News

Dear Sports Enthusiasts,

This letter is a call to action. As you know, the City of Phoenix has undergone significant revenue challenges in recent years. The City Council recently proposed several new budget cuts that would not only effect vital City services, but also the Parks and Recreation facilities we all enjoy (http://phoenix.gov/BUDGET/index.html).

In addition to programmatic cuts, the Council’s current proposal would close three softball complexes and also severely alter activities at Reach 11 Sports Complex. The way we utilize these facilities to drive tourism revenues by attracting major events will be changed for the near future if not forever. These cuts would take place immediately upon the ratification of the recommendations by the City Council on March 2^nd of this year. It is time our opinion is heard together as one.

There are four ways you can help. In any case, several talking points for getting our message across are listed below. Here is how you can help:

1. Speak at a public hearing – Beginning Wednesday, February 10^th and continuing through Wednesday, February 24^th the City Council will conduct 15 budget hearings at various times and locations throughout the city. The public meeting schedule is listed on the pages that follow. At these hearings, residents will have the opportunity to make comments or suggestions on the budget proposals. Wear your team uniform, bring others, attend multiple meetings, speak often.
2. Write your council member a letter – Personally hand written letters are VERY impactful to elected officials. Each councilmember’s contact information is on the following pages. If you do not know who your councilmember is , go to http://copwww05.phoenix.gov/mydistrict/.
3. Drop your council member an e-mail – Each councilmember’s e-mail address and web site is listed on the following pages.
4. Call your council member’s office – Each councilmember’s phone number is listed on the following pages.

Below are the key talking points for you and your constituents to utilize. This list is by no means all inclusive and the items are not listed in any order of priority. The purpose of outlining these talking points here is to give us a unified voice. By utilizing the below points, we will all be on the same “song sheet” if you will. The main points for use in your public hearing speeches, e-mails, letters, or phone calls are:

1. Events we host generate significant tourism dollars for the community. Without these facilities, or even a “watered down” venue offering, these revenue generating events will not take place in the region.
2. Reach 11 hosted 31 tournaments last year and has a similar number already booked for 2010. The 2010 events will bring over 11,400 people to Reach 11, and will include over 34,000 hotel room night stays. According to the City’s own economic impact analysis, the 2009 events held at Reach 11 generated nearly $114 million in economic impact, including sales tax collections (again, from Reach 11 events ALONE) that pay for its annual operating budget three-times over. Put in perspective, the AVERAGE spring training team in the Cactus League generates $23.9 million per year (Reach 11 events are equal to roughly FOUR Cactus League team’s impact). The proposed changes to Reach 11 will cause many of these events, especially the national championships we host, to leave Phoenix all together. Handcuffing a money maker in times of financial strife is not sound fiscal management.
3. The City’s softball complexes hosted 104 tournaments and events last year, including more than 2,500 teams, with more than 75,000 people attending softball activities in the City of Phoenix. According to the City’s own economic impact analysis, those tournaments and events generated over $35,000,000 in economic impact that garnered the City over $950,000 in tax revenues (Again, softball activities in Phoenix account for more than an entire Cactus League team). Tax revenues and user fees cover more than two-thirds of the total softball budget, not to mention the additional economic impact of the events held at these same facilities. The annual budget of these softball facilities is just shy of $1,674,000. These same fields that generate over $35 million in impact for the City only cost $1.7 million to operate, thusly a return on investment (ROI) for the City of nearly 21-to-1 on every dollar invested. This is good business. A point of note, over 70% of the users of the City’s softball facilities are younger GIRLS fast pitch players (not older men playing in recreational leagues).
4. These cuts will cause a long-term ripple effect as the impact of the events held in Phoenix will be lost. If we eliminate or compromise these facilities and their programs, what other revenue streams is the Council proposing that will replace the income lost from these tournaments, events, and recreational user fees?
5. NONE of the above points cover other vital issues such as:
   1. Hotel occupancy and the taxes collected and reinvested by our hoteliers around sports tourism.
   2. Prior cuts have already been made each of the past two years to Parks and Rec.
   3. We did not discuss the impact of golf tourism, which is also under Parks and Recreation purview.
   4. Overall community impact Parks and Rec has on our community and our citizens.
   5. Reach 11 is included in the region’s World Cup bid, these budget cuts could affect the success or failure of that bid.
   6. We did not discuss the elimination of jobs, nor the trickle down effect of what the eliminated staff positions at Parks and Rec give back to our community, in tax revenues, economic impact, and simple community service. Taking these people away will make it nearly impossible for us to attract events/tournaments to the area. We need their support.

This is obviously a critical time for all of us in this community. Please take an active role by reaching out to your council member with the information provided in this document. The next two weeks are critical for our parks, our future tournaments, and the revenue we all drive to our community through sport. If the Council takes away these parks, we won’t have any “tools in our toolkit” to continue to attract the significant revenue dollars our events each generate.

Please call me with questions (602.369.6955). Thank you for your time and energy towards this very important outreach effort. Thank you for all you do for sports in the Valley of the Sun.

Yours in Sport,

Jon Schmieder

President
Phoenix Regional Sports Commission

“Without the support of the Phoenix Regional Sports Commission and the City of Phoenix facilities (Rose Mofford, Papago, Cesar Chavez and Desert West Softball Complexes), Senior Softball-USA would not be able to bring the Senior Softball World Championships, the largest senior softball tournament in the world, to Phoenix. The 10,000 players and their spouses and families infuse more than $15 million into the Maricopa County economy over 10 days — and that is all possible through the partnership of the City of Phoenix and the quality of these fields for the World Championships.”

Terry Hennessy
Chief Executive Officer
Senior Softball-USA

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“Mr. Larsen:

I am writing to let you know what an outstanding job the Reach 11 staff did in assisting us with the 2009 NIRSA NCCS Soccer Championships. 80 collegiate club soccer teams participated in the event held November 19-21, 2009. The fields were in excellent condition and the weather was perfect for the tournament. As the co- director of competition, I have attended almost every event in its 16 year history and can say without hesitation that the complex was the best and the staff even better. They were a large part of a very successful weekend. Please pass on my thanks to Janelle and all of the Reach 11 staff. We look forward to returning in 2011.”

Randall Ford
Co-Director of Competition
NIRSA NCCS Soccer Championships

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“The impact to both Pointe Hilton Properties of losing the Reach 11 youth facilities as well as Rose Mofford would be in the $100,000s of lost room revenue each year. Also then in return, the same in tax dollars for the city of Phoenix. We count on having these great facilities up and running year round to help continue to go sports tourism here in the valley.”

Chris Williams
Hilton Tapatio Resort

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“We obviously considered the fee structure when we awarded Phoenix the bid to host our annual Championships. It was an important part of why Phoenix got it. The commitment from the Sports Commission, the CVB, the hotels and especially the Park & Rec folks (lead by Genel) were extremely important to our future plans in Phoenix.”

Karen Collins
Director of Events
USA Field Hockey