Nutter needs to figure how to get Dad Vail back

And just when we thought Mayor Nutter administration's handling of the debacle of Dad Vail couldn't get any worse . . .

It did.

We all know what happened last week: the regatta, a linchpin Philadelphia institution for 55 years and the largest intercollegiate rowing event in the country, announced that it would move to Rumson, N.J., for at least 2010. City officials whined and cried and said they had been blindsided by regatta organizers. But that was last week.

This week, Mayor Nutter sprung into after-the-fact action. He was trying to be decisive and proactive, and he should be given ample credit for that. But he floated a solution that not only is silly but also unconscionably places college athletes into the crosshairs of his own administration's failings.

In concert with U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, Nutter suggested the possibility of local colleges and universities jettisoning the Dad Vail next year to start an alternative event in Philadelphia. He said he was thinking of calling it "the mayor's cup." (Personally, I think the Nut Cup is far more snappy.) The apparent line of thinking - if local institutions pulled out of the Dad Vail, the shock and awe would induce regional and national schools to follow.

Absurd.

Even if the local institutions that routinely compete in the Dad Vail did exit, the renown of the regatta in rowing is such that nary a single institution would follow. If the locals don't compete in Rumson in 2010, the issue will be cost. The school that counts the most is Temple, whose men's varsity eight has won the Dad Vail 21 out of the last 25 times. And athletic director Bill Bradshaw made it clear to me that they have no intention of missing the regatta in 2010 in Rumson as long as sufficient money can be raised. "We're having no talk about anything like that," he said.

If Nutter and Brady want a regatta in Philadelphia with some boats, they are going to have to resort to alternatives - City Council (Bill Green, who never met a quote he didn't like, would make a great coxswain); the Board of Revision of Taxes (forget it, they wouldn't show); police officers who have been assigned to desk duty for pulling out guns on innocent citizens (several dozen boats); maybe some of the boys from Graterford (The Longest Yard, rowing style).

Bradshaw said he admired the mayor for being proactive. He also said he felt under no political pressure either from Nutter or Brady to kiss the Dad Vail goodbye. He was painfully careful with his words, painfully understandable because of the position Temple and the other local brethren have been thrust into. The pressure they feel may not be overt, but it hangs like halitosis when two major politicians even remotely suggest the possibility of staying home.

What it does is turn athletes into political pawns - a disgrace. The loss of the Dad Vail is not their issue, and they should not be dragged into it for a single second.

It may be that Nutter is coming around to recognizing that. On Tuesday, after meeting with representatives of local schools, he sounded hopeful about a new regatta in the city. On Wednesday, after a conference call with school officials, the idea was not being floated as vigorously. (I admittedly base that observation on an article in The Inquirer. The mayor's press secretary, Doug Oliver, did not return my phone call Wednesday afternoon, perhaps because he was too busy writing a terse letter to the editor excoriating me for my column Sunday in which he was only off on the publication of my book about the Rendell administration by five years. If you need help with facts, Doug, just call or e-mail me next time. I am always available.)

What Nutter needs to be exclusively doing is figuring out how to get the Dad Vail back. If he wants to show the public he is out front, he should man-up now and admit that the policy he enacted of charging events such as the Dad Vail for city services is a bad one. The savings is minimal and, in the case of Dad Vail, nowhere close to what it brought into the city's economy with 3,000 rowers here every May for the two-day event.

If he won't do that, he should at the very least have his administration try to contain those charges. In the spring of 2008, regatta organizers met with city officials to tell them they were having trouble meeting the city's escalating fees. It was an obvious flag that the event was in trouble in Philadelphia, and the city swung into action: it charged the nonprofit Dad Vail $70,000 in 2009, a significant increase over 2008. Some of those services were no doubt necessary, but instincts tell me that the regatta became an overtime picnic for many city employees in which they mostly stood around at taxpayer expense. If that is the case, let's hope the mayor is all over it.

If he isn't too busy dreaming of the Nut Cup.