Saturday, October 31, 2020

Joplin City Council poised to approve Parkwood Tournament proposal to lease, operate city stadiums


Joplin city officials estimate that a deal with Parkwood Tournament LLC, allowing the newly formed company to lease four stadiums for the next three years, will have a net benefit of $57,000 for the city.

The deal with the company, which is run by Mike Greninger, Bobby Landis and Don Patty, will have its second and third readings Monday night during the 6 p.m. Joplin City Council meeting.

The not-for-profit Joplin Sports Authority, which did not learn about the deal until it already had the approval of city officials and was in contract form, voted this week to submit a proposal for operating the stadiums that it said would be a better arrangement for the city financially, but no such deal is on the preliminary Council agenda.







City officials say the $57,000 net benefit would include a decrease during the first year in operational loss of $27,000 and $30,000 from "allocating seasonal staff to parks beautification needs."

The deal would go into effect February 1, 2021 and end November 30, 2023 with an option for renewal and would cover Joe Becker Stadium, Wendell Redden Stadium, Gabby Street Field and Bassman Softball Complex.

Parkwood Tournament would pay $55,000 a year. The city would retain any naming rights, but Parkwood Tournament would have all advertising rights. The city would maintain the power to veto certain types of advertising.

Under the terms of the agreement, Parkwood Tournament would have the following responsibilities:

-Perform all maintenance, service, cleaning and care of facilities

-Responsible for any required personnel or volunteers

-Responsible for ticket sales and entry gate

-Responsible for operational repairs resulting from damage caused by use

-Responsible for operational repairs under $1,000

-Prohibit metal cleats on turf and sunflower-type seeds

-Prepare fields for games and tournaments on the weekends

The city would have the following responsibilities:

-Train tenant to maintain artificial turf

-Maintain roof, floor, walls and other structural parts of various facilities

-Mow grassy areas of facilities

-Prepare fields for games and tournaments during the week

-Responsible for repairs over $1,000

The city officials had recommended the deal be passed on an emergency basis at the October 19 council meeting so Parkwood Tournament could begin scheduling tournaments for 2021, but that failed when it received a 5-4 vote, one vote shy of the two-thirds necessary to allow a bill to be passed on an emergency basis.

Those who favored the emergency designation were Mayor Ryan Stanley and council members Gary Shaw, Keenan Cortez, Phil Stinnett and Doug Lawson.

Opposing the designation were council members Diane Reid Adams, Chuck Copple, Anthony Monteleone and Christina Williams.

The accompanying KOAM video reports on the Joplin Sports Authority's intention to present a competing proposal.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

JSA had years to do this. Now, all of a sudden, they ape the Parkwood idea with an almost identical proposal. Sorry JSA, if you want something to be efficient, flexible and profitable, let the private sector handle it. Not a parasitic, government sponsored organization of clownish frat boys.

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking about putting a little crew of well connected people together, maybe we can cook up a deal like this to lease the rest of city parks. Citizens and visitors can pay to use the parks, instead of using them for free like it's welfare. We can help Make Joplin Great Again!