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(Brendan LaChance, Oil City)
Casper, Wyo. — The Casper City Council is set to discuss approving the five-year business plans for both the Casper Ice Arena and the Casper Recreation Center at a work session Aug. 8. The motive behind these business plans is the 2021-2023 Casper City Council Goals, which mandated an assessment of the city’s recreational operations with the aim of reducing the general fund investment needed to support each enterprise, according to a City Staff memo prepared for the council work session.
On Nov. 8, 2022, the Casper City Council received a presentation on the performance of the Casper Ice Arena, outlining the FY22 season, projecting the FY23 budget, and proposing strategies to enhance the operation’s subsidy position. A similar presentation was made on Jan. 24, 2023, concerning the Casper Recreation Center.
After receiving Council’s support for the suggested strategies for each recreation operation, staff began in-depth evaluations. Their objective was to ascertain the feasibility of each strategy and to create an implementation plan while keeping the new 2023-2025 Council Goals in mind. Tonight’s discussion marks the culmination of these efforts, as staff seeks the Council’s endorsement of updated business plans that delineate each strategy’s estimated impact on operational subsidies.
The proposed strategies are multifaceted, aimed at enhancing the financial sustainability of both the Casper Ice Arena and the Casper Recreation Center.
For the Ice Arena, the plans involve expanding recreational hockey leagues, passing on credit card fees, introducing a new Junior Hockey Club, broadening the concession menu (including alcohol sales), ramping up advertising and sponsorships, enhancing website marketing and sales capability, and adding a second sheet of ice.
Similarly, for the Recreation Center, strategies encompass completing the fitness room and specialized fitness programming, creating a sports and athletics enterprise fund, restructuring partnerships to improve reimbursements, increasing rental hourly rates, improving program and facility marketing, and expanding child care services.
Financial implications will vary based on the strategies employed, with some requiring capital investments. City Council members will have the opportunity to review these impacts in detail during the work session.
Due to ongoing and extensive renovations at City Hall, the City Council will meet in The Lyric, 230 W. Yellowstone Highway at 4:30 p.m. The session is open to the public. You can also watch a livestream of the work session on the City of Casper YouTube channel.
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