County Commissioners held a special meeting to hear a report from Sports Facilities Advisory, LLC regarding the usage and economic impacts of the Rafter 3C Arena for the 2023 fiscal year. SFA was engaged in March by Parks and Recreation to conduct a strategic analysis of the Rafter 3C Arena and Event Center.
The company has been looking at financial trends, competition analysis, and the potential economic impact expectations for the Rafter 3C. In addition to their analysis, SFA also made strategic recommendations for new opportunities to grow operations, programming, financial capacity, economic diversity, and make potential future improvements to the facility. They also provided a projection of Fiscal Year 2022-23 economic impacts which may be possible if the facility meets programming and event expectations.
According to the presentation, the success of the Rafter 3C Arena depends on the facility being a “best-in-market asset that features diverse and flexible programming, [it] must be a driver of economic impact that supports local businesses and must optimize revenue-generating opportunities.”
The report looked at the local and regional markets, noting that the local market is made up of nearly 112,000 people within a one-hour distance and 4.5 million people within a four-hour distance. The median age of that population is 38 with a median income of the local population being $54,000 and $71,458 for the larger radius, numbers below the national average.
Looking at competition data, the report says there are more than 110 existing local service providers within the 4-hour radius of multi-purpose field facilities, indoor courts, equestrian centers, concert venues, diamond fields, indoor turf fields, and recreational vehicle parks.
The Rafter 3C building as an indoor arena can provide a clear-span arena, four basketball courts, eight volleyball courts, or four college/pro courts, and bleacher seating for 1,821. The SFA report says that concerts or seated events in the arena need to be assessed to ensure local and sub-regional participation that is revenue positive. Additionally, “subsidized events need to promote community vitality, engagement, inclusion, and cultural diversity.” SFA also recommended incorporating services that provide access to sports and recreation for low-income households.
Economic impact expectations of the 3C Arena were calculated citing Average Daily Expenditures by overnight visitors as an average of $129 per person, with day trip users averaging $35 per person. Forecasts for the annual county fair with 2,000 visitors would bring an economic impact of $209,813. 2022-23 projections for the facility with equine events, the Cantaloupe Festival, and athletic and other events would bring a total of $5,709,044 to the local economy.
Commissioners tabled approving the report for 30 days to enable SFA to complete the project.
Commissioners also approved funding requests for the construction of a cover structure for the 200 stalls located on Miners Road at $274,000, the water and electrical infrastructure project for those stalls at $520,599, as well as the infrastructure and construction of 60 RV spaces located at the Miners Road property in the amount of $529,125.
Barbee reported that the RV spots will be located on the north side of the Miners Road property and include full, 50-amp hookups. “This will be the first double row, the first initial front row, and bring power and water, again we are working on the sewer dump project. Chris [Spross] did apply for a grant with the state to fund the additional roughly 300 RV spots for FY24, and we are also submitting a CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) grant because of the economic development component and the lack of hotel space in the community.”
He said that with public livestock events there are always concerns about animal welfare issues as some of the animals have significant high-end value and can be worth $50,000. “That is a driving force of a certain population to go around and evaluate whether you are making an effort to protect the animals, they can really put an event complex in jeopardy through use of social media to push back against you.”
“We don’t want to have the reputation of not having covered stalls,” said Jorge Guerrero, Director of Parks and Recreation, “if we’re trying to attract these big events with these high-end animals.”
Barbee said the RV park will be largely contestant-driven because people want to be close to their animals. A part of the final economic report being presented this month will be a fee adjustment plan. “Part of this is setting up a design where events will want to be here because this would be a bonus to having an event with us.” He said the long-term vision, down the road, is to become a regional player as an event complex.
“How are you proposing we’re going to pay for this,” asked Chairman Pete Olsen. “From the building reserve? And where does that put us with the courthouse project?”
According to Comptroller Sherry Wideman, there is currently $5.5 million in the building reserve account.
Barbe affirmed that, saying, “We continue to increase building reserve even as we pull out of it for these projects because we’ve had an overarching increase in C-tax. We’re currently projected to see $400,000 more than last fiscal year out of C-tax. We’re going to see some level of pull-back on that.”
While Olsen is pleased the facility is generating revenue and increasing in value, “What I’m hearing is we’re going to take money we have in our pocket today and spend it on this as the minimal last build-out that we need to operate the center in a marketable way. That for future infrastructure increases we’re going to look for grants to finish that build-out. We need to put the brakes on this and go find other money.”
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