Our city airport owns two golf courses.
The first, Lone Star, is on the south side of Montana on airport owned land. The second one, Butterfield Trail, is also on airport land at the east end of the airport.
How are they doing financially?
The most recent financial report the airport has on it’s web site is for the year ended August 31, 2010. We should be able to see more recent years but for some reason they have chosen not to show them to us.
The report shows that for Lone Star income was $187,664 and expenses were $6,265. It looks like the airport has hired a contractor to operate the golf course and the financial statements are only showing the portion of the income and expense that the airport actually sees. We seem to have made a $181,399 profit.
The other golf course is a different story. I did not find a direct reference to Butterfield Trail on the financial statements, but it appears that they are reporting it as Cottonwood Development. The financials show $1,631,259 in income for Cottonwood Development Operations and $2,839,727 in expenses for the same entity. That means that we are losing over $1.2 million each year.
As I recall the thinking behind building Butterfield Trail was that having a really nice golf course would make it easier for us to attract a resort hotel to the city. That has not happened. We are left with a facility that generates less than 60% of it’s cost of operations. It looks like the plan did not work.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
OK, but didn’t it create jobs for caddies?
LikeLike
We are attracting a new hotel to the airport. Resort? Get real; this is El Paso, not Tucson.
LikeLike
Sort of like the downtown ballpark is going to attract major companies who will relocate to El Paso and bring lots of jobs that pay high salaries. Right?
LikeLike
yep, it really kept hoover attracted, huh ?
LikeLike
It’s a great golf course. Go use it. Help improve their bottom line.
LikeLike
Thanks for the course review, but not everyone has time for golf. A lot of us are working overtime to be able to pay our property taxes. Who has money left for golf? Unlike local government employees, some of us also work 5-7 days a week as opposed to four; and we don’t get every holiday under the sun.
LikeLike
there is no way lone stars expenses were 6,265. that would even come close to paying the pro, greens keeper, and etc. etc.
LikeLike
Will,
I think that the income and expense are net proceeds from the management/operating/franchise agreement (whatever it is) that they must have with the people operating it.
LikeLike
isnt the contractor eishenbrenner ?
LikeLike