Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Golf course manager lays out poor numbers for council

Boulder Creek Golf Club General Manager Scott Jones released a report at Tuesday's Boulder City Council meeting detailing Triad Golf Management's budget for the struggling city-owned course.

The course has not yet exhausted the fund established for its construction, but its lower-than-expected revenue has many worried that the remaining funds will not be enough to complete the course as planned.

As the course continues to try to attract customers, Jones outlined plans to cut water usage and reduce the percentage of Boulder City golfers playing at peak times.

"If everybody from Boulder City played there full-time, we would not be able to afford this golf course," Jones said, explaining the group's plans to increase the relative usage of higher-paying Clark County and tournament players.

"We would appreciate (Boulder City residents') participation in coming out to the course at off-peak times," he added.

Council members expressed concern that the plan to cut water usage could ruin the grass, but Jones said he was confident that short-term cuts could save money without compromising the quality of play. He admitted, however, that economic "circumstances beyond anyone's control" could prevent the golf course from meeting its budget.

"If it should become a problem where we have seriously no play, there are some guidelines and standards that (City Council) will need to readjust," Jones said. "(Triad) will never be unwilling to make changes to this budget to make it appropriate."

In a statement to the council following Jones' presentation, Bill Smith, the challenger to Mayor Bob Ferraro in the recent election, said he doubted that the golf course's budget could be balanced as soon as Jones projected.

"It's okay to be optimistic, but I think this council has to be practical,' Smith said. "There are going to be losses."

Specifically, Smith criticized the budget report for its failure to account for depreciation of assets or for interest due on the company's $8.7 million loan from the city.

"The chances of this golf course making money for the next five years is practically nonexistent," he said.

Ferraro disagreed, saying he believed there was a good chance the course could soon be back on track financially without the use of any of the city's general funds.

He said he was encouraged by Triad being more forthcoming with information about the course's finances. Noting that Jones' report had been presented to the council only shortly before the meeting, Ferraro said that he had "glanced through all the booklets" and found that they contained "lots of good numbers."

"It would have been very useful to have this information earlier, but they kept saying they didn't have it," he said. Ferraro added that he would examine the report critically, and he endorsed Smith's suggestion that the council hold a workshop to examine the budget before presenting a "full accounting" in August.

Boulder Creek's financial health was one of the major issues in the recent city elections and played a role in Ferraro's call for the resignation of City Manager John Sullard last month.

City projections for the $22 million golf course done before the course was built showed the course turning a $60,000 profit for its first six months. Those figures were also included in a city-issued newsletter that came out in early May, and Ferraro based his campaign, in part, on the premise that the course was doing well financially.

But a week before the June 3 general election, city and Triad officials presented a report that showed course operations had cost about $480,000 more than revenues in the four months since it opened in early January.

The figures seemed to support Smith's longstanding argument that the course was losing money and would become a financial drag on the city.

Ferraro blamed Sullard for providing misleading information in the newsletter about the course's financial condition.

Sullard said the information in the pre-construction projections was the only reliable information on the course available to him when the newsletter was published.

Sullard did not resign, and instead was charged with working to turn around the fortunes of the golf course as fast as possible.

Ferraro, who beat Smith by 18 votes to win re-election, said he still thinks Boulder Creek will turn a profit and attract tourists to Boulder City. However, he and other officials say now it will obviously take a lot longer than previosuly thought for the course to turn a profit.

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