Course Rental Fees - How to gauge the market?

[zrxchris]

Our City has spent $40 in the last 18 months on disc golf, improvements to the existing course and developing 2 new courses in short order and has plans for more perhaps.

So in Alabama out state coordinator and a large majority of the regular TD's say that no public courses charge a rental fee (only a couple of privates' Red Arsenal & an Off-road Park), not have any stipulations that you should rent a shelter either. Examples being a recent large C Tier in a small town that drew over 60 but the TD/Vendor set up shop in the parking lot and the City did not see any direct use revenue from the event, only money spent in town. The event drew many overnight stays, but with few traveling pro's most all transient guests crashed with local city's club members.

My 2day tourney drew only 40ppl but was a true amateur event where the Tourism Commission paid for facilities rental thru a cash sponsorship. A good cash added purse drew several out of state players who did stay at local hotels and came early for practice.

The City did research and saw many small city municipal courses charge $75-$125 a day for course rental and discounted shelter rental if you rented the course. Local promoters are shying away from using our courses or trying to circumvent the process entirely and just use without notifying the parks dept.

From marketing standpoint the City most likely needs to cut rates in half or not charge as the local market (within 50 miles for sure) does not charge for course rental. All courses are fairly equal with amenities such as bathrooms, gyms etc.

What is like your neck of the woods, if the city spends a lot of dough to improve DG Courses should expect rental income even if very small amount or should the course always be free to use for tourneys?

 

[zrxchris]

MODS - please move to tourney forum...sorry misposted

 

[kenjiac]

If we are having a larger event the city/town charges us to use the pavillion if we need it. If we don't need the pavilillion we don't get charged to use the course. Sometime we even hold large events and the pavillion is already rented out then we have keys to a stadium tennis court that is no longer in use that we use for tourney central. Still never been charged to use a public course for a tournament.

 

[DavidSauls]

Columbia, SC - the parks don't charge rental for the course.

Earlewood used to have a community center that they gave us free use of. They tore it down and built a fancy one, then charged a huge fee to use it (over $1,000, I think)---but credited us for work the club had done on the course, erosion control and planting trees, etc.

Should parks charge rental for the course? I dunno. I don't think the money they've spent justifies it, since that's primarily for the local community to use the course. The fact that we're granted control of the course, and non-tournament players can't use it, might warrant a fee. If the park charges other groups to rent pavilions, hold festivals, etc., then perhaps they're right to charge tournaments, too.

 

[biscoe]

I think parks are justified in charging a fee for sole use (closing the course). Generally we pay $75-$100 around here.

 

[Discette]

:doh: :wall: for all the TD's that are too cheap to pay $25.00 for a shelter rental!!!


Be thankful you don't live in So Cal.

The park fees for the last event I hosted at La Mirada were $1,288.00! This did not include the use of any shelters as those cost extra.

The Wintertime Open pays $3,200 in fees. The worst part is the fees do not provide any exclusive use. There could still be a giant soccer tournament, bike rally or walk-a-thon planned for the very same dates.


When I ran events in Iowa and Minnesota, typical shelter fees were $25.00 per day.

 

[JC17393]

I think parks are justified in charging a fee for sole use (closing the course). Generally we pay $75-$100 around here.

Absolutely. It's been a while since I've run an event on a public course, but when I did, I had to pay two separate fees...one for exclusive use of the course and one to rent the pavilion where I staged tournament central. Without the paid permit from the park, I had no authority to tell casuals that they could not use the disc golf course.

The only exception I've seen to paying for the course permit was trading course work hours for the permit. Of course that only works if the park has some kind of volunteer program that tracks that kind of thing, or the local club has a good working relationship with the park and can pull X number of permits for free each year in exchange for helping to maintain the course.

 

[zrxchris]

Just to clarify, Our course funding was not community based monies. It was strictly sourced from a Tourism Enhancement Fund drawn from lodging tax, so that money came from non residents.

Being and old Ultimate players I'm used to renting the fields for a tourney and often times those same fields might be free for pick-up games. More use, more time, more people means a fee.

 

[scarpfish]

Is there even a market for this sort of thing? If you want to hold a tournament at Venue X, you're kind of at the mercy of whatever entity that owns Venue X is charging. While you can always plead your case if you think their fees are unreasonable, I don't think you're going to gain any leverage with them by threatening to go hold the event at Venue Y (which has lower/no fees) instead.