A review panel selected the management firm to run the city’s five municipals. Negotiations for the contract have begun and finalization is expected for later this month unless any protests are filed. OB Sports is seeking an annual fee of $240,000, plus incentives.
The city of Tucson, Ariz. has selected OB Sports Golf Management of Scottsdale, Ariz., to try to turn around the city’s struggling golf courses, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
OB Sports was picked by a review panel to run the city’s five municipal golf courses, the Daily Star reported on November 27, and had entered into negotiations with the city to hash out specifics before a final contract is signed.
Under the selection process approved by the City Council, no further council action is required, the Daily Star reported. If and when a contract is finalized, OB Sports, which operates 45 courses nationwide including 17 in Arizona, will assume control of day-to-day golf operations, with the city retaining ownership of the courses.
In return for managing the courses, OB Sports is seeking a fee of $240,000 a year, with an annual incentive of 5 percent of the increase of total golf revenues above what they are now, the Daily Star reported.
The company is looking at offering positions to the golf program’s 20 full-time employees and 98 part-time and on-call employees, the Daily Star reported. For the 20 full-time employees, that would mean giving up their civil-service protections.
City Manager Richard Miranda told the Daily Star that the city is looking to find a place for workers who prefer to remain with the city. “There’s no guarantee, but we’re doing our best to find them positions within the city of Tucson organization,” Miranda said.
OB Sports wrote in its proposal that while it plans on reviewing staffing levels, it anticipates most of the current employees will be interested in continuing working at the courses, the Daily Star reported.
Absent any protests being filed, city officials expected a contract to be finalized around the second week of December.
Miranda said he hoped that OB Sports could assume the reins at the beginning of 2014, to take advantage of the peak golf months in Tucson.
In bidding for the contract, OB Sports projected that it could increase the number of rounds played at city courses from around 180,000 to 189,823 in the first year, the Daily Star reported, and that those numbers could climb to 205,471 rounds played by 2018.
Average green and cart fees, estimated to be $25.90 in 2014, would climb to $26.96 by 2018 under OB Sports. The city’s fees have ranged from $23.60 to $26.39 over the last decade, the Daily Star reported.
In all, OB Sports expected to have a profit of around $713,000 in 2018, the Daily Star reported.
The contract with OB Sports could mark the end to an 18-month process designed to try to turn around Tucson’s golf fortunes, the Daily Star reported. Last fall, the City Council voted to close its Fred Enke course and also transform the El Rio property into a hybrid park/golf course, as a way to alleviate what had become an approximately $8 million deficit for the city’s golf program, the Daily Star reported.
But before any of those things could happen, the city committed itself to first seeing if an outside company could lift city golf out of the red.
Many city officials were surprised that 15 golf management companies applied when the city opened bidding last winter, the Daily Star reported, and the city then narrowed the field to seven last summer.
Councilwomen Regina Romero, who spearheaded the golf discussion, said she hopes the financial problems can be solved through the contract with OB Sports.
“The city manager has very clear direction from mayor and council to have the golf enterprise fund pay for itself,” Romero told the Daily Star. “I am hopeful that his recommendation on outsourcing management gets us there very soon.”
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.