Park District Shoring Up Losses at Fox Bend Golf Course

Mounting losses at have officials taking a hard look at cutting costs and turning the red ink to black.

The golf course may lose more than $100,000 this year because of what Park District Executive Director Bill McAdam says is a three-pronged problem—a bad economy, bad weather and local competitors who have offered deep discounts.

“Nobody around here thinks a loss is acceptable,” McAdam said. “We’re just trying to stop that from happening again next year.”

A report delivered to the Park Board’s golf committee earlier this month showed that the course was down about 2,700 rounds from district projections, causing a a deficit of $101,000 in greens fees alone. However, rounds have picked up as of late and are off about 1,700.

“Rounds were off primarily to the poor weather in the spring and the heat and flooding of the past few weeks,” the report said. “While the economy is still very poor, during the good weather times we were achieving our numbers.”

A plan of action contained in the report shows the district plans e-mail blasts highlighting specials at the course along with creating package deals that include carts and food and advertising them on websites like Groupon.

“The golf industry is changing," McAdam said. “There is a lot of competition out there offering a lot of discounts, and we’ve got to get in the game better.”

Revenue talks have also centered on the possibility of adding a dining hall at the course. Because the course does not have a large permanent facility, many local golf outings travel to other courses like White Tail Ridge in Yorkville, said Commissioner Roy White, who serves on the golf committee.

“I’d like to see us move forward (with a dining hall),” he said. “The first thing we need to do is have an architect come in and give us a plan that would be economically feasible for the park district to do.”

Commissioner Len Wass, who has long questioned expenses at the park district, said continued losses are being felt by all taxpayers.

“We shouldn’t have non-participants subsidizing something like the golf course,” Wass said at Thursday’s Park Board meeting. “I will beat the (drum) on that one.  I don’t want to see retired people or people with limited resources subsidizing because we’re losing money at the golf course.”

Wass also pressed McAdam to give three concrete examples of where expenses have been cut at the course. McAdam said the committee report highlights many cost-saving measures, totalling about $77,000

According the report, about $42,000 has been saved in payroll expenses, $20,000 more in administrative expenses (marketing and staff travel), another $10,000 in maintenance costs, and $6,200 in food and beverage costs.

Talk has also turned to privatizing the management of the course. However, McAdam said members of the golf committee agreed there was no interest in pursuing that possibility. Commissioners have said the difficulty of managing the course’s drainage issues could prove to be a liability if taken over by an outside company unfamiliar with the course.

Another cost-saving measure will be the closure of Pearce’s Restaurant for January and February. The restaurant will still be available for catering events, McAdam said. The closure is expected to save the district an additional $10,000 to $15,000.