First let us make it clear we will feel Green Hill Golf Course is a great asset for the City of Worcester and should remain a gold course. Our only question is if the tax-payers are getting a fair return on this asset that is a currently a liability costing the tax-payers $1,300,000 over the past ten years.
The City of Worcester, however, should at the very least conduct an RFP (Request for Proposal)to privatize the golf courses, where private golf management companies bid on the management of the course specifying a set fee to the City of Worcester. Instead of costing the tax-payers money each year, we would actually receive a payment from the private golf management company. Would there be bidders? We do not know for sure, but isn’t there is a fiduciary responsibility to find out?
Instead we are being told that if we spend $800,000 on a driving range and that the revenues from this new endeavor will cover the operating deficit. Lets look at the numbers:
- 800,000 initial investment is not chump change
- Annual operating deficit at the golf course of $150,000 per year.
- Assume the driving range is open 6 months and sells a bucket of balls for $10.
- We would need to sell 15,000 buckets of balls,
- Keep in mind this is not exactly a high traffic location.
- Does anyone remember the driving range off Shrewsbury Street?
When you take into the initial up front cost and the cost to operate the facility, we think that at best you may have a small operating profit but no way will this driving range produce a profit of $150,000 to cover the operating deficit at the golf course. In closing we ask again for the City of Worcester to put out an RFP to at the very least see what the market is. What is there to lose??
Check out this video about what another municipally golf course has done.
