Tourism Development Commission - March 18, 2025

e
all right good morning thank you for
being here uh we are going to go ahead
and get started with the tourism
development commission regular meeting
and if we can start with roll call
please
yeah
here uh
here here
thank you very
much okay we'll go ahead and start with
the approval of minutes from our last
meeting is there any discussion uh also
an action to approve those minutes from
February 18th is being
asked I'll make that motion I'll second
it all in all in favor I any
post all right we'll go ahead and start
with our first presentation
uh we have a staff presentation and
commission discussion regarding tourism
and events Scots Dazzle and Western Week
events the presentation will be done by
Angelica
capula hello hi everyone good morning
thank you so much for having me here
today I'm Angelica chipul with the
tourism and events Division and I'm here
to recap our Scott Dazzle and Western
Week
events before jumping into those though
we thought this was a nice opportunity
to share with you an update on our
Oldtown website refresh so I just
quickly wanted to mention this project
that's been going on for a few months
now and is coming to fruition as you
might already be familiar with the
current website is over seven years old
and the back end is really cumbersome in
terms of making updates and this was the
reason for the refresh so this will take
place incorporating some of our new
branding it will have some new features
like a Blog with the merchants are
actually very excited about if you have
approached me already about getting in
involved with it will have a social
media feed um it will also be able to
have some unique features that we don't
currently have for instance the
directory will be um you can organize it
by District so if you're at a gallery in
the arts district and you want to go out
to dinner you can search for restaurants
specifically in that District so we have
some nice features that'll be added so
just wanted to briefly mention that um I
will also stress though the website's
intent will continue as the current one
Drive traffic to our Merchants Drive
attendance at our events and really
position Oldtown you know in the
spotlight for residents and tourists so
it will just have a slightly different
look and very enhanced uh
functionality so with that let's move on
to what we're here to talk about today
uh Scott Dazzle and Western week I'll
start with a quick video just to take a
trip down memory lane of the tree
lighting and um kickoff ceremony
[Music]
okay just a little refresh for our
memories it seems like so long ago now
um Scott style allows us the opportunity
to showcase the districts in their
unique ways we'll start off by looking
at some of the decor that was utilized
this year one of the nice things it
really allows us to tap into our tourism
and event strategic plan we can hit on
initiatives like the park and walk
experience and also strengthening the
positioning of the Oldtown Districts The
Unique DEC core is curated for each of
the districts for example along Fifth
Avenue we've continued with the theme of
having little elves in the Planters and
the monument signs these elves are
playful sometimes mischievous they allow
for photo ops and also a fun and playful
mood for the
visitors while in the arts district we
have extremely Elegant Lighting and a
really classy look and the entrance to
the Civic Center displays a
familyfriendly photo op
the Waterfront was once again
transformed into an enchanted winter
village from head to toe we had
beautiful Decor the canal Banks were
lined with different types of
decorations and features for the first
time in the canal itself there were
three floating trees and we had some new
enhancements like the mystical horse and
Angel the Entertainment District also
played a big role this year it was
coined peppermint Plaza and the decor
featur of balloons a trussing with an
overarching uh Street Banner there were
poles wrapp in Garland and there was um
several activations that went along with
that that I'll go into further detail
shortly I really wanted to share this
map that was utilized as part of our
printed map that was handed out to
visitors and also on the website and
what's nice about it is it again points
out how spread out the events are so
we're able to take the visitors not just
to one location within Oldtown but
through several of the districts and
several locations so by being able to
spread out the events we can offer
programs for different audiences
different age groups different interests
and really get them exploring all of
Oldtown so now let's take a closer look
at some of the events that I've referred
to the events provide an opportunity to
attract new visitors promote the local
Merchants deepen Community spirit and
really shine a spotlight on Oldtown with
residents tourists and the
media as you can see here the tourism
events division partnered with various
internal and external groups with
programming that took place both in
public spaces and inside merchant
locations in addition to our annual
favorites like the Scott Dazzle stroll
there were also several new events and
I'll go into some of these as I move
along in the
presentation this year we were able to
collaborate with 10 different partners
these included blue zones Scottdale
artist school the Scottdale Gallery
Association bario Queen the mission the
mertile market Riot Hospitality EEG the
farmers market Hotel valleyho light and
bark candle go the chabat of South
Scottsdale the Valley of the Sun Jewish
Community Center and grease pain in
addition we worked with internal City
departments such as the police
department Economic Development city
services Park and Recreations and the
library plus I'd also like to note in
addition to these events that the city
puts on Oldtown businesses are able to
submit their own event so for example if
they're hosting a book club or a wine
tasting or a special sale for the
holidays they can publish those for free
on the Scott Dazzle
website and one last note I'd like like
to make in terms of the different
collaborations we were able to do we
hosted shop Scottdale with economic
development and with that we were able
to offer on one day the shop Scot the
shop Saturday day a gift with purchase
and also complimentary gift wrap and
this was able this was for people who
purchased things anywhere in Oldtown so
again being able to spread that
throughout all of the Oldtown
area so here's a couple of photos from
Scott Dazzle it was really hard to pick
out which ones to use in the
presentation and I think what's nice
about them is they each tell a different
story and you we'll go into some of the
numbers and our Outreach but what we see
here are people really enjoying the
activities families creating Traditions
couples making memories and that's
really within tourism events you know
what we're trying to do is reach into
their memory banks connect with them and
this way when they're talking to their
friends and family about Scottdale
they're doing so in a p in a positive
and memorable way that really is
touching their
hearts so let's go into some of the
events now and while I'd like to go over
all of them I am conscious of your time
so I will just mention some of the newer
programs I had touched a little bit on
peppermint Plaza and our cooperation
with the Entertainment District so in
addition to the decor that was created
we worked specifically with nine of the
establishments to create a program these
establishments include Casa Amigos
bottle blonde Riot house Maya HiFi El
Hefe Dirk Bentley's Whiskey Row mother
Tucker and cake so in addition to the
deore we featured a month-long sweep
stakes and people were able to enter
digitally they could answer fun holiday
trivia and then they were entered to win
four $50 gift cards that were
complimentary from Riot hospitality and
EEG we had 221 entries for this social
media contest also on one special
evening there was a street activation
program where we had street performers
and the establishments that I mentioned
all offered drink promotions on that
evening the drinks that they offered
were Alo offered all month long however
on that one night they had special
discounts for their
guests other new events included
partnering with the Scottsdale artist
school so on the Marshall way Bridge we
created a beautiful event there was live
music there was some performers there
was an artists doing a painting there on
the bridge and what was really nice is
people could come at their Leisure sit
down create their own ornament and the
artists and the teachers were there
giving them examples templates kind of
guiding them through it so we had over
300 people that at that event create
ornaments and we really saw all age
groups all different people come and
enjoy this special moment we also
partnered this year with bario queen
that was a new event this event sold out
only a few days days after being
advertised I think really having the
food connection was extremely popular um
bario Queen came with their chef they
did a fantastic presentation up on the
stage and everyone there was able to
create their own tamali um enjoy them
they also had some entertainment there
and it was great for them because as you
know they're right around the street
there so they were able to also send
people there on that day so that was
huge a huge success for them
a few of the other new events that I'd
like to mention is we expanded our
Hanukkah programming so we once again
worked with the Chabad of South
Scottdale and they actually came in a
couple of weeks ago or maybe a month ago
and he was really pleased with the
program um so looking forward to
continuing that but for the first time
this year we also added an event with
the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community
Center and invested in purchasing a 9-
foot manora that can be used for future
programs so that we can continue to
expand on this part of the
celebration a few highlights in terms of
attendance very similar to numbers that
we've received in the past we have about
4,000 people attend the singalong and
tree lighting and about 10,000 over the
three weeks of the Scott Dazzle strolls
there were 300 photos taken with Santa
at the farmers market about 200 people
at the Starlight movie night and then
our smaller events that are intended to
be more intimate have between about 20
and 60 guests some of which did sold
sell out quickly like the Jolly Tamale
that I mentioned
earlier so how do people find out about
Scott Dazzle it is absolutely building a
brand um it has a name within the city
we're at nine years now which is
incredible so people are familiar with
Scott Dazzle but we still there's a lot
of competition around the holidays need
to let them know what's happening make
sure they come out so Scott Dazzle is
published via or publicized excuse me
via a local um integrated marketing
campaign our division primarily targets
Valley residents within a 20 mile
radius you'll see here the woman on the
gift box that was the signature image
that was used throughout the campaign
this year and then many of the events
have dedicated advertising creative
specifically for
them the creative was used throughout
Billboards throughout print
advertisements we had a great deal of
press that is extremely helpful digital
advertising we collaborated with other
City Department so that we could have
our brochures and posters put in areas
such as the Library community centers um
a great deal of social media and digital
Outreach as well so I just wanted to
play a quick video that is used as one
of our uh digital ads
[Music]
okay and then here's a quick snapshot of
some of our Impressions uh that lead to
driving the attendance to the
events and I really cannot speak to the
marketing advertising without mention
experiencing experience Scottdale who's
with us here today and I know you're all
very familiar with but while our
division manages the local advertising
experience Scottdale is always out there
on be our behalf nationally and
internation Al you can hear a see here a
snapshot of the work that they did
featuring Scott stle and after the
presentation if you have any questions
related to experience Scottdale I know
Michelle Meers vice president of
marketing would be happy to come up and
answer any of those questions but I
really couldn't put in information about
the advertising of Scott Dazzle without
mentioning our partners that experienc
Scottdale and while I think it's great
to share all of our numbers it's also
nice to see some of of the anecdotal
feedback so you can see here some
screenshots of social media I don't know
if you can read them um apologize if
it's a little bit small but you can also
see um at the top is a quote from the
owner of the mertile market that was
used in our press release and really
shows the nice connection between the
city and one of our merchants and the
success that is created through
Partnerships like Scott
Dazzle so with that I am going to close
out these Scott Dazzle section we'll
switch to Western week um but did want
to mention that this is as I said the
ninth year so our 10th year is coming up
next year I think we're all very excited
about that we begin planning in the
summer really so if you have any
feedback we can go over after or
throughout the year we're always looking
for ways to improve enhance the
community Spirit the collaboration with
our merchants and really the success of
Scott
Dazzle so we'll now switch over to
Western week
and Western week took place from January
25th to February 2nd 2025 so it kicked
off our
year some of our Signature Events that
we see annually included the gold pallet
artwalk the Pony Express the two-day
Arizona Indian festival and the 71st
fradel soul and Trail and Festival as in
past years these Signature Events saw an
excellent turnout with results similar
we had about 30,000 events attended
throughout the
week I'd also like to then share some of
the highlights to the events throughout
the week this year's Pony Express was
hosted by Scottsdale's history Hall of
Fame and ducke downtown Denny Brown and
with the theme of women in the west we
had mayor barowski speak it was the
first time female Riders participated in
the Pony Express and a proclamation was
presented to Governor Hobbs for her
notable service from the Navajo County
Sheriff's Office also at the Pony
Express we really expanded our offering
to the public we had an interactive
experience that they could do with
Scottdale artist school by creating
postcard Express um there were also more
photo opportunities this year for people
to take with the horses there so we
really tried to expand the program there
are several partners that we
collaborated with during the um sorry
during the Western week the rodeo Museum
helped kick things off on Saturday
January 25th so that's at the first part
of western week they had roping
demonstrations an outdoor beer garden
really a big celebration within the
rodal museum and right next to them at
the Oldtown Scottsdale Farmers Market on
the first weekend they had live western
music and on the second weekend they
encouraged their vendors to dress up and
decorate their booths so really creating
that Community spirit that we see again
Western Spirit Scottsdale's Museum of
the West played a critical role in
helping in ensure that the Western theme
was maintained throughout the entire
week they partnered with the city and
offered nine musicals in their theater
and two educational seminars giving
people an option for things to do on
maybe a Monday or Tuesday when there's
not the Signature Events taking place
they also had free entry for Scottdale
residents to the museum on Thursday
night and free entry on Friday and
Saturday for
everyone oh sorry went too far um
following the success of last year
tourism and events extended the week by
programming an event on Saturday January
25th so again to kick things off this
took place on the Marshall way Bridge we
partnered with two Merchants one was the
locally owned fry bread lounge and they
created a fry bread class where people
were able to make their own fry bread
the other one was with Mavericks of
Scotsdale which is one of our local
businesses and they hosted a custom
popup hatb bar on the bridge
also during that day we had live western
music free line dancing lessons and some
entertainers such as Dusty or the
singing Cowboy and his trusty horse
Dusty and lasso
Steve at the Trails End Festival this
year the tourism and events division had
a community art project that
participants could take part in we also
had on the Sunday January 26 a cowgirl
balloon artist and lasso Steve so again
really trying to interweave things
throughout the entire week to make it a
full Western week in addition to our
fantastic Signature Events that take
place every
year so we can take a look again this
might look a little bit similar to Scott
Dazzle it's definitely a a shorter time
period because we're promoting one week
versus this five weeks that take place
over Scott Dazzle but again we see some
similar tactics being used um we're
focusing on print ads locally we had an
ad in the digital free press this time
we had targeted ads on a Facebook
Instagram Google uh the Oldtown website
of course and again working with our
city departments and also a great deal
of press
Outreach there were many ads that were
General but then also some that promoted
those individual events again like the
pada Del Soul the gold pallet artwalk so
focusing on some of these signature
programs we take a look here at the
Impressions again these are going to be
different than Scott staszel because
they are um just one week but we're
looking at some similar statistics that
we've received in the past our website
was really really strong uh this this
time for Western week and then again
I'll play a quick video you might have
seen this before uh we've used it for a
couple years now to help promote uh
Western week and this is something you
might see if you're looking on Google or
Facebook these are the types of ads that
would appear
[Music]
and then again have to give thanks and
show aside for experience Scottdale
because once again they are marketing
Western week as one of the signature
items that they are speaking about
nationally internationally here's some
of the statistics some of the Outreach
that they did and I also thought we
could quickly listen to a podcast with
uh conen
O'Brien this or swap your snow boots for
flipflops and head to Scottdale Arizona
that's right January through March is
the time to visit some of the city's
most exciting events of the Year kickoff
Scottsdale's signature event season with
January's Barrett Jackson Auto Auction
or Scottsdale's Western week an annual
celebration of Scottsdale's Cowboy
culture this sounds like fun February is
packed with Camp Miss events too golf
fans you've got the PGA Tours WM Phoenix
Open AKA The Greatest Show on grass
hey you like baseball grab a seat at the
MLB Cactus League spring training game
and for a really unique experience you
can take in the Scottsdale Arabian horse
show my god I've got to see that the
largest Arabian horse competition on the
planet I've been to some Arabian
competitions yeah horse competitions
this is the one yeah you went to little
ones I went to tiny little ones with
tiny little Arabian horses these are the
real ones don't miss out on Scottsdale's
year round attractions Oldtown Scott
sales boutiques art galleries world
class dining there's always endless
Outdoor Adventures to choose from like
hiking mountain biking you're just
splashing around in a resort pool when I
get in a pool I just splash around
everyone's embarrassed visit experience
scottsdale.com and start planning your
trip that's experience scottsdale.com
okay well he's a tough act to follow so
I'm going to close things out um I do
want to say thank you for having me and
while I'm here to present this these
fantastic programs this is such a big
collaboration both Scott Dazzle and
Western week there are so many external
Partners we work with entertainment
Solutions is here in the audience we
have advertising agencies PR agencies
experienced Scottdale whom I mentioned
there's also so many City departments
that we work with we receive support
from Communications Economic Development
we partnered with Parks and Recreations
um there's teams like facilities and
solid wastes and um street operations
that do a lot of the heavy lifting a lot
of the behind thescene work um there's
Eric ion's team who ensures that all the
streets remain beautiful that the trees
are trimmed the trash is empty so many
details that go into Scott dazzl and
Western week we also have fantastic
volunteers such as the Oldtown
ambassadors they work the events they
help share the um information about the
events this year we were able to work
with P Neighborhood Center they also
volunteered at the farmers market and
created some of the centerpieces at our
events so it's almost difficult to do
thank yous because there's so many
people people involved I don't want to
forget anyone but it's important to
stress that it's definitely a
collaboration and a community program
and we have so much support from our ex
our Stellar internal and external
Partners so with that I'm happy to
answer any questions that you might have
about either of the programs Angelica
thank you so much um both amazing events
and thank you to everyone who
participates and like you said I love
that you thanked people that you don't
always get to see um that make it so
possible for our city to just shine um
these are really really cool events and
um I'd like to open it up to our
commissioners for any comments questions
compliments thank you madam chair um I
just had a couple of uh comments the
Oldtown website when does that go live
Angelica um so we're going to start
testing it shortly it'll be I would say
I want to estimate six to eight weeks
okay okay sounds great um and just to
Echo what Anna said um just an amazing
couple of events and what the heavy
lifting that the city does and with all
the services that are that impact those
events and all the volunteers and all
the people um it was just amazing so
thank you very much appreciate it thank
you any other questions any other
comments no thank you so much for
everything thank
you all
right up next we have our fiscal year
20252 26 City Event funding programs uh
with a commission update discussion and
possible
recommendation and we're going to hear
from Steve D yes Madam chair
Commissioners it's that time of year
again where we begin our evaluation of
the upcoming fiscal year and our four
programs the matching event advertising
fund program Community event event venue
and event development program you may
recall a couple years ago we had a
pretty extensive uh work study where we
went into it so this is just part of our
process we want to hear from you today
about anything particular you one is to
evaluate or bring to the program in your
packet was the applications for this
current fiscal year as well as the post
event report we didn't include the
contracts we will at the upcoming
meeting when we put it all together in a
Redline version for you to provide a
recommendation which we'll take to city
council probably in May or June we did
consider I did Identify some issues
particular you may want to consider to
look into the next fiscal year evaluate
event development funding program
consecutive day requirement which is
currently two evaluate ineligible events
including Expos trade shows concerts
film festivals select sporting events
evaluate removal seasonality funding
criteria which has been around for some
time evaluate influencers cost as an
eligible me funding allocation and this
one's actually in there today but I want
to clarify it events that participate or
are participating in the Mee or
Community event funding programs are not
eligible to apply for the event
development program we saw a few events
that were in those programs jump up so
we want to make that clear that we want
once you're in the event development
program you go down into the other three
and there you will be and continue on so
those are just some things for
consideration this is a discussion of
the commission to staff and then we'll
bring it back at a later date for a
final
recommendation thank you Steve
Commissioners comments
questions when reviewing this I think
it's important that in the development
there's a hierarchy right so when once
you go through the development stage
you're past that and it's not something
you can just return to even if you add
an element to your event I don't think
that makes uh sense in terms of uh the
spirit and the principles of what we put
that the new event funding together for
so that that's the one thing I wanted to
make sure I I I mentioned because I I
think that is not the correct way or
doesn't make it doesn't seem like it's
the right thing to do to go ahead and
put someone in the development program
we develop the program then somehow they
jump back down into it by just adding
element
so thank you any other
comments I just had one comment Steve I
know that we've had this conversation in
the past with regards to charitable
funding for U perhaps a city fund city
um uh funding um and I know that it's
been in place and I know Mr Murphy is no
longer with us um and so I wanted to
revisit that that idea or that thought
um to see if there may be a way that we
can kind of incorporate any of that into
um the the
events fact I heard you correctly you
said charitable piece related to that um
we can emphasize that in the worksheets
uh the applications in the post event
report to give us followup and feedback
on that contractually we cannot require
that that's our City attorney said you
can't require that you can't do that but
we can emphasize it I know you've pushed
for that over the years but we can put
something in the worksheets to include
that yeah like SC still cares or you
know some some sort of city sponsored or
city approved um charitable organization
so just wanted to make my voice known on
that too so thank you I absolutely
support that as well um I'd like it to
be focused on you know just a Scottdale
based um just an idea just to you know
give people an idea that to maybe give
back to the city a little bit um I think
is a great great thing to do so um any
other feedback that we can
give um so Steve are you looking for a
recommendation today or no uh we just
wanted to hear some feedback from you we
have some thoughts holl and I as well as
Rachel working on the programs so we'll
bring that back to you in a Redline
version and you can give us further
comments before we take that to city
council Perfect all right thank you so
much okay so next we are moving on to
agenda item number five event program
funding request commission discussion
and recommendation on the following
applicants for event funding we have
matching event funding program for
United Fight League UFL 6 uh the request
is for $330,000 Steve correct uh the
event date is May 2nd it is at Westworld
and as you mentioned Madam chair it's a
matching event advertising fund request
for
30,000 uh the discussion we're hoping to
have here today as you see we did not
put a recommendation in there because we
wanted to hear back from the commission
about uh this event whether it enhances
scal status in Alliance of the
Scottsdale brand image as a combat sport
we do have some producers here who are
wanting to make make a public comment
regarding the event and maybe give you a
little bit more info on
it okay thank you so much I do have a
public comment card I'd like to invite
up Harris and Rogers and anyone else
you'd like to bring with you because you
have a team here uh to talk to us a
little bit more about this event please
welcome thank you so much yes i' would
love to start off by promising we did
not make this just for the meeting we uh
our our Scottdale team will actually be
representing these at our event um we're
not that cheesy for just showing up in a
cheerleading outfit for you guys but um
we did have a slide I didn't know how
this worked I I feel like it would be a
little bit
more you know glamorous than me just
reading this to you but I really wanted
to be able to make sure I provided the
value that I think is the most important
of what you're looking for and so just
real quick I won't take too much time
but I will read this so that I make sure
I hammer every point because my team
would be mad at me if I uh go off on
tangents
so I'm Harrison Rogers I'm the CEO of
the uh and founder of United Fight
League and I'm here today to tell you
why the United Fight League and our
event UFL 6 specifically is on brand for
the city of Scottdale and will bring
millions of eyes to the
city about myself I'm born and raised
right here in Maricopa County and for
over 12 years I've been a business owner
and a community Builder uh right here
especially through my Lexington Service
Company which provides education and
care for children's and adults with
special needs I loved commity building
and I loved building businesses locally
which is why in 2022 as an MMA
Enthusiast I founded the UFL because the
Mixed Martial Arts um Combat Sports
World is growing and I knew that I can
bring that same positive Community
Building aspect to the MMA World which I
believe we have made Leaps and Bounds
already we're the first Combat Sports
promotion to give Fighters full health
insurance coverage and shares in the
company for retirement benefit um um if
you're familiar with MMA world that's
that's a big you know problem that
they've had uh this will be our sixth
UFL event but our second under our new
team vers team City vers City format uh
MMA is one of the fastest growing sports
in the world and it has been for many
years and the sport itself has gone
through significant elevations and
reputation and professionalism with
staple content deals on notable networks
such as Fox ESPN and now Netflix uh UFL
6 will be a premier mixed martial arts
event with local Scottsdale Fighters
competing for team Scottsdale against
the visiting Orange County team who the
Orange County team will be led by former
UFC and pride champion and MMA icon
Quinton Rampage Jackson the team
Scottdale will be led by Olympic gold
medalist and two-eight champion UFC
Henry Triple C cejudo Henry is arguably
the greatest Combat Sports athlete of
all time he lives and trains right here
in Scottdale his body of work and
accomplishments are legendary and have
brought athletes from all over the world
here to Scottdale to train alongside him
making Scottsdale one of the biggest MMA
hot beds uh in the
world but the important stuff for
Scottdale this event will be supported
and attended by a group of relevant
celebrities and social media influencers
who will be sharing content and links to
their millions of followers leading up
to during and after the event The
Impressions will easily be in the tens
of millions which we track the analytics
very diligently that we can
provide before during and after uh the
broadcast this event will be live
streamed globally on the homepage of
Rumble for free uh great partnership
with Rumble to make sure we're on their
homepage to their 67 million plus active
monthly users and partnered with an
available on cable network via Vice TV
to their 41 million households across
the
US uh we will integrate Scottdale and
the brand of Scottsdale into Promotional
and marketing materials ahead of during
and after the event during the live
broadcast we have the ability to include
Scottdale messaging marketing materials
and commercials showcasing the
highlights and beauty of this city
whether tourism whether just the
Landscapes maybe Scott's Dazzle we can
do amazing things for showcasing this
City's amazing
culture the application itself you might
see that the event budget is
$400,000 and the projected revenue is
$400,000 that's because we are not a
event company that lives off of per
event profitability we're building a
league it's not a single event and
Scottdale will be one of the first
franchises in the MMA League built on
passion and civic pride civic pride is
defined as a feeling of belonging to and
being proud of the town or city where
you live and I know that Scottdale can
be that City in one of the first UFL
franchises so that is as quickly as I
can make this long conversation of what
we're super passionate about um but
thank you for the time and I would love
to answer any questions but I don't know
if that's the platform I have right now
but thank you for the time Madam chair
Commissioners also this is matching
events so we will require a matching
dollar for the amount invested so that's
ensured also I should have mentioned our
one of our tourism drivers is sports but
I just want you to hear a little bit
more about the brand issue and whether
you wanted to have a conversation on
that regarding your
recommendation okay thank you Steve are
questions appropriate since this is
public
comment okay yes um so I have a few um
I'll start and I know some others do as
well but can you talk to us a little bit
about the impact on maybe Hotel night
people that are coming to stay how many
people you expect to come from it
appears to be California is probably
where most people would come from um
just talk to that a little bit please AB
absolutely so just a quick talk about
the structure of the League this is I
call the NBA of MMA and so the the
visiting Orange County team is their
whole team you know their friends and
family and everybody that comes to
support that
team they all have to have a place to
stay and so some of the more posh bougie
um maybe celebrity guest that we always
put in the W um that by itself is going
to have many rooms because we do have a
lot of VIP special guests that will come
but hopefully just out of budget
purposes we'll find a less expensive
hotel room where we will be in the
hundreds of nights based on you know
fight week we have Fighters that have to
come for the whole week and we have the
guests and people that want to make the
weekend a whole fun experience in
Scottdale so so we put 200 nights of as
hotel stays but we far expect to exceed
that and uh that's that's just for the
hotel question okay absolutely and so um
I believe this is a one evening event
like a few hours is that correct we we
consider the event the first night but
we do make it an experience uh the night
before we have the celebrity weigh-ins
uh we we offer celebrity like poker
nights and different fun uh experiences
for guests for uh you know viewage we we
stream a lot of these activities and we
have a lot of opportunity to put
Scottdale in all of that stuff but the
event is the one night but it's a it's a
full weekend experience okay thank you
I'll open it up to my fellow
Commissioners for
questions I'd like to know a little bit
about how you expect to promote it prior
to the event and you mentioned you were
hoping for the hotel in a good rate um
have you guys selected or partnered up
with anyone yet for hotels yes sir uh
the W is who we mainly have the most
relationship with so far but we haven't
uh solidified who is going to be the
best as far as Geographic wise to and
from the venue we have a couple great
opportunities that we will solidify
pretty soon it also just kind of depends
on you know our our relationship with
scoto because if uh if we need to go
strictly budget there's some that are
right on the outskirts that you know we
could maybe have less expensive but
obviously we're not looking at just
nickel and diming we want to build a
relationship with Scottdale and whoever
that partner could be we will we'll book
all the nights there other than the
super bougie uh athletes that need to
stay at the W and a little bit about how
you're plan to Market this get into that
thank you so and I think that's actually
specifically what this dollar for dollar
was matching is we plan to exceed uh in
promotional for our event in the
hundreds of thousands but specifically
for the 30 is again we're exceeding more
than what matching would be our
influencers um with this league that
have come on board whether they're
celebrity Fighters or just celebrities
in general that are influencers they
have deliverables that they have to meet
for our league and so we pay them and we
pay them monthly whether it's for
extended um leadup for an event if it's
a month an event with a a month with an
event in it or if it's just regular
months they have to do stories they have
to do posts they have to do links they
have to do obviously ramping up to the
event where we track all of that uh the
influencers if if you saw our if you
have time to see our slides we we name
all of our influencers and it's in
the tens and tens of millions of of fers
collaborative collectively so it's easy
to show exactly who we're reaching and
we can get really creative with the tour
ISM the highlights and uh provide that
data got a couple questions for you um
what is the structure of the tournament
meaning where OC is coming here for a
home match against Scottdale but how
does that work throughout the year when
is Scottdale going to be the host of the
next match and and how often does that
move from City to City that's what's
been really exciting for these networks
that we're um negotiating with whether
you know ESPN or whoever's coming on
board because if you're fans of M
you would understand that this is very
different um Team versus Team what are
you talking about MMA is a fighter
versus fighter we our last event showed
as we had our scoring system where if a
fighter
finishes in the first round he gets more
points in the second round he gets more
you know so it's the first time MMA has
been able to have this team
collaborative where if they win they get
more points for their team who get a
bigger bonus and so we now are
structuring where there's a regular
season the teams who have the best
record at the end of the regular season
have playoffs and they have a
championship and so next year in 2026 we
have our schedule where our first six
teams and first six franchises in the
league have their set schedule so four
events in Scottsdale four events in
orang Orange County four events in
Milwaukee four events in whatever and
that's just until we obviously have 32
teams across the country where we're
going to have more events than we can
even you know care for just like the NBA
a but that's what's really cool about
the civic pride is the ones who cares
about the Scottdale and cares about the
you know Orange County just like you
care about the Phoenix Suns or the LA
Lakers that's who you watch and who you
become crazy loyal with and so there's
four events after this one for scottdel
but I can give you those dates uh after
and is this is this pay-per-view is this
public view how is this covered it's all
free so our partner with
Rumble it's it's basically like a
alternative to YouTube they put us on
the front page they actually are work
they're paying us because they see the
eyes that we get and we did our last
couple events with Rumble and we just
we're the first combat sport that did
live events on there and we just killed
the numbers for them where they're like
please come back and so they're starting
to pay us but we just solidified a deal
with cable and that's vice TV and so
both are going to be available for free
to a user which obviously makes
marketing way
better are you guys MMA fans by chance
you just want well I mean you know free
time stuff
no well please come if you have any MMA
or or
celebrity enjoyment uh this will be
event for you guys to enjoy and I really
hope to be able to show you guys what
we're doing thank you I do like the
shirts by the way whether you did it on
purpose or not fan we actually brought
some to leave with everybody just to
little Kudos I like it any more comments
questions Commissioners thank you so
much Harrison for your time and uh we'll
go ahead and have our discussion now uh
so we are being asked for a
recommendation on this event uh matching
event fund program total request is
$30,000 I would like to open it up to a
motion for that amount or a different
amount should the Commissioners
decide I I vote to approve the amount of
30,000 uh but I would recommend that the
uh the UFL track their amount of Hotel
usage and inbound revenues as much as
possible so that when you come up here
again in the future that we have a
little bit of a
gauge I'll second that and I Echo um
commissioner's uh request for that and
uh yes I will second that wonderful all
Commissioners in favor I I
congratulations
all right moving on to number six staff
report Steve yes thank you madam chair
Commissioners oh what's up good okay
just going to review a couple items here
uh since we haven't talked about some of
the data coming in over the past few
months uh bed TX collections through
January is 18.9 million which represent
about 57% of the estimated total bed Tas
collection for the year of 32.8 that's
our working forecast and it represents
is about 57% the next bullet I bring up
just more emphasis on the non- hotel uh
total bed attach collections through
January for Resorts full service limited
properties is 15 million non hotel is 6
million non- hotel is down about 8% um
non Hotel makes up about 40% of the
total bed task collections so I
mentioned that maybe a few months ago
that that continues to Trend downward
maybe it's a particular customer issue
that the overall uh you know non-hotel
properties are not trending that well as
they were during covid or coming out of
Co U but just something you know I
wanted to show it represents 40% so
we'll continue to monitor that
particular
collection uh Smith travel report uh the
marketing Trend which is consists of all
the marketing area around Scottdale over
the past 12 months occupancy was flat
average daily rate was down 3.5% uh
repar 17695 was also down 3.4% when
compared to last year uh the segmented
Trend report uh I took a look at group
occupant
uh in terms of that report over the past
12 months uh it's 22.6 down 1.4% over
last year average daily rate 28699 was
down 3.5% repar 6489 was also down when
compared to the same period last year so
just wanted to cover a few of the
highlights related to those reports if
you have any questions we're happy to
dig into that a little further okay
thank you any questions
Commissioners all right the other thing
I'll mention probably related to our
tables that you get Holly and myself
will probably work on how that's going
to be presented going forward into the
new fiscal year maybe making a little
bit more streamlined easier to get
through that report sure that sounds
great thank you so much Steve all right
moving on to commissioner's report
anything to report Commissioners the
events
attended well I
did um I attended the quarterly update
in Oldtown um if you haven't gone to
that I think it's a very informative uh
networking style event that has some
great presenters uh so I encourage you
to attend that it's at the uh Spear of
the West um Western Museum and then I
also had the opportunity to attend the
celebrity Wine and Spirit Festival this
last weekend um the weather was
phenomenal and I want to thank whoever
is in charge of the grounds there there
was no mud which I think some people
were maybe afraid of um it was perfectly
dry it was absolutely a beautiful
beautiful day um I I hope they can maybe
um grow on that event a little bit more
next year
uh but anyway it was it was lovely and a
in a perfect Scottdale day there was the
game going on and it was just busy and
bustling and fantastic so anyway all
right well moving on any further public
comment Steve I don't have uh no public
comment all right identification of
future agenda items commissioner is
anything you'd like to see coming up I
would like to have a discussion
on how we make it possible to positively
promotee Scottdale for everyone when
actions do other things and so at the
end of the day we our role up here is to
kind of be fiscally responsible in terms
of what messaging we're putting out and
where we spend our money in terms of
attracting people from outside of
Scottdale and I I know some of the
recent
changes that happened uh that action
might say something different than we
want as a as a
tourist uh based
Community um I don't think the UF USF
has just one type of wrestler right um
so I think it's important that if we're
going to get rid of something for a good
reason or whatever reason that we have
another way to promote bringing every
kind of person here um because without
doing that you find yourself in I think
we can find ourselves at reduced dollar
amount which can impact the community in
a way way more negative Manner and so I
just I think I want to put that on the
for us to discuss and and to say Okay so
we're going to go away from X but what
we're going to
do to go ahead and make sure people
outside of this community
realize we're for everyone we want
everyone's dollars dollars Michael
Jordan said it best everyone buys
sneakers everyone goes on vacation we
want to make sure that we're one of the
options for people so I don't know how
we do that particularly but I want to
see if that's something we can discuss
commissioner Montgomery Commissioners um
in the upcoming meetings we will have
opportunities to review the marketing
plan the business plan from experience
scil as well will be coming up here I
believe in April or May so there may be
some elements that you can look and take
a review in terms of that document um so
there may be an opportunity there
regarding the marketing program and
what's happening other items uh we have
next month the budget uh will be coming
up for review and presentation and our
event funding programs as I mentioned
will be coming up in in the coming
months and we will have a pre a staff
evaluation of the final four
presentation we received last month in
regards to that ask and the potential
recommendation going to city
council okay thank you very much um
anything else
Commissioners staff all right I will go
ahead and call for a motion of
adjournment please I move to adjourn
I'll second that all right all those in
favor I I thank you all very much thank
you e