HARLINGEN — The city’s counting on a marketing drive to offset the Tony Butler Municipal Golf Course’s projected $525,590 deficit.
As part of an agreement, the city will collect 15 percent of revenue generated by an advertising agency to help offset the shortfall, City Manager Dan Serna said today.
Rio Shelters, a Brownsville-based advertising firm, will sell advertising at the golf course’s benches, at its holes and the flags at its putting greens.
The city does not have revenue projections, Serna said.
Since last year, the city has screened films at the golf course, opening up its concession area to make money earmarked for the golf course, Serna said. But he did not have revenues generated by the city’s Movies in the Park program.
Meanwhile, the golf course has boosted the number of tournaments it hosts, Serna said.
For years, Tony Butler stood as the Valley’s only self-sustaining municipal golf course.
But like many golf courses across the country, in recent years fewer golfers have teed off, cutting into the course’s revenue stream.
Since at least 2013, the golf course has operated in the red.
While annual expenditures have hovered at about $1.2 million, revenues have dropped, leaving deficits ranging from $48,324 to $302,587.
