ISSUE #39: Guess Who Is Subsidizing the For-Profit World Cup?

I know, it's a dumb question: YOU ARE! A lot more than you might think.

This is a picture of a crowd of 10,000 people. That is what 5B Productions hopes the crowd will be on the streets of Ketchum during the World Cup March 20-27, 2025.

The World Cup is Coming to Ketchum — Cui Bono?

There are two independent (at least, I think they are independent) for-profit entities who “own” the World Cup event in Ketchum. Sun Valley Co. and 5B Productions. Sun Valley Co. owns the on-mountain and Sun Valley resort activities, while 5B Productions owns 5850 Fest— a multi-day street party event in Ketchum.¹

At the last KURA meeting, 5BP asked to use the Washington Lot for a week during the World Cup event. For free. With KURA to pick up its own expenses. This is consistent with the request that 5BP made to the Ketchum City Council to shut down Main Street for three days of 5BP events. For free. With the City of Ketchum to pick up its costs (including extra trash, extra policing, extra first responder time, and extra snow plowing expenses).

This is a taking of public resources for private gain. Your City Council is okay with it. 5BP has been asking people to volunteer to work on the event to maximize its profits.² That’s a blatant violation of Idaho state labor laws. Since I raised the issue, I have been told that 5BP will end around that by getting local organizations to “volunteer” to help them.

5BP is planning for 5,000 to 10,000 people to party on the streets of Ketchum for three days during the World Cup.

KURA Is Supposed to Help Local Businesses: Local Businesses Say the Opposite

In most urban renewal authorities, local businesses play a prominent role. The purpose of a URA is to reverse urban blight and improve commerce conditions. Ha! Under Mayor Bradshaw, no local business is represented on Ketchum’s URA.

Our URA never talks about improving commercial conditions. Judging them not by their words but by their deeds, their entire purpose is to make it HARDER to do business in Ketchum by permanently destroying scores of parking spaces in the commercial core.³ Their legacy will be a massive, four-story, lot-line-to-lot-line housing project in the commercial core.

While expressing general support for the World Cup, the Ketchum Business Advisory Coalition (KBAC) asked KURA not to close all of its parking for this event or let the for-profit promoter bring in outside vendors to feed the crowds.

They noted that the City has greatly hurt Main Street businesses this past summer (the Mayor’s Main Street Project) and has committed to doing the same again next summer.

According to local businesses, what 5B Productions wants to do in Ketchum (for its own profit) hurts local businesses.

Tom Nichol, a restaurateur from Ketchum, made this clear in a public comment. The existing restaurants can handle the demand for food and beverage. There's no need for a food court. He believes the loss of parking and competition from food vendors will hurt local businesses. Local restaurateurs don’t have the equipment to become street food vendors for this event. He thinks the event is better held in Town Square, which was designed for public events.

Ketchum Has Done No Real Planning For The World Cup

That the City of Ketchum thinks that it’s good public policy to hand over its Main Street for a three-day street party isn’t what I am concerned about. We shut down streets for “Wagon Days” and “Trailing of the Sheep.” But those are half-day events for a couple of thousand people (at most), and they are pretty sedate. They aren’t booze-fueled street parties.

Which is what 5P Productions has planned for 5850Fest. At the KURA meeting, they said they anticipate 5,000 people and maybe as many as 10,000. 5B Productions said Town Square is too small to hold the anticipated crowd.

According to 5BP, Sun Valley Co. is spending “millions and millions” of dollars to make this event work on Baldy. They are expecting the event to come back in 2027 and 2029.⁴

Why Do We Think 5B Productions Is Competent to Host 5850Fest?

Ten thousand people is a shitload of people. I don’t mean that scatalogically; I mean that literally. For an event that big, you need over 100 port-a-potties.⁵ That is a crowd bigger than anything that has ever hit Ketchum. That size of a street event requires a security detail of at least 200.⁶ Ketchum’s police force is 12 people, plus two community service officers. Even 5,000 people could overwhelm the toilets at Whiskeys

My point: 5850Fest could be a VERY big deal, especially if you believe their Insta posts

As far as I can tell from publicly available information, no one in City Hall has done any due diligence on the promoter. Who is 5B Productions, and what experience do they have producing festivals of this magnitude? 5B Productions is co-owned by Jenny Dupre⁷ and Brandon Kuvara⁸ (owner of Whiskey’s). According to their LinkedIn profiles, neither has experience producing massive multi-day street festivals—of any size.

There is no evidence that anyone at 5B Productions has ever produced a major festival. It was incorporated in April 2024. 5850Fest will be their first rodeo.⁹ They will be learning to shave on the Ketchum beard.

According to their event application, 5B Productions has no plans to provide toilets or security personnel.¹⁰ As for trash removal, I love this quote from their application: “We are hoping this is something the City of Ketchum can assist the 5850 Fest with this.” I believe they have no understanding of what they have taken on. For example, if they are right on their guest numbers, many people will come from south of Ketchum. The bridge to Ketchum is scheduled for repair during the World Cup. 5BP has no transportation plan. Or parking plan. Or, as I noted above, sanitary plan.

How can that be acceptable to the City Council? No one on the Council has questioned them on these issues.

Given their lack of experience producing an event of this magnitude, if 5B Productions is right about their upside estimate, 5850Fest could be Fyre Festival 2.0.11, except colder.

This is not a Slack event. It is a prime weekend in peak ski season during a school vacation week.

SVED has told the Council that there will be 6,000 people attending and participating in the World Cup. At 100% capacity utilization, that is 80 plane loads.

As usual, no one in Ketchum City Hall has done the math required to understand the true impact.

Last on the List: Ketchum Residents

If you ever wondered who our City Council works for, let me make it easy for you—the tourism industry. We just got another data point at the KURA meeting. Recall that half our City Councilors sit on KURA—Ms. Breen and Ms. Hamilton—two-thirds of the Troika. The other third, Mayor Bradshaw, appointed all the other Commissioners.

That Ketchum residents are last on the list of World Cup-impacted constituents isn’t actually true. Ketchum residents didn’t even make the list. They weren’t mentioned a single time. Not by 5B Productions. Not by the KURA Commissioners. Not by our two City Councillors.

That Ketchum residents are all happy to subsidize the for-profit entities (financially and with the inconvenience of the event) is a given to our elected and appointed officials. Interestingly, the Chair of KURA expressed concern that local businesses would not be too inconvenienced by the City’s approach to this event. Not once did he mention anyone who lives here.

Who do they work for?

They have made it eminently clear that they don’t work for you.

1. https://www.5850fest.com/

2. They no longer call them volunteers. They call them “Howdy Helpers.” The person who coined “Stay Sunny” has struck again.

3. It’s rather remarkable how successful they are being. If they get the building on the Washington Lot done, they will have destroyed well over 100 parking spots with a value of over $12mm (using the City’s estimated cost to replace a parking spot). But as the City consultant said, Main Street will be more “Instagrammable.”

4. What ROI will SVC get for these millions? My gut tells me it is part of the larger plan to gussy it up for sale (along with the Resort master plan and Dollar Rd development plan).

5. https://www.unitedsiteservices.com/portable-restroom-calculator/

6. https://statewidepatrol.com/how-many-security-guards-per-person/#:~:text=A%20general%20guideline%20suggests%20one%20security%20guard%20for,of%20the%20event%2C%20venue%20size%2C%20and%20potential%20risks.

7. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-dupr%C3%A9-46b0665a/

8. https://www.linkedin.com/in/r-brandon-kuvara-6a81024/

9. https://www.5bproductions.com/

10. https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/ketchid-pubu/MEET-Packet-05deaca7eabd49d79ccb08412c8e74d4.pdf