Is Hiawatha Golf Course losing money?
Revenues are down the past 8 years, but not for the reasons given by the MPRB. Their consultant's report from 2014 gave the following reasons for the depressed revenue at Minneapolis Golf Courses:
- The MPRB consultant said in his report about the financial state of the Minneapolis Golf Courses, "Throughout this report we have harped about how these fabulous assets have gone unloved, neglected and essentially abandoned. We have tried to jolt hoping the reader of this report realizes how fabulous the underlying core assets owned by the Park Board are and the potential they offer citizens in the Minneapolis metropolis."
- Starting in 2010, lack of capital investment in the Minneapolis golf courses by the MPRB put the golf courses into a "death spiral" (investing less than 2% of the industry benchmark) .
- The MPRB policy of only funding capital investment in the Enterprise Fund when funds are available means capital investment is not guaranteed, and golf received a scant portion of the capital funds that were available.
- The golf courses were under-managed, reducing potential revenues
- Poor maintenance of Minneapolis Golf Courses affected user patronage.
- Equipment maintenance practices contributed to the poor maintenance of the golf courses.
Read more at: SaveHiawatha18 White Paper