Dad Vail Regatta opens today with renewed energy

Rotted bleacher seats have been replaced with new lumber.

The freshly painted grandstand along Kelly Drive sports gleaming coats of brown and beige.

New windows in the finish line pavilion not only look better but also improve the ventilation for judges, who used to swelter inside.

St. Joseph's University athletic director Don DiJulia said renewed energy around the venerable Dad Vail Regatta "makes this almost like an inaugural year. 2010, it's a whole new day."

The six-decades-old Philadelphia tradition, which nearly skipped town this year for North Jersey, returns to the Schuylkill Friday with a new name, facilities refurbished by the city for $360,000 - and, most important, enough new funding to secure the race's future here for at least the next four years.

In a deal estimated at more than $100,000, Aberdeen Asset Management, a Scottish investment firm with its North American headquarters in Center City and experience in British crew racing, will support the cash-strapped Dad Vail Organizing Committee through 2013 - the event's 75th anniversary.

And so the two-day spectacle is renamed: the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta.

In addition, Keystone Foods magnate Herb Lotman, a Haverford resident and prominent advocate of regional recreation, has brought in a group of $5,000-to-$25,000 corporate sponsors to help offset the $500,000 annual cost of the nation's largest collegiate rowing event.

Among the group are Miller Lite beer, Just Born candies (makers of Peeps and other confections), and BNY Mellon wealth management.

On Friday, Dad Vail officials are expected to announce a "presenting sponsor" for the 2011 races. Sources close to the organizers said it could be Coca-Cola. The company was a presenting sponsor for the McDonald's Ladies Professional Golf Association championships, which was under Lotman's leadership for 29 years.

Aberdeen, which from 1999 to 2005 sponsored the annual Oxford and Cambridge University boat race on the Thames River in England, will continue to get top billing as "named sponsor" for four years.

"We certainly won't have the difficulties we had in 2009," said Dad Vail committee president Jim Hanna, citing the synergy of fresh support.

"The events of last year were unfortunate. I think we all recognize that," Mayor Nutter said. "But this is a perfect example of what happens when we actively and aggressively keep talking to understand what the challenges are and then we get to work on solutions.