FAYETTEVILLE — The Advertising and Promotion Commission voted to give more than $95,000 from hotel, motel and restaurant tax money to five local organizations Monday, overriding two members’ objections that some groups don’t need the help.
Nearly half will go to the National Veterans Golden Age Games, a sporting competition organized by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that’s coming to Fayetteville next summer and will run almost a week.
By The Numbers
Grants Awarded
Fayetteville Foam Fest: $9,700
Veterans Golden Age Games: $45,000
All Sports Productions: $13,000
University of Arkansas Athletics: $13,500
Fayetteville High School: $14,000
Total: $95,200
Source: Staff Report
Most of the remaining $50,000 will go to several 2014 events held at the University of Arkansas and All Sports Productions. Those allocations — particularly to the university — sparked heated debate over whether the commission’s grants are supposed to help groups that need it or forge relationships with the region’s major players. Most of the seven commissioners seemed to favor both.
“I think it’s more of a good-faith gesture,” said Matt Behrend, in support of the $13,500 grant to the university to help cover three NCAA regional tournaments, baseball, gymnastics and cross country. “If we say no to them, it’s very easy for them to say no to us.”
The city often asks to hold events at the university’s athletic facilities, for example. Marlo Priest, sports marketing manager for the visitors bureau, told the commission that each home football game can bring $10 million to the area.
Commissioner Matthew Petty strongly opposed the grant, pointing to the university’s $75.6 million annual athletic budget.
“I just don’t see the point, especially when this is a zero-sum game,” Petty said, his voice shaking with emotion at times. “The university doesn’t need the money. I think this is just about how (they) can cut costs. This is not about scratching each other’s backs.”
Petty and commissioner Hannah Withers brought up similar objections to the $13,000 grant to All Sports Productions, a local sporting events management company, to help pay for next year’s Joe Martin Stage Race and Tri-Sport Kid’s Triathlon.
The company has received about $60,000 from the commission since 2000, Withers said, noting that the commission’s grants are partly intended to be seed money, not long-term sustenance. She said she wouldn’t press the point, however, until January, when the commission intends to pin down precisely what its money is meant to do.
In the end, the amount going to the university is a compromise at just more than half of what it requested.
“It’s good to have some type of working relationship,” said Ching Mong, commission chairman.
The group was unanimous in granting $45,000 to the Golden Age Games, which are held in a different city each year.
“It’s very much an honor to be asked, not to have to bid on it,” Priest said. She added the event could bring more than $2 million to Fayetteville. “It’s kind of a big deal, not to mention the national exposure we’d get.”
Carol Kick, voluntary service chief with the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks and the games’ chair, said she was “thrilled” with the vote, though it was less than the original request.
“We’re very pleased that they’ll support us with that,” she said.
The commission also approved about $24,000 for the Fayetteville Foam Fest and Fayetteville High School’s Tri-State Volleyball Challenge and state baseball, softball and soccer championships.
All organizations were asked last month to provide the commission with more budgetary information. Monday’s vote rounds up the roughly $260,000 given by the commission to local groups for events next year.