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