Reference The Argus and the £50,000 loss made by Pride last Saturday week.

Of course the blame will be put down to the weather but there are wider issues as this has always been the problem with a free event.

How one can have 150,000 people attend this event and make a loss beggars belief.

For any event to suffer this loss, one really has to turn to the management/committee/ organisers.

The committee must bear the brunt of the criticism and should by now be questioning their part in this yearly event.

It would seem clear that the event is funded by sponsorship and currently the burden falls on too few businesses. I do know that there are many businesses in the town which benefit from the Pride weekend and are quite willing to contribute towards the sponsorship of this event but have never been approached by any committee member of Pride.

They are fully aware of the advantage of the continued success of Pride, therefore, sponsorship could be increased ten-fold purely on a voluntary basis.

There are many businesses, both gay and straight, that benefit from this event and would prefer its continuance.

With a broader sponsorship, the costs to individual businesses would be less.

I suggest that all sponsors of the Pride event could be issued with a form of licence showing a Pride Logo which could be displayed outside their business.

This would certainly clear up the “gay for a day” brigade who display the gay flag only at Pride weekend. The charge for sponsorship could be apportioned to each business by their occupancy in the case of hotels clubs, bars and restaurants. Shops could be assessed by their rateable value.

Now is the time for the Pride committee to come out of the ivory tower. One never knows, we might even see the word gay returned to our event. Brian Ralfe Eaton Manor The Drive, Hove