Money talks and … ahem … everything else walks.

Or sometimes it rows.

A longtime tradition on the Philadelphia sports scene is literally going up the river.

And Mayor Michael Nutter is not one bit happy about it. He should know better.

Nutter and the city was swimming upstream in their efforts to keep the Dad Vail Regatta on the Schuylkill River, where it has been held for 56 years. The Dad Vail is the largest collegiate rowing event in the country. And for every one of those years, on the second Saturday in May, it has called Philly home. Right there along Boathouse Row on the Schuylkill.

Not any more.

The organizers of the Dad Vail are taking the money and running – or rowing – to Rumson, N.J., at least for a year. Rumson is in North Jersey, about 90 miles away.

Rumson’s deal included securing $250,000 in corporate sponsorships for the event, which costs about $500,000 to put on.

Nutter, who is up to his neck in red ink, was red-faced as well at the prospect of losing the Dad Vail.

“This was a bogus process, leading to a bogus outcome,” Nutter said.
“The fact of the matter is that the Dad Vail organization took money from the other city before they met with us.”

Nutter’s in a tough spot. He has been hitting all kinds of groups up for money for parades and other events in the city, everyone from the Mummers to the Columbus Day Parade. He even told the Phillies that if they had won a second World Series, they would have been on the hook for the cost of another parade.

Of course, he doesn’t have that worry anymore. He doesn’t have the Dad Vail anymore either. They followed the money.

Upstream.