SportsPlex not breaking even, but exceeding expectations after Year 2

The city is spending more than $160,000 a year in restaurant tax revenue to subsidize Cape Girardeau’s SportsPlex.

City officials, however, remain optimistic the indoor sports facility will one day break even.

Graciela Lopez of Marble Hill, Missouri, takes a ride on a scooter board with her son, Benjamin Garner, 5, during Cape Girardeau Parks & Recreation's 10th annual Mother Son Game Night on Feb. 23 at the Cape Girardeau SportsPlex.Jacob Wiegand

Toward that end, they are looking at ways to generate more revenue at the sports complex, including charging admission fees for city youth league games.

The 121,000-square-foot facility near Interstate 55 opened in May 2017.

Before the facility opened, city finance director John Richbourg told the Southeast Missourian the city had set aside $1.65 million in restaurant tax revenue to subsidize operations for the first five years.

But he and city manager Scott Meyer said Tuesday the annual operating deficit has been smaller than anticipated.

The proposed fiscal 2020 budget projects the facility will still require a subsidy to break even well beyond the five-year period.

The city expects to spend nearly $760,000 to operate the SportsPlex in the new fiscal year beginning July 1, according to the proposed budget.

Revenue is projected to total less than $598,000.

As a result, the city plans to subsidize the operation by more than $162,000 in restaurant tax revenue from the Convention and Visitors Fund in the coming fiscal year. But city officials believe the subsidy will continue to fall over the coming years. By fiscal 2025, the annual subsidy could be just more than $150,000, according to Richbourg.

“It is doing better than what we thought,” he said.

Personnel costs, which are budgeted at nearly $457,000 for the coming fiscal year, are the biggest expense at the SportsPlex, Richbourg said

SportsPlex supervisor Heather Davis said the facility operates with five full-time staff members and 40 or 50 part-time workers.

Davis said concessions provide 28% of SportsPlex revenue, the largest single category.

Court and field rentals generate 21% of revenue. Rentals for tournaments account for 13% of revenue while revenue from use of the facility by local sports leagues generates about 12% of revenue, Davis said.

The SportsPlex hosts about 35 weekend volleyball and basketball tournaments a year, she said.

The city typically charges a tournament organizer $4,400 for a two-day event. The tournament organization usually charges admission, but none of the admission fees go to the city, Davis said.

“A lot of people just assume we are making a lot of money,” but Davis said that is not the case.

The city does not charge admission for spectators at city league games. But Davis said the city may start charging a $2 admission fee for adult and teenage spectators to youth league games, beginning in September.

Davis said city staff had explored the idea of charging for parking, but decided against it.

Meyer said the city may in the future require $1 of every tournament admission fee to go to the SportsPlex.

Regardless, Davis said, “overall our fees are very fair.”

Meyer said officials initially hoped SportsPlex operations would break even within five to 10 years of opening. Meyer said he doesn’t know whether the operation can break even within the 10-year period, but he believes it can happen at some point.

While budget figures envision the subsidy declining by about $3,000 a year from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2025, Meyer said he believes the subsidy need will decrease by an even faster rate.

“We feel good about where we are,” Meyer said.

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