28 SportsTurf | January 2013 www.sportsturfonline.com

Facility&Operations

By William J. Seymour, PE

FUNDING FOR PUBLICATHLETIC FACILITYPROJECTS has changed dra-matically in the last decade. Thedays where a municipality could

go to a town meeting and seek an override ap-proval for 100%, or float a bond for 100%, ofan athletic facilities project are essentiallyover. The fiscal reality is that municipalitieshave been forced to consider steep financialcuts to schools and public safety services (po-lice and fire). The “extras,” such as athletic fa-cility enhancements, have, out of necessity,taken a back seat.

Although traditional funding is not readilyavailable, the demand for public athletic andrecreation facility enhancements has actuallyrisen. This is due to continued populationgrowth in urban areas, enhanced diversity ofsports, and increased gender equity in sports.Municipalities are now compelled to find “outof the box” ways to meet this growing de-mand, and the solution begins with creativefunding. To be successful in raising the fundsfor an athletic or recreation project, the mu-nicipal or non-profit Owner should assemblea fundraising group that considers the follow-ing options concurrently:

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE GRANTSThe first constituent of a funding group

should always be an experienced grant writer. If

there is no grant writer on staff, hiring a profes-sional grant writer will greatly increase the oddsof receiving public and private grants.

Public Grants. Public grants vary fromstate to state and from municipality to munici-pality. There is a federal program called PARC(Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations forCommunities) and each state implementsblock PARC grants; $97 million was awardedin 2010 alone. The Department of Urban De-velopment has community block grants thatsome communities will qualify for based onnet income and demographics. The EPA pro-vides brownfield grants for the redevelopmentof impacted parcels of land. There are ReLeafgrants available from federal agencies for theplanting of trees and landscaping that can beassociated with park projects. For example,there is a federal land and water conservationfund that has resulted in the funding of thou-sands of outdoor recreation facilities.

These public grants rely heavily on feasi-bility studies that demonstrate the viability ofthe project and accurate cost estimates. It isimportant for the granting authority to beconvinced that the project is valid and feasi-ble, and that the funds allocated for the proj-ect would result in the successful completionof a fully serviceable facility that meets a pre-viously un-resourced community need.

Private Grants. Private grants, although abit more constrained lately, are playing an im-

portant role in the non-traditional fundingof public projects. Municipalities can applyfor grants from US Soccer, US Tennis Asso-ciation, Nike Endowments and Founda-tions, the NHL, etc. These organizationsand others have been involved in providingfunding for public projects. They providethese grants as a way to propagate their par-ticular sport or interest. Therefore, it ap-pears they are more likely to provide grantsfor building new facilities as opposed torenovating existing facilities. A successfulprivate grant solicitation or submissionshould demonstrate how the awarded grantwill facilitate the propagation of the inter-ested sport. For example: Is there un-re-sourced soccer demand in yourcommunity? If so, and if US Soccer grants$150,000 for your project; will it result innew field inventory that will service thatotherwise un-resourced demand (therebyfurthering interest in that sport)?

Like public granting authorities, privategranting authorities also look for the appli-cant that has “real” plans, budget, and mile-stone schedule. Due diligence andfeasibility studies are necessary to help con-vince granting authorities that the project isworthwhile. If the private grant is awarded,they want to know that the financial re-source will result in the successful outcomeof a project that furthers their interests.

PRIVATE FUNDINGGrassroots fundraising efforts (e.g. sell-

ing brick pavers, parking spaces, seats, andcandy bars) can sometimes be disappoint-ing as far as how much money they cangenerate (often less than 10-20% of theproject budget). The biggest advantagethese efforts provide is public awarenessand involvement. This can be quite helpfulwhen seeking permitting and other munici-pal public funding since you’ve enfran-chised a number of people into the processas advocates.

The first step in developing significantprivate funding is to form a privatefundraising conduit for the money raised: abooster club, a “Friends of (insert name)Field,” and/or a 401(c) 3 that can receivetax exempt moneys. The Booster organiza-tion can be the conduit for fund raising,corporate sponsors, youth sport user fees,

Non-traditional fundingalternatives for publicathletic facility projects

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concessions proceeds, individual donors, etc.The Boosters can gift these revenues to thepublic owner. Alternatively, the Boostersoften complete the sports facility enhance-ments themselves under a private procure-ment, which may have cost and projectcontrol benefits.

SPONSORSHIPOne of the more lucrative fundraising op-

portunities is corporate or individual spon-sorship associated with naming rights of thefacility. The fundraising committee shoulddetermine the municipality or school’s policywith regard to naming rights before initiatingthe fundraising drive, and identify namingopportunities (field, track, scoreboard, pressbox etc.) It’s important that you present apossible donor with a policy that details therecognition they would receive. If they cansee that their donation would result in signif-icant name recognition; there is a higher like-lihood of success.

Another avenue of sponsorship would beapproaching prosperous citizens in the com-munity. Part of the fundraising group’s chal-

lenge is to first determine who these peopleare through local community groups (alumnigroups, philanthropic groups, the Kiwanis,the Rotary, the Elks, the Chamber of Com-merce, etc.). The fundraising chairperson isoften approached to make presentations tothese various community organizations. Of-tentimes, these well-heeled individuals of thecommunity can be identified and ap-proached through this type of networking.This is more effective than knocking on peo-ple’s doors. It’s important that these ap-proaches are made with mature marketingmaterials (glossy project descriptive informa-tion with colored renderings, feasibility stud-ies, and budgets) in hand to facilitate theconversation and encourage the potentialdonor to become involved in the project.

PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPA public/private partnership strategy can

be a bit more complicated but municipalitiesare becoming increasingly reliant on them.This type of partnership comes in two forms:

Use. This is the partnership frequentlyseen between a municipality and an institu-

tion. The institution is often a small or com-munity college that is landlocked but hasgrowing athletic requirements. By reachingout to a local community with available land,but constrained funding, the two partiesenter into an understanding. The private or-ganization builds an improved/expanded fa-cility on public land with additional capacityfor the community, and the institution isable to use it (often with use and schedulingpreference). These partnerships are becomingincreasingly popular and they are a win/winfor both entities to meet their need for ex-panded facilities of higher quality than eithercould achieve on their own.

Profit. Under this scenario, a for-profit,private organization enters into an agreementwith a municipality whereby they would de-velop an athletic or recreation facility onpublic land with facilitated permitting, pub-lic services, and tax incentives. They may gifta portion of the facility (e.g. a soccer pitch)outright and retain control of a for-profit fa-cility, or they may operate the overall facilityfor profit but give the municipality use at re-duced rates. One complication that can arise

30 SportsTurf | January 2013 www.sportsturfonline.com

Facility&Operations

with this arrangement is that often a publicowner cannot simply enter into this agree-ment with a private entity without goingthrough an RFP process. The municipalitytypically has to advertise the opportunity, de-fine the selection criteria, review all the pro-posals, and come to a decision based on thebest value for the community. This require-ment will vary from state to state.

DONOR IN-KIND GOODS AND SERVICES

The donation of in-kind goods and serv-ices is another way to help fund an athleticproject. The fundraising group should iden-tify early on the various businesses in thecommunity that could potentially performin-kind services for the project. For example,stone, asphalt, and concrete; earthwork andlandscaping; topsoil and seed; site and ath-letic lighting; and fencing.

An effective way to learn about, and ap-proach, these companies is through network-ing with the Chamber of Commerce andvarious philanthropic groups within the com-munity. There are challenges associated with

in-kind contributions. Since these services andgoods are donated, they are often the last pri-ority for otherwise profit-making companies.As a result, donor projects can take longer thanexpected and may not be built to the samequality as a normally competitive, bid project.They can be disjointed since coordinating thevarious subcontractors and materials as theyarrive on the job site can be challenging for theowner. But, if a municipality is willing to putin the extra time and effort necessary, theseprojects can result in a cost-effective and func-tional facility that may not exist, were it notfor these donated goods and services. Typically,a design professional (who may also donateservices) is engaged to provide the design andpermitting for the full potential build out ofthe facility so that permits are in place as thematerials and services become available, andthe facility is developed over time.

DEVELOPER OFF-SITE IMPACTSAnother potential fundraising opportunity

is developer off-site impacts. When a devel-oper comes into your community proposing amulti-family residential or commercial devel-

opment, they could be exacerbating a trafficproblem or putting extra burden on munici-pal services such as water and wastewater utili-ties, schools, etc. It is common practice formunicipal zoning and planning boards to re-quire the developer to perform off-site impactmitigation by replacing a sewer, widening anintersection, or adding traffic light(s) as partof the acceptance for the developer’s project.Some municipalities have told developers thatthey are beyond their capacity in terms oftheir ability to support recreational facilityuse, and as such are requiring developers todevelop recreational facilities to mitigate theimpact of their proposed project on the com-munity. Town-wide recreation needs assess-ments documenting recreational facilityshortfalls in the town are needed by localplanning and zoning boards to set the stagefor this discussion.

UTILITY LEASESThere are a number of utility companies

willing to provide significant funding for ath-letic facility enhancement in return for therights to develop private utilities on public

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land such as cell towers, solar power arrays,and wind power. Such endeavors typically in-volve long term leases which encumber a sig-nificant area of land or roof top; however,they can be very lucrative for both parties. Ofthese funding opportunities, solar power sitescurrently appear to be the most heavilysought after. In some instances, the solarpower developer will actually procure/buildthe athletic facility as part of their installa-tion project and then turn the resultant facil-ity over to the public owner.

VENDOR FINANCINGAlthough many recreation product ven-

dors (turf, lighting, surfacing, etc.) offer fi-nancing programs; in our opinion, they havenot proven to be effective to the municipal-ity. This type of funding may only be effec-tive as a last resort, or to complete the lastportion of funding required for a significantproject. The typical financial terms vary andmay not be more advantageous than conven-tional financing from a lending institution.Additionally, such vendor financing arrange-ments can put the municipality in a situation

where they are locked into doing businesswith a particular vendor and the price couldreflect the proprietary nature of the procure-ment. Also, many states have very specificrules prohibiting proprietary specificationsfor public projects. If vendor financing is re-lied upon to complete project financing, itwill be advantageous and probably necessaryfor the Booster group to obtain this type offinancing in lieu of the public owner.

PROFESSIONAL FUNDRAISINGA professional fundraiser can assist a com-

munity with identifying potential corporateand individual sponsors, and developing anapproach that is more successful than whatthe typical layperson could accomplish. Aprofessional can manage “pledged giving”more effectively than most communityfundraisers. They are also usually able to or-ganize the grassroots fundraising in a morecost-effective fashion. Keep in mind thattheir success does depend on having the rightmaterials (feasibility studies, colored render-ings, and realistic budgets).

There are two types of professional

fundraisers: those that work for a percentageof the funds raised and those that work for aset fee. The Association of Fundraising Pro-fessionals strongly encourages professionalfundraisers be paid set fees for their servicesinstead of a percentage.

Many athletic facilities constructed in thepast decade have been funded to some extentby non-conventional means. Multiple fund-ing sources for one project are common. Toget the most out of your efforts, it’s impor-tant that your fundraising group is organizedand everyone has a function, eg, one personis responsible for approaching businesses, oneto research grants, etc. It’s also imperativethat you start off on the right foot with excel-lent collateral materials. Engaging a designprofessional to provide realistic budgets, fea-sibility plans, and color renderings will helpto facilitate your community to reach itsfundraising goals. ■

William J. Seymour, PE, is the Director ofthe Civil Engineering Division for Gale Associ-ates, Inc., Weymouth, MA and a member of theSports Turf Managers Association.