City eyes cutting support for Fairfield Glade golf tourneys

Jun. 2—Cumberland County and the city of Crossville have long been known as the Golf Capital of Tennessee, with nine golf courses in the county.

But the city of Crossville is at a crossroads with its support of two large golf tournaments held annually in Fairfield Glade.

"Those contracts ran out last year," City Manager Greg Wood told the Crossville City Council during its May 17 budget discussion. "The general feeling I got was that you did not want to renew those."

The city had paid $25,000 to sponsor the Tennessee Women's Open and another $25,000 for the Tennessee Senior Men's State Open tournaments.

The city continues to sponsor the Tennessee State Team Championship at $8,000, the Tennessee Women's Open Pro-Am at $5,000 and the Tennessee high school Golf Capital Golf Tournament for $6,000.

Wood said the city does have money available to provide some sponsorship for the two large tournaments through the city's hotel-motel tax. The revenue from this tax is reserved for economic and tourism development, with about $75,000 undesignated in the upcoming budget.

However, Wood cautioned against a multi-year commitment using those funds.

"That fluctuates," he said. "That's a source you can tap without increasing your deficit."

Councilman Scot Shanks said the Tennessee Golf Association had contacted him about speaking to the council at its next work session.

Councilman R.J. Crawford asked if the tournaments were contingent on the city's sponsorship.

Shanks said, "They probably just wouldn't be in Cumberland County. Right now, they're in Fairfield Glade."

Wood said he had tried to evaluate hotel-motel tax and sales tax revenue around the time of the tournaments to identify an economic impact.

"There wasn't a blip when they came in because it was just one weekend," Wood said. "But I would say overall your tourist dollars, you do get a fairly decent bump at least in the summer months from people coming in to play golf because there's not that many restaurants or places to shop in Fairfield, to be honest."

Crossville Mayor James Mayberry said he believed a softball tournament likely had a greater impact, with more players staying in hotels inside the city limits and shopping and eating locally. Wood said many of the players for the women's tournament are housed in timeshare units or with families in Fairfield Glade.

"The hotels come in with people coming to watch," he said.

Shanks said, "I'm fine with having an open mind to these. I have not been a fan in the past."

Local resident Levonn Hubbard said the softball tournaments tend to bring families to the community.

"I've waited in line because of it, proudly," he said. "Give serious thought to something that really brings in a crowd."

Wood said the Crossville Shooting Sports Park brings 200-300 people for each of their tournaments during the year, as well.

"We're getting more and more activities in the area that do bring additional revenue," Wood said.

Shanks said, "The other side of it is that we are the Golf Capital of Tennessee."

Hubbard said, "We're the one that decided we were that."

Councilman Rob Harrison said the community launched the Golf Capital of Tennessee campaign years before to make the community top of mind for something that made it unique from other counties in the region.

"Everywhere can say 'We've got ball tournaments.' But we were trying to say what do we have that nobody else has?" Harrison said. "It was trying to obtain a No. 1 position in everybody's mind."

Crawford said he didn't think the city needed to abandon the Golf Capital moniker, but he thought other areas of the community needed to have "a little more skin in the game from a marketing standpoint."

The council is also considering nonprofit donation requests totaling $419,328.

The requests include a one-time donation of $150,000 to the Roane State Community College Foundation to assist with construction of a new lab and nursing classroom at the Cumberland County campus. The school secured about $1.7 million in state appropriations for the estimated $2 million project.

Other requests include:

—$10,000 for Hospice of Cumberland County

—$6,786 contract with Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency

—$5,500 to the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program

—$2,000 to Teens Against Drugs TAD Center

—$8,000 for Avalon Center

—$15,000 for Hilltoppers Inc.

—$5,500 to Court-Appointed Special Advocates

—$4,000 for Creative Compassion

—$30,000 for Fair Park Senior Center

—$50,000 for the Cumberland County Playhouse

—$90,000 for the Crossville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce

—$4,000 for Wags and Whiskers

—$10,000 for Downtown Crossville Inc.

—$1,000 for Kids on the Rise

—$15,000 for the Friends of the Trails

—$1,000 for Veterans Honor Guard

—$7,542 for Habitat for Humanity

—$1,500 for Cumberland County Young Marines

"I don't mess with these a lot because I feel these are your purview," Wood told the council.

The city council has not scheduled its next budget discussion. The budget and tax rate were approved on first reading May 17, in title only. The fiscal year ends June 30, and the council plans to have a new budget finalized before then.

The council is scheduled to meet June 7 for its monthly work session at 5 p.m., with the June monthly meeting scheduled for June 14 at 6 p.m.

Heather Mullinix is editor of the Crossville Chronicle. She covers schools and education in Cumberland County. She may be reached at hmullinix@crossville-chronicle.com.