At the last board meeting, Phil once again mentioned that he, CAO Smith, and Golf Course Manager Kenny Goodwin sat down and developed a business plan that is the key to all the success that RedTail has experienced this year.
Lest this appear to be a one-off mistaken statement, Phil has said this often.
At 22:30 minutes in the 9/22/2020 meeting, Phil references the business plan:
At 48:40 minutes on the 8/23/2020 meeting, Phil references the business plan:
Since this keeps being talked about, it seems reasonable to find out what is in this amazing business plan that has been so successful. Typically a business plan is normally a formal document that outlines the market analysis, financial projections, strategy and implementation, products and services, and management and organization.
So -- a sharp thinking resident, under FOIA, requested it from the village.
Ok -- so, there isn't actually a business plan. But maybe there's a less formal plan that Phil is calling a business plan to make it sound better than it is. Is there anything we can glean from Phil's comments as to what this non-plan contains?
During the 9/22/2020 meeting, Phil outlined some of the improvements at RedTail, highlighting the reduction of the beer sizes, increase in hot dog prices, and an increase in golf cart rental prices.
The golf cart rental prices is an interesting call out -- because it's been $14 for at least the past three years -- so how did we make more by charging the same?
Now, when I did a little industry research, I found that the golf industry as a whole was up in June 14% and May 6.9% over prior year in rounds. When I review our fiscal results through June, I see that despite being down 4% in rounds in May, RedTail is running about 15% ahead in rounds year to date. So, we are running about 1% ahead of the national average. Additionally, the golf course count within a stone's throw of RedTail is also down by one -- so perhaps that 1% increase in rounds is due to absorbing the loss of local golf course?
But, I know Phil is going to want to talk about revenue per round -- So, comparing the financials I show that fiscal year to date 2020 revenue per round is $40.79; in 2019, it was $40.14. This is a $0.61 increase in operating revenue year over year to date. That is 1.5% increase over last year's revenue. Yes, revenue is up, because rounds are up -- which is being seen all over the golf industry.
To be clear, I firmly believe that RedTail is an asset to our community. I believe that RedTail, when run properly does have the potential to be sustainable and continue to be an asset to our village. I believe that our Golf Course Management are competent and are doing an awesome job. However, I firmly believe that any success that RedTail has will be despite the intervention of Phil and CAO Smith, not because of it. I believe that Phil can't explain the numbers, nor does he really understand what the true affect of a global pandemic has on the golfing industry -- and that's certainly true when you hear him speak of the sustainability
of the revenues we are currently experiencing.