Stan Hooley is the executive director of the Iditarod. "We needed to figure a way to diversify the funding base," he said. "And for the most part, we have done it." (STEPHEN NOWERS / Anchorage Daily News)

Refocused Iditarod thrives

7-year director helps race keep eyes on prize, off national distractions

By NATALIE PHILLIPS
Anchorage Daily News Reporter

When Stan Hooley showed up in 1993 to take over as executive director of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, animal rights groups were calling for national boycotts of race sponsors, national television crews’ interest in the race was waning and the race’s biggest sponsor was about to pull out.

Naysayers thought the race was doomed. But as the millennium page is turned, the race is establishing all kinds of standards:

• A record budget of $2.3 million;

• A record field of 81 mushers entered;

• A record purse expected to be $577,000, which will be divided among the top 30 finishers – not just the top 20 as in years past.

Quite a turnaround.

‘‘We’ve had our ups and downs since those days, and there is still an element of fragility to the financial situation,’’ Hooley said. And in some ways the battle with the animal-rights groups is more intense because the Internet allows them to spread their messages further and faster, Hooley added. ‘‘But perhaps the race is more stable now than it has ever been.’’

Under Hooley’s leadership, the combination of a strong board of directors, the commitment of local sponsors – specifically Alaska Dodge Dealers – and the organization’s longtime staff, the Iditarod is bigger and stronger than ever, according to race followers.

‘‘Stan’s a business person,’’ said veteran musher Jerry Austin of St. Michael. ‘‘It’s good to have a business person in that position. But I think a lot of credit goes to the board. The board has finally decided that the proper road was not sucking up to a bunch of companies so easily influenced by outside pressure.’’

Hooley was living in Indiana when he was contacted by a national executive search firm about the Iditarod job. He was the executive director of the Amateur Athletic Union, one of the world’s largest amateur sports organizations. Raising money was his main task.

The Iditarod was looking for someone with experience in luring nationally recognized sponsors, he recalled.

‘‘I have always been an Alaskan in my mind,’’ Hooley said. ‘‘I was one of those people who for a two-week period in March had one eye focused on Alaska. It was real enticing.

‘‘Even if I didn’t work for the Iditarod, you wouldn’t see me jumping on a plane in January (to vacation in a warm spot),’’ said Hooley.

‘‘I came at a time when those sponsors decided to make an exit,’’ he said, ‘‘and we needed to figure a way to diversify the funding base. And for the most part, we have done it. It’s healthy.’’

When he arrived, the race’s budget relied primarily on Timberland Co., a New Hampshire-based outdoor clothing store. In the early 1990s, the company injected nearly $1.5 million in cash and support. But at the same time, the Humane Society of the United States and other animal-rights groups called for boycotts of national sponsors.

The race lost Timberland and a second big sponsor, Iams Pet Foods, in the first couple of years Hooley was on the job.

‘‘We needed to figure out a way to diversify our funding base,’’ he said.

Alaska Dodge Dealers, led by Anchorage franchise owner Rod Udd, stepped forward and started plugging the financial hole. Today the race now relies primarily on local sponsors, although Nebraska-based Cabelas, an outdoor clothing company, is also a sponsor.

‘‘I wouldn’t say we have totally turned our backs on trying to develop the right relationship with Outside companies,’’ he added. ‘‘We just want to make sure they are equipped to deal with what is almost certain to be hate mail.’’

About a third of race revenues come from sponsors’ cash support, Hooley said. The organization also makes about $400,000 on raffles, about $200,000 selling Iditarod merchandise, $160,000 on memberships and about $140,000 on entry fees.

It costs about $1 million to stage the race. That includes prize money, preparing the trail and shipping mushers’ supplies to checkpoints. The rest of the organization’s budget is spent on fund raising and salaries. The organization spends more money on fund raising these days because since it depends on so many sources.

For the mushers, the biggest change this year is that finishing 30th will be worth money. In recent years, all finishers went home with $1,049 – but only the top 20 finishers took home decent cash. Last year, the difference between finishing 20th and 21st was $8,455.

Hooley said he thinks the lesson of the 1990s for the Iditarod was ‘‘stay focused on what you think is right and let that small, yet rather well organized and vocal group, talk until they are blue in the face.’’

‘‘We are more in tuned to issues of dog care than these animal rights people would ever want to believe,’’ Hooley said. ‘‘We can’t lose sight of that.’’

Reporter Natalie Phillips covered the 1994 Iditarod. She can be reached at nphillips@adn.com or 257-4461.