Staff recommends City Council hear the update on the Amend Recreation Center (ARC) from the PRPL Director and ARC Operations Committee and help outline next steps regarding operation plans for the facility.  

On April 21, 2025, PRPL staff, representatives from A&E Design, a representative from Langlas Construction, and a representative from Johnson Consulting presented to Council the final design of the Amend Park Recreation Campus Courts Building, construction timeline, and pro forma. From this conversation, PRPL Director Woltjer noted the request from Council to have Council be included in this project as it moved forward. Director Woltjer emailed Council to have Ward representatives select who they would like to join the ARC Operations Committee. Ward representatives consulted with each other and emailed their selected Ward representative to Director Woltjer. The ARC Operations Committee is composed of the following individuals: CM Gulick (Ward 1), CM Neese (Ward 2), CM Kennedy (Ward 3), CM Aspenlieder (Ward 4), and CM Rupsis (Ward 5), City Administrator Chris Kukulski, Assistant City Administrator Kevin Iffland, PRPL Director Gavin Woltjer, and PRPL Recreation Superintendent Kory Thomson. 

The ARC Operations Committee has met eight (8) times since their formation: June 4, June 18, July 2, July 23, August 6, August 20, September 3, and September 10. Meetings were held in City Hall on these dates from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. except for the July 23 meeting which was held at Rose Pool.  

Meeting topics included:
June 4: selection of a Committee Chair (CM Aspenlieder elected); rules of the Committee; preliminary discussion of ARC expectations
June 18: ARC hours of operations; concessions; ARC board/governance 
July 2: ARC operation policy; potential daily, weekly, monthly programmatic scheduling; ARC staffing needs 
July 23: field trip to Rose Pool to look at concessions, staffing, and Rose Park recreation programming; recreation partnerships 
August 6: conversation with Ally Eggart from Visit Billings/TBID and Casey Conlon from Visit Billings/Sports Tourism 
August 20: conversation with Dick Zier from SBURA; conversation with Brandon Dowling from Johnson Consulting 
September 3: naming rights 
September 10: overview September 15 Council work session presentation 

At the April 21, 2025, work session, Council requested Director Woltjer to explore three different operational modalities for the ARC: private, public-private, and public. Information was ascertained from Johnson Consulting that larger facilities can create more revenue generation than smaller facilities. The ARC is considered a smaller facility. The facility is composed of four (4) main courts that are convertible to eight (8) smaller courts, five (5) exterior 3-on-3 courts, a three (3) lane walking track, and one (1) multipurpose room. This space is primarily designed for tournaments, court rentals, and recreation programming. Johnson Consulting provided examples of Community First Champion Center in Wisconsin and the SportsPark Center in Greenville, TX. Both of these facilities started with a third party operational model. In both cases, the third party was not able to maximize profits. In the case of Community First Champion Center, this led to the facility reverting back to local control when services diminished and care of the facility degraded. SportsPark Center, too, reverted to local control (Greenville Parks and Recreation) after three years. Johnson Consulting stressed that privately operated sports facilities are successful when national tournaments are available and are located in areas that are natural destinations for tourism or family vacations. The ARC facility is not designed to attract national tournaments. Johnson Consulting further expressed a key to success is the optimization of facility space through tournaments, recreation programming, court rentals, and concession sales. The pro forma from Johnson Consulting suggests that the Billings market would support regional and local tournaments, local events, and court rentals. 

The ARC Operations Committee further explored the private-public model. This model was decided to be too restrictive for both parties because of concession revenue, technology and security concerns, and maintenance of the facility.      

These meetings, in conjunction with conversations with stakeholders and subject experts, have provided a meaningful and prudent framework of how best to establish the ARC in a successful manner regarding facility operations and management for the next three (3) years. 
The ARC Operations Committee has expressed that PRPL operate and manage the ARC facility for a three (3) year period. The decision for this three-year duration is in direct relation to the $500,000 committed by the Billings Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID) to help offset operational costs during this time period. The ARC Operations Committee has requested PRPL meet financial and performance metrics during this three (3) year period. (These metrics are currently being developed by the Committee.) This Committee also concluded that the ARC facility is not conducive to a public membership model because it lacks fitness and aquatic amenities associated with typical recreation facilities. 

The following have been identified as next steps for the ARC Operations Committee:

• Council Resolution 
• Establish financial and performance metrics 
• MOU with TBID
• Finalization of ARC operation policy
• Formation of ARC Advisory Board 
• Establish Common Area Charges (CAM) for campus 
• Establish ARC budget 
• Amend current City ordinance regarding food trucks

The following steps have been identified as next steps for the ARC Advisory Board: 

• Establish tournament and court rental fees 
• Job descriptions for Facility Manager; hybrid Recreation Specialist/Tournament Coordinator 
• Formation of Naming Rights Committee  
• Marketing campaign          

   

PRPL department 
City of Billings 
Users of the ARC facility 
Users of Amend Park campus 
Billings Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID)
South Billings Urban Renewal Association (SBURA)
Visit Billings (Billings Chamber of Commerce)
 

City Council may:

• Approve; or,
• Not Approve

PRPL staff developed the following estimated revenues and expenses based on conversations with industry experts and other facility comparisons. 

Revenues: ($460,000; does not include any naming rights)

• Tournaments (15) = $150,000
• Court Rentals (115) = $115,000
• Concessions (based on tournaments only) = $75,000
  • The Committee agreed that concession operations should not be contracted to a third party. A similar model already established at Rose Pool will be utilized. Concessions will offer two different menus for everyday operations and tournaments.  
• Recreation programming ($10,000/month) = $120,000

Expenses: ($587,000)

• Facility Manager (salary and benefits) = $100,000
• Recreation Specialist/Tournament Coordinator (salary and benefits) = $80,000
• Maintenance staff (salary and benefits) = $70,000
• Support staff (wages) = $150,000
• Building costs (utilities) = $112,000
• Supplies/Equipment = $25,000
• Concession inventory = $30,000 
• Reserves = $20,000 (the goal is to fully fund the reserve at 20% of the cost of the facility ($2M); this goal will be supplemented by funding from naming rights and any fiscal revenues above operational needs)  

TBID has committed $500,000 total for three (3) years to offset operational costs. An MOU will be created with TBID to outline how the breakdown of this money will occur each fiscal year. Additionally, the ARC Operations Committee has emphasized that all revenues generated at the ARC remain at the ARC to cover operational costs and contribute to a reserve account for maintenance and capital improvements.

The Committee outlined a menu regarding opportunities for naming rights. Lifetime naming opportunities are not available. Pricing for the menu is still under discussion. The menu is as follows:

• Building (10 years)
• Four (4) courts (5 years) 
• Lobby/Concession area (5 years)
• Multipurpose Room (3 years) 
• 3-on-3 exterior courts (3 years) 
• Banners (3 years) 
• Scoreboards (3 years) 

Preliminary discussions regarding naming rights revenue generation estimate that between $300,000-$425,000 could be collected yearly. 

It is recommended from the Committee that revenue generated from the sale of naming rights be used in the following manner:

• Years 1-3:
  • 50% for operations and maintenance 
  • 50% for reserves 
• Years 4-10:
  • 75% for operations and maintenance 
  • 25% for reserves