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SPRINGFIELD — It’s golf season. And many taxpayers are chipping in for the game whether they ever tee up or not.
A Cox Media Group Ohio analysis has found local cities combined pumped millions of dollars into paying for debt and operation of municipal golf courses last year.
With a spring marked by soggy greens now giving way to summer, local officials worry this year could be even costlier.
Altogether, the 18 municipal facilities in Clark, Butler, Greene, Montgomery, Warren and Miami counties took in $4.1 million less in revenue than they spent on operations and debt.
Springfield’s two publicly owned golf courses ran a $133,177 deficit last year but had enough cash on hand to make ends meet.
“If they could do what they did last year on a regular basis,” Springfield Mayor Warren Copeland said, “that’s probably close enough. What you would hope is some years they could do better.”
If revenues repeat like last year, the courses will have to consider looking to the city for cash. National Trail Parks and Recreation District, which manages the courses, has $54,405 left in reserves.
“We anticipate, as long as we can catch up with the weather, to make it in 2011,” said NTPRD Executive Director Tim Smith.
The facilities, Snyder Park Golf Course and Reid Golf Course, have a combined budget of nearly $1.6 million. Smith said they are both equally popular.
They have also both seen deep cuts to make ends meet in recent years, Smith said. Though NTPRD receives regular funding from Springfield, the last time the independent park district went to the city for a golf bailout was in 2008, he said, with a $94,000 shortfall.
“We’ve been self-sufficient for the last three years,” he said.
Copeland said the average taxpayer doesn’t want to support recreation for adults.
“I think people in the community are willing to support youth programs,” Copeland said, “but any of the adult programs, anything from softball to golf, it’s hard to justify that given all the other things the city has to pay for. That’s why we set the goal of being self sufficient.”
With flat attendance, Smith said they’ve had to eliminate positions such as manager of golf operations, turf maintenance worker and assistant golf professional. They eliminated a greens superintendent position worth about $50,000 plus benefits this year, he said.
“I play those courses, not as much as I’d like to, but that’s usually where I play when I play,” Copeland said. “There’s no question there are long-term maintenance investments they’ve not been making because they’ve been trying to break even. Over time, those things can catch up to you.”
Publicly accessible golf is something the community expects, Smith said, and there are no current plans to sell either course.
“It’s just been historically in place because it’s something the community has looked for as part of its overall recreation opportunities,” he said. “With anything, you’re constantly looking at what businesses you stay in and what businesses you get out of, but right now we’re looking at staying with the two courses.”
Some courses cost cities more than $1M
The Beavercreek Golf Course last year brought in $1.1 million less than the cost of operating the facility and paying down its debt.
“We’ll never bring in enough revenue to cover the debt service,” said Steve Klick, golf course operations manager.
Klick said the $234,514 operating deficit the course ran last year in addition to the debt was driven largely by investing in the course. “I think this city definitely values putting money back into the facility,” he said.
Klick said the 18-plus inches of rain that fell on the courses this spring didn’t start the year off well.
“You factor in that and gas at $3.99 a gallon, a lot of people are choosing to do other things with their disposable income,” he said.
Mason’s city-owned Golf Center at Kings Island cost that city more than $1.2 million last year.
It has run at a massive deficit since the city bought the course — including the 18-hole PGA course dubbed the Grizzly, designed by Jack Nicklaus — for $9 million in 2006.
The only city that ran in the black in the six-county region was Dayton. Its three courses netted a profit of $168,963.
Many other courses were profitable operationally but were dragged down by debt.
Centerville’s Yankee Trace Golf Course took in $444,497 more than they spent running the course in 2010. But the facility still owes $10.5 million from building the course, which cost the city $818,613 last year.
Older facilities not saddled with debt rarely do better than breaking even.
Cassel Hills Golf Course in Vandalia, one of the region’s oldest opened in 1974, runs at a deficit of about $50,000. The city transferred $500,000 from the general fund into the golf fund in 2007 to cover this annual defict.
This is done to keep the rates in line with other area courses, said city Assistant Finance Director Kathleen Cornett.
“(City council is) aware that this business decision could result in the general fund subsidizing the deficit, but their overall goal is to provide this public service to the Vandalia residents at a reasonable rate,” she said.
Private courses struggle to compete
Steve Jurick, executive director of the Miami Valley Golf Association, sees publicly-owned golf courses as community assets.
But with taxpayer funding, low-interest borrowing power and no property taxes, these facilities make it harder for private courses to compete, Jurick said.
“It artificially lowers the price of golf to some extent,” he said. “I would assume in the not too distant future you’ll see some golf courses go back to farms.”
All this comes at a time when the popularity of golf is “depressed,” Jurick said.
He said the recession — golf takes time and money, both of which are at a premium right now — and declining local population is taking a toll.
“Twenty years ago when we were building a lot of golf courses, it was because our population was spiking and people had more leisure time,” he said. “Now we have less leisure time and people are playing fewer rounds and we have less people.”
This has left the region with an embarrassment of riches in terms of golf courses.
A 2008 analysis by the golf association found Montgomery and neighboring counties had a combined 87 golf courses boasting 1,611 holes of golf.
Mason Finance Director Joe Reigelsperger said municipal courses are feeling this pinch.
“I think the problem is a combination of the recession as well as market saturation,” Reigelsperger said. “There are so many golf courses out there I think they’re fighting over fewer customers at this point.”
This has its upside, Jurick said: “It’s a great time to be a golfer right now.”
Profit only one motive
Motivations for cities going into the golf business have long extended beyond profit.
Mason — which subsidizes golf more than any local community — bought the course at Kings Island to keep the former owner from selling off the land for high-density condo development, according to local officials.
“It was primarily as far as being able to see the future development of that property, not necessarily to operate the golf course,” Reigelsperger said.
But in the process it locked in a deal with a management company that keeps the city from cutting costs. The company spent $2.8 million operating the facility, which only brought in $2.1 million last year.
That contract expires this year. But the debt incurred when the city bought the course won’t be paid off until for years to come. That cost the city $525,000 last year.
Miamisburg Finance Director George Perrine said the Pipestone Golf Club was always seen as more of a catalyst for surrounding upscale development than a money-maker.
“City council members over the years feel it’s been a worthwhile development,” he said.
The course costs the city’s general fund about $250,000 a year in debt payments, despite running a profit. The debt won’t be paid off until 2021.
Only one city making a profit
This spring’s soaking rain cost the city of Dayton’s three golf courses an estimated $200,000, according to Joe Parlette, golf manager for Dayton’s department of parks and recreation.
The city’s three golf courses — Community, Kittyhawk and Madden — have been in the black since 2005, which was the last year it had to go to the city for a handout. They profited $168,963 last year.
Parlette said decreased revenue may force him to put off improvements to parking lots and cart paths. He’s still optimistic, with an eye toward the heavens.
“Weather, far more than any other factor, dictates our revenue,” he said. “Barring a summer similar to 2010, I am confident that we will be able to finish in the black.”
That summer — like recent weather — was hot. Parlette said any day over 88 degrees costs them 7 percent less in casual play.
The golf courses do not all receive equal play. Madden, plagued by perception problems from being built on wastewater treatment property, is subsidized by the other two courses.
“It’s my favorite track as a golfer, so the only issue at hand is public misconception,” Parlette said.
There is no discussion of the city selling any golf courses, Parlette said – partly because land use and deed issues make the courses “a clever reuse of existing property,” he said, but primarily because they are valuable tools.
“We see our courses as developmental assets,” Parlette said. “Forming a triangle around the city of Dayton and within Montgomery County, our facilities peak the interest of businesses and residents.”
David Jablonski contributed to this report.
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