The Springfield City Council is being asked to give money to help promote the new PGA Tour web.com tour event coming to town in July, but not everyone sees it as a hole in one – not even an alderman who is the state tourism director.
At issue is $15,000 out of a $30,000 proposal that would be coming from the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau. Ward 6 Alderman Cory Jobe says on one hand he’s in charge of tourism, but on the other hand…
“All of us aldermen around this horseshoe have major events in our wards. Downtown Springfield Inc. has major fairs and festivals. Everybody has them,” says Jobe. “When will the [funding] requests stop? That’s my first concern, about putting public dollars in.”
Jobe says what’s more, a golf event doesn’t bring the hotel stays that everyone thinks they do – something the Springfield Hotel Lodging Association also claims. That said, Jobe says his state office will be providing help marketing the tournament “at no charge.”
Ward 8 Alderman Kris Theilen says you never know until you try.
“I think in some cases, sometimes you’ve got to roll the dice,” says Theilen. “You’ve got to start somewhere to start bringing people in.”
Ward 4’s John Fulgenzi says taking the money from the CVB isn’t the big deal hotel operators make it out to be.
“$15,000 is very little seed money in the hopes of building a tournament like something like this would be,” says Fulgenzi. “You’re talking about $1.6 million that you’ve got in” the CVB’s funds.
Theilen says if it falls flat, he’ll be the first to want that money paid back from the city’s general fund.
The matter is expected to be before aldermen again next week.