Member of Tourism Board confirms it - NO money for Spring Training in Palm Beach County

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Date: Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 10:42 AM
Subject: Re: Bravo! No more Tourist Taxes!

Thank you for your E-mail...The reality is there is no tourist tax available..The financial statements for the Tourist tax are public record, as are all the financial commitments going forward the next 25 years..there simply is no money available to fund another project like this. .plain and simple..

 Any economic downturn, which is very likely at some point in the future as history has shown, would severely jeopardize our ability to market Palm Beach County as a tourist destination competitively throughout the US and the internationally..The hospitality -Tourism industry in PBC employs over 86,000 people, far and away our #1 provider of jobs ...certainly not worth risking that economic driver for a third baseball stadium in the county that is utilized the 6 busiest weeks of the tourist season, mid February thru March when all the hotels are running their highest occupancy rates already.

Less than 1% of all the annual room nights into PB County are generated from Spring Training...

Not sure why some( not all) of the commissioners continue to entertain fantasies of being the spring training capital of the world..and think the tourist tax is an unlimited source of funds that their constituents don't have to pay...

This one should be dead at least and the BCC will realize it soon enough..at least in regards to funding from bed tax dollars. .Now they have a way to turn it down and not look like they are against baseball...which is fine....that's the way the game is played unfortunately..

have a great weekend..

       dave


David Burke
Executive VP, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer
The Breakers Palm Beach
One South County Road
Palm Beach, Fl 33480

The Folly of investing in a Spring Training Facility

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Return on Investment

Please note that Spring Training Facilities give a return of 11 cents on the dollar. So for every one dollar you spend, you get back eleven cents. Why don't our elected officials care about this? Are they totally that reckless with other people's money?

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Watch Collier County LIVE at 10am this morning. They are wooing the Atlanta Braves that has interest.