Not to include the Oro valleyCommunity Center/Fitness, food and beverage, restaurant, tennis, and swimming
After almost a month of emails going back and forth between myself and the Town Manager, I have finally received the numbers which show the “bottom line” is for the golf enterprise in Oro Valley. Although the report gives numbers for the entire fiscal year, the Town modified the golf enterprise in December.
In December the Town closed the courses on Mondays, reduced the full time equivalent staffing dedicated to maintain the courses from 44 to 17, and entered into new equipment and cart leases ( to save money the Town reduced the number of leased carts from 177 to 100).
According to the Town, the fixed expenses for the months Jan. – Jun., 2016 are as follows:
| Golf Maintenance – Payroll/benefits | $243,702 |
| R&M | $105,020 |
| Chemicals | $104,632 |
| Operating Exp | $82,772 |
| Utilities | $534,163 |
| Equip Lease | $125,784 |
| Total | $1,196,073 |
| Golf (other than Maintenance)Payroll/Benefits | $133,188 |
| Operating Expenses | $50,574 |
| Cart Lease | $49,500 |
| Total | $233,262 |
| General and Administrative Payroll/Benefits | $62,292 |
| Operating Expenses | $104,636 |
| Management Fees | $72,000 |
| Total | $238,928 |
The sum total of all golf expenses for the 6 month period is : $1,668,263
This divided by 6 equals $278,044 per month.
The Town has fixed revenues from dues paid by golf memberships. As of 12/31/15, the Town received $89,000 a month from those memberships.
Deduct the monthly revenues from the monthly costs and the total loss is $189,044 per month. This is the amount of revenue the Town must collect from outside play and tournaments in order to break even on golf. This equates to 4,726 rounds at an average of $40.00/round.
The first 6 months of the fiscal year (July – Dec. 2015), the Town averaged 3,858 rounds (it is not clear if this included member rounds) at $33.49/round (this is when the courses were open 7 days a week).
It should be clear to a reasonable person that the golf investment is not, and will not, be anything but a financial drain to the Town for the foreseeable future. There are options available which will alleviate this drain on Town resources. One option to accomplish this would be to lease the courses. This would allow the Town to spend the $2 million/yr in sales tax revenues to renovate the Community Center into a fixture the People desire and something which the Town can be proud.
Mike Zinkin
Oro Valley Town Councilmember
