JC Parks cite $1.7M impact from events

<p>Jason Strickland/News Tribune</p><p>The Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department’s summer youth volleyball league is in full swing at The Linc. Athletes in grades 7-9 take the court Tuesday night, with two matches taking place simultaneously. Through events hosted at places such as The Linc, the Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department has had an estimated $1.7 million economic impact this year.</p>

Jason Strickland/News Tribune

The Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department’s summer youth volleyball league is in full swing at The Linc. Athletes in grades 7-9 take the court Tuesday night, with two matches taking place simultaneously. Through events hosted at places such as The Linc, the Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department has had an estimated $1.7 million economic impact this year.

Through events hosted at The Linc and ballfields around Jefferson City, the city's Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department has had an estimated $1.7 million economic impact this year.

Parks Department Assistant Director Aaron Grefrath works with the Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau to track the impact parks events have on the local economy.

While they can't know exactly, the organizations use a program to calculate an estimate based on the number of teams or people who participate.

"We do a lot more for the community sometimes than we give our own selves credit for," Grefrath said.

The departments started using this system in January, he said, which means it doesn't have anything to compare against.

The Parks Department is making an effort to track information weekly.

Grefrath provides information about the number of people who participate in an event, such as a Hoops Midwest basketball tournament, and CVB staff supply hotel data.

"It's more or less to see what type of impact the outside events that we bring in have," he said. "We just want to see, to track, how it does benefit with those special events, hosting tournaments, etc."

For instance, a Hoops Midwest tournament, hosted at The Linc on Feb. 20, had an estimated economic impact of $60,730 with 40 teams participating.

When it comes to ballfield reservations, a GMB baseball tournament, hosted at 63 Diamonds over the weekend of May 21, had an estimated economic impact of $77,120 with 31 teams participating.

Grefrath said the department currently is only using the system for The Linc and ballfields, but it plans to expand to other events such as concerts at the Capital Regional MU Health Care Amphitheater.

The information could be particularly useful when the department looks at upgrading facilities in the future.

"I think it's good to know, when you're looking at upgrading anything, what's the impact outside of our own programs," Grefrath said.

Ice arena feasibility study

The Parks Department expects the first draft of an ice arena feasibility study by the end of this week, Grefrath said.

The Jefferson City Parks and Recreation Commission in March approved the company Firland to conduct the study looking into location, size and need for a new ice arena.

At the moment, the desired plan would be to include the ice arena as part of the Missouri State Penitentiary redevelopment plan.

Along with examining what that plan could look like and whether there's a need for it, the study will look at the current Washington Park Ice Arena, what work it potentially needs, how the pricing compares to other arenas, and uses for it if the city does build another ice arena.

Grefrath said he believes it's likely the study will say Jefferson City could support a second ice arena, then the Parks Department could move forward with discussions about financing, what the arena would look like and what to do with the Washington Park Ice Arena.

"What we're looking to do is repurpose the current ice arena," he said. "We need additional pickleball space, we need additional court space for practices. So then we would take a look at our current facility and whether it's an ice arena or we repurpose it in another manner."