Thursday, January 5

An Immodest Proposal

Today's Trib published a story about the city's golf debt. We knew it was high, but I have to confess that I did not realize that we have foregiven $725 thousand in golf debt. Talk about a subsidy!

Some of you might say that this is just sour grapes from a non-golfer, but I think we need to look at some radical solutions. As I posted here, we need to start treating our golfing assets as their own profit center. A profit center that does not perform needs tough love in order to make it turn around.

We have a great deal of debt and some very attractive assets. We also have two golf courses when most cities our size only have one. We should divest ourselves of one of the courses, and use the funds to retire the debt.

The sale of the Gannon course this month proves that a market exists. It also shows that golf can be profitable, or at least break-even for a non-profit entity like our municipal government. There is no excuse for the red ink that is bleeding from these courses.

I have nothing against golf, and would actually like to learn the game. However, we need to at least investigate the sale of one of our two municipal courses.

1 comment:

ZenPanda said...

Selling off one course is the best idea I have heard yet.