Tucson Municipal Golf: Other Possible Uses?

[Steve_ Shaffer]

5 courses, 2 have a deed restriction. What's a city to do?


Doesn't look good. Randolph Park's 2 courses may survive as they make money.



http://tucson.com/news/local/city-council-looking-for-new-uses-for-silverbell-el-rio/article_5165bc4e-2a47-5ccf-89a3-7b61185ad312.html

[Scott Weersing]

I was surprised with the number of rounds at each course. None of them seem to be struggling.

I was also surprise that El Rio lost money despite having 40,390 rounds played in 2016.
I would expect that they lost money because they have a bond to pay off and that is where the revenue is going.

[Jason Topp]

I played a lot of golf at these courses in the 80'- particularly Randolph and Fred Enke.

A few thoughts:

1.  The cited standard of 1 course for 50K residents does not make sense in Tucson where the population probably at least doubles for a portion of the year.

2.   If one is concerned about growing the game - these are exactly the types of courses that can do so.

3.  There probably are too many courses in town.

4.  Losing Silverbell seems like no big loss to me.  The course stinks and there is plenty of golf in the area.  I am not sure whether the county course still exists but it is a better option that serves the same type of customer base.

5.  El Rio is pretty interesting.  I think it hosted a tour tournament at one time.  It is in a terrible neighborhood.  It would surprise me if a housing development could do well there unless one razed the surrounding neighborhood.  If there was one course that would be a candidate for an interesting restoration, El Rio would be it. 

6.  Fred Enke seemed like a good use of property that would not be used for something else.  It is surrounded by an air force junk yard.  It was always pretty cool to look at the rotting planes while playing.  Perhaps the city has grown out that direction but it was a long ways away from anything other than the air force base when I played it.  The course itself is a strange one for municipal play because it is very much a target course. 

[Forrest Richardson]

This is near/dear to my heart. A disclosure.....I have done significant groundwork in Tucson to set the stage for what may happen. The reality is that the inventory (supply-demand) for golf in Tucson is not balanced. Either you close privately held course assets, or publicly owned assets. Either way it will be hard to swallow.


The best outcome is that the golf gets better with transformations and funding available to sustain golf courses for public access.

[SB]

I was surprised with the number of rounds at each course. None of them seem to be struggling.

I was also surprise that El Rio lost money despite having 40,390 rounds played in 2016.
I would expect that they lost money because they have a bond to pay off and that is where the revenue is going.

Sounds like El Rio is using potable water.  Not sure what water costs are in Tuscon, but it's probably easily $400,000, could be a lot more.

[Matthew Petersen]

I was surprised with the number of rounds at each course. None of them seem to be struggling.

I was also surprise that El Rio lost money despite having 40,390 rounds played in 2016.
I would expect that they lost money because they have a bond to pay off and that is where the revenue is going.

Sounds like El Rio is using potable water.  Not sure what water costs are in Tuscon, but it's probably easily $400,000, could be a lot more.

That is the implication and that's sort of stunning. No wonder the place was rock hard when I used to play there in the summer.