03-07-16 Special Elbel Committee Minutes

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Mr. Perri stated more capital is spent on the golf courses from the non - reverting fund than they bring in to the fund. He also stated ten (10) years was determined to be an appropriate time span to catch the various life cycles of the various systems used on a golf course. Council President Tim Scott asked what the numbers in the past have been to market and advertise Elbel. T.J. Mannen responded there are a lot of tradeoffs that are done with the local media companies that do not factor into a number because they are treated as trades. The golf marketing budget has not been very much on average around two (2) to five (5) thousand dollars. Councilmember Karen White thanked Mr. Murphy for his presentation and turned the floor over to Aaron Perri. Committeemember Perri began with saying he has heard questions about what it would cost to operate the course in 2016 and he wanted to provide that information. He was not entirely comfortable with how the numbers were presented in the 2016 budget for a few reasons. Committeemember Perri provided a spreadsheet with the updated projection numbers forecasted for 2016 with the numbers broken down by course and by position, expenses, and other factors. The spreadsheet is on file for public inspection in the City Clerk's Office as well as online in the Elbel DropBox. This allows for everyone to see where every dollar is going to go. Committeemember Perri expressed his belief that revenues were projected to be higher in 2016 than was possible, revenues had not been that high since 2006. The expenses were about right but needed slight adjustments as well. The forecast presented is the best available budget to work off going forward. Revenues were put inline with what the course did in 2015 but reduced Elbel revenues by twenty (20) percent after looking at the booking pace so far. Hopefully with new marketing strategies as well as all the press Elbel has received the hope is the course will do better than these projections. Committeemember Dan Farrell asked that since the three (3) courses have experienced a twenty (20) percent decrease in revenue but only a five (5) percent decrease in cost, is that because there are so many fixed costs regarding running a golf course. T.J. Mannen responded yes because personnel is such a fixed expense. Sally Derengoski stated that lowering the prices per round does not seem to be working. It seems there needs to be a big push to look at pricing strategies for Elbel. It was her opinion that Elbel should not be compared to the medium and lower courses because Elbel is actually positioned much closer to Blackthorn in quality. This would give rational to raising the rates, not to Blackthorn or Warren levels, but to an upper middle niche that is not utilized currently in the area. She asked if it is too late for 2016 to look at those prices. Committeemember Perri responded all the fees were approved by the Park Board back in November but things can still be altered. If there is a year to raise prices it is certainly this year when there is so much enthusiasm surrounding the course.