Investors Make BottleRock Pitch

GSF Partners, made up of local entrepreneurs Jason Scoggins, David Graham (no relation to the late Bill Graham) and Joe Fischer, presented its plan to the Napa Valley Expo board Nov. 26, asking it to move forward with contract negotiations for a reported five-year lease with GSF, according to the Napa Valley Register.

None of the aspiring investors appears to have history or background in the concert industry.

Fischer’s resume includes work with Napa’s Gasser Foundation but also has one high-profile misfire in his portfolio: the massive Copia food, wine and arts education center that opened to great fanfare but closed in 2008 after seven years.

Scoggins is the co-founder of Jumpstart Automotive Media and Graham’s experience includes tech and e-commerce companies, according to the Register.

The group proposes to settle debts and put forward a business plan that would enable a scaled-back BottleRock to take place in 2014 at the Napa Valley Expo site of the 5-day spring festival that was a hit with music fans but a financial debacle.

Settling debt, of course, does not necessarily mean paying it in full. Still awaiting checks from BottleRock are approximately 140 IATSE stagehands, plus vendors, security crews, transportation providers and a host of others, including the father of one of the festival organizers.

According to the paper, GSF Partners offers to pay the Expo 100 percent of the roughly $311,000 it is owed.

Other vendors would be paid between 50 percent and 90 percent of monies due, Graham reportedly told the Expo board.

The partners are also said to have contacted Saratoga Festival Investments, which recently filed a $3 million suit alleging fraud against another early BottleRock investor, Jason Johnson.

No mention was made of the many charities that were promised a slice of the pie. Graham told the Expo board GSF Partners has a letter of intent to purchase the BottleRock brand, name and assets, though the wife of one of the current partners told the Register that no one has seen it.

GSF Partners also requested the Expo not issue a Request For Proposals for the festival that would allow others to make pitches.

BR Festivals attorney Matt Eisenberg reportedly said that Another Planet Entertainment has “insisted that the Expo allow other companies to bid on hosting the event,” according to the Register.

BR Festivals is the limited liability corporation behind BottleRock.

An inquiry to APE couldn’t be immediately returned.

The Expo board voted to move forward with contract negotiations with GSF but also left the door open to choose an RFP process, the paper reports.

The meeting shed some light on the inner workings – or non-workings – that led to BottleRock’s troubles. Graham, during his presentation, reportedly told the Expo board that BottleRock suffered a “glaring challenge” from the start with no senior finance people or senior management involved in the planning. The Expo board voted unanimously to hold the proposal over to a later meeting.