Agenda Packets - 2001/04/23 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council April 9, 2001 Regular Meeting Page 4 Mr. Hammerschmidt stated he did have a regional breakout that he receives on a yearly basis but noted the numbers were all within a couple of percentage points of each other and that the national averages apply with very small differences. Mr. Hammerschmidt stated Mounds View is competing with seven or eight courses and the rest of the 100 plus courses in the metro area are in a different market. Mayor Sonterre questioned whether Mr. Hammerschmidt felt Mounds View was competing with some of the courses in the study that are quite a distance from the City. Mr. Hammerschmidt indicated he was referring to those courses that are closer to the City. Council Member Stigney noted he was able to get information at the National Golf Federation website on the internet and he found that the bigger problem is keeping people interested in golf and returning to the course once you have attracted them to it. Mr. Hammerschmidt agreed that the retention factor is an issue. He stated leaders in the industry are trying to warn people that they need to make it comfortable for golfers in order to retain them. He then explained Mounds View has been ahead for a while as the pros in the pro shop are accessible and there is a teaching facility at the course to help make golfers more comfortable. Council Member Thomas questioned how comfortable Springsted was with limiting the study to the eight-mile radius. The Springsted Representative explained the study was kept to the eight-mile radius because the first study used that radius and they wanted to stay as close as possible to the first study for comparison purposes. He then stated they had tried to use the areas that showed the same potential growth in golfers based on demographics that were the same or similar to Mounds View. Council Member Thomas stated she had difficulty with that example due to the cities on the north having much more capability for growth than Mounds View. She then stated she understood the need for the apples to apples comparison but asked if given the opportunity, would Springsted have expanded beyond the eight-mile radius. The Springsted Representative stated that when they did a survey follow up of the golfers it substantiated that most golfers are coming from within the eight-mile radius. Mr. Hammerschmidt explained that the golf course keeps track via telephone numbers of who plays golf in Mounds View. He indicated there were 8,000 separate telephone numbers that called for tee times last year. He then stated if you assign a value of two people per phone call you end up with 16,000 golfers who used the facility to play 42,000 rounds meaning the average person played about four rounds of golf. He then stated the National Golf Foundation feels you need 2,000 to 3,000 golfers to support a public golf course using the national average to make up the 42,000 rounds. He further stated that if you could get each current golfer to play two more