- April 15, 2024
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Year after year, the city-owned Palm Harbor Golf Club has lost money, and year after year, city officials have demanded that management company KemperSports explain why, and when and how things will turn improve.
This year, the golf club is still losing money, but it's doing a bit better than last year, KemperSports management representatives told city officials at a City Council workshop Jan. 12.
"These people are making the numbers change," City Councilman Bill McGuire said of the current KemperSports management team. "But we're not going to see that course break even in our lifetime. There are no customers."
The city covers the course's loss.
The course's estimated loss for the 2015-2016 fiscal year is $296,881, according to a KemperSports presentation before the council. It was $346,191 in the 2014-2015 fiscal year, but that was up from $315,000 the year before.
Breaking even, Palm Harbor Golf Club General Manager Brad Adams told council members, would require about 5,000 more rounds of golf per year. Adams said there is capacity for Kemper to raise the number of yearly rounds by 5,000, based on the number of golfers living in the area.
But although the number of rounds played at the club have increased over the past few years, the change has been gradual. There are a projected 35,264 rounds played this year, up from 34,383 in the 2014-2015 fiscal year (an 881-round increase) and 33,741 in the 2013-2014 fiscal year (a 642-round increase).
Kemper took over the property in 2009, when the city took the course, and promised profits by 2013. That didn't happen.
But the management company has been popular enough among the people who use the facility that the City Council, voting against a city staff recommendation, kept the course under Kemper's management in 2014 after dozens of Kemper supporters wearing red shirts and holding signs saying "Keep Kemper" attended a City Council meeting and urged officials to retain the company.
That contract contains an escape clause that would let the city end it early if Kemper doesn't meet the city's expectations, and with its passing, council members said they wanted regular updates from the management company.
The city has been been keeping tabs on Kemper, McGuire said, by holding monthly reviews of the course's finances.
The deficit projected for the golf course for the 2015-2016 fiscal year is $296,881, according to the KemperSports presentation. Kemper projects a loss of $230,000 at the course for the 2016-2017 fiscal year; $190,000 for the 2017-2018 fiscal year and $150,000 for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.
The course has brought in some new players through special programming for families and women and with golf clinics, Adams said.
"Lately we have seen ... all walks of life, all ages," he said. "To to see all walks of life walking through the doors is a great thing."
The city-owned, Kemper-managed tennis courts have also been losing money, though not as much as the golf course. KemperSports staff predicts a loss of $81,000 at the tennis center this year. The loss for the 2014-2015 fiscal year was $84,951, and the loss for the 2013-2014 year was $98,237, according to the presentation.
