showtimes two stands rent free at a spot outside the Coliseum. O'Hara also agreed to reduce the percentage Showtimes has to pay to the fair on his beer sales.

Despite those breaks, Albert said, he is upset that he lost the prime location to Live Nation, a Beverly Hills based corporation.

"It doesn't seem right that a local New York vendor would be relocated for a California company at the New York State Fair," Albert said.

The Post Standard reported Sunday that New York will pay Live Nation a half million dollars more to book and advertise the concerts than the fair spent in 2007, when an employee did that work. State officials representing the fair appear to have misled the state comptroller to get an exemption from the state's bidding rules, it reported.

Contact information for the New York State Fair:581 State Fair Blvd. Syracuse, NY 13209 | P: 800.475.FAIR or 315.487.7711 | F: 315.487.9260 | newyorkstatefair@agmkt.state.ny.us Online @ www.nysfair.org