Friday, October 4, 2002
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Friday, October 4, 2002 |
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Authority takes a hard look at tennis center, amphitheater budgets By JOHN
MUNFORD Faced with an edict from the City Council to pare down its dependence on hotel-motel tax funds, the Peachtree City Development Authority hashed out its budgets for the city's amphitheater, tennis center and economic development program at a special meeting Monday night. The budgets were discussed in detail during the meeting, which ran over three hours. The authority unanimously voted to put off adopting the budgets, giving time for input from authority members and city council representatives. "The reality is we're going to have to tighten things up and do the best we can," said authority chairman Tate Godfrey. "There has been a change in the way the government in the city looks at this." The consensus of the authority was that paring down its budgets won't be an easy task. The authority has traditionally used the hotel motel tax money to balance both the tennis center and amphitheater budgets, though most of the income for both facilities comes from user fees, membership fees and sponsorships. The City Council has asked the authority to enter a new intergovernmental agreement to replace the current one, which was enacted last year. Council members have asked the authority to eliminate its dependence on the hotel-motel tax revenues. Under the current deal, the authority gets just over $265,000 a year in hotel-motel tax revenues to run the tennis center, amphitheater and economic development program. Of the $22,080 the authority gets monthly from the city, roughly $6,400 goes towards debt payments, said authority member Brian Palmitessa, who serves as the authority treasurer. Authority member Doug Warner said he felt the amphitheater and tennis center should still be subsidized by the city because they are essentially recreational venues. "We can make it break even, but should the city fathers and mothers make us do that?" Warner said. The amphitheater budget includes a raise in ticket prices for the summer concert series from $20 to $25 per night, which boosts the bottom line by approximately $150,000. The overall budget, however, ends in a $74,000 deficit, part of which is due to an additional $30,000 to $40,000 in medical benefits and payroll tax the amphitheater budget took on, said authority executive director Virgil Christian. Also in the budget are plans for three new jazz concerts and two new southern rock concerts, said Amphitheater Director Donna Romeo. The idea behind those is to attract other patrons to the amphitheater than those interested in the variety of musical acts during the normal summer concert series, Romeo said. Romeo also noted the amphitheater will likely pay more for utilities this year once the offices are moved from the recreation building to the renovated offices directly in front of the amphitheater. Another $30,000 is budgeted for new ticketing software, which is needed since the current software is no longer supported by the company which produced it. The new software could possibly allow the amphitheater to sell tickets via its Web site, Romeo said. The tennis center budget also includes a deficit of $101,900, down from an estimated deficit this year of $165,000. Tennis center director Sean Ferreira said the revenue figures include the new court fee structure. Having the six new covered courts for rainy days will also supplement the court fee revenues, he added. Also, the authority will get more funding this year from rental of the restaurant at the new tennis center building, Ferreira said. Christian added that he is preparing a proposal to sell naming rights to each court to bring in additional revenue. The details haven't been finalized, but such "packages" could include a certain amount of memberships and possibly a corporate banquet for those sponsors. "It has been done before" at other tennis venues, Christian said.
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