Tourism Development Commission - March 18, 2025

School the Scottdale Gallery Association
bario Queen the mission the mertile
market Riot Hospitality EEG the farmers
market Hotel Valley Ho light and bark
candle go the chabat of South Scottdale
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 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 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 Scott 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 know we'll go into some of
the numbers and our Outreach but what we
see here are people people really
enjoying the activities families
creating Traditions couples making
memories and that's really within
tourism events you 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 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 Kasa Amigos
bottle blonde Riot house Maya HiFi El
Hefe Dirk Bentley's Whiskey Row Mother
Tuckers and cake so in addition to the
deor 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 Scottdale artist
school so on the Marshall way Bridge we
created a beautiful event there was live
music there was some performers there
was an artist 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 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 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
Scotsdale and they actually came in a
couple of weeks ago or maybe 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 single in tree
lighting and about 10,000 over the 3
weeks of the Scots 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 tamali that I
mentioned
earlier so how do people find out about
Scott's Dazzle it is absolutely building
a brand um it has a name within the city
we're at 9 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 was extremely helpful digital
advertising we collaborated with other
City departments 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
outreaches well so I just wanted to play
a quick video that is used as one of our
uh digital
[Music]
ads 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 marke
and advertising without mentioning
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
internationally you can hear a see here
a snapshot of the work that they did
featuring Scott Dazzle and after the
presentation if you have any questions
related to experience Scottdale I know
Michelle Myers 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's Dazzle
without mentioning our partners at
experience
Scottdale and while I think it's great
to share all of our numbers it's also
nice to see some 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 the 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
pradel 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 duct D 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 kicked things off on Saturday
January 25th so that's at the first part
of western week they had roping
demonstrations and outdoor beer garden
really a big celebration within the
rodal museum and right next to them at
the Oldtown Scott still 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 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 education 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 o sorry to 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 Scottdale
which is one of our local businesses and
they hosted a custom popup Hat Bar 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 26th a calg
girl 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
stazz it's definitely a a shorter time
period because we're promoting one week
versus the 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 uh 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
PIR 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 dazzle 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 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
[Music]
appear 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
are some of the statistics some of the
Outreach that they did and I also
thought we could quickly listen to a
podcast with uh Conan
O'Brien this winter swap your snow boots
for flipflops and head to Scottsdale
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 EV 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 tiny
little Arabian horses these are the real
ones don't miss out on Scottsdale's year
round attractions Oldtown scotsdales
boutiques art galleries world class
dining there's always endless Outdoor
Adventures to choose from like hiking
mountain biking or just splashing around
in a resort pool when I get in a pool I
just splash around everyone's
embarrassed visit experien
scottsdale.com and start planning your
trip that's experien scottsdale.com
[Music]
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 received 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 the scene 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 Scotts dazin
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 pyute 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 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 part 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 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
2025 2026 City Event funding programs uh
it's a commission update discussion and
possible
recommendation and we're going to hear
from Steve gig yes Madam chair
Commissioners it's that time of year
again when we begin our evaluation of
the upcoming fiscal year in 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 want us 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
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 to 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 influence ERS 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 me for
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 with
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 uh 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 an 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 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 if that 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 Scottdale 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 Scot still
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 uh
we have some thoughts holl and 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 $30,000 Steve correct uh the
event date is May 2nd it is at West
world and as you mentioned Madam chair
it's a matching an 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
Scottsdale status and aligns with the
Scottdale brand image as a combat sport
we do have some The Producers here who
are wanting to 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 Harrison Rogers and anyone else you'd
like to bring with you cuz 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 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 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 community 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 could
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 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 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 Scottdale
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-e champion UFC Henry
Triple C seudo 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 Scottsdale to train alongside
him making Scottdale 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 Scottdale into emotional
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 Scottsdale can
be that City in one of the the first UFL
franchisees 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 uh 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 want to have a
conversation on that regarding your
recommendation okay thank you Steve our
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 nights
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 guests 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 uh a whole fun experience in
Scottdale 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
hot tell 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 hotel 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
scel 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 will'll
book all the nights there other than the
super bougie uh athletes that need to
stay at the W and then a little bit
about how you're plan to Market this get
into that thank you so and and I think
that's actually specifically what this
dollar Ford dooll 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
followers collaborative collectively so
it's easy to show exactly who we're
reaching and we can get really creative
with the tourism the highlights and uh
provide that
data got a couple questions for you um
what is the structure of the tournament
meaning we 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
MMA you would understand that this is
very different um Team vers team what
are you talking about MMA is a fighter
versus fighter we our last event showed
as we had our SC in 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 in first six franchises in the
league have their set schedule so four
events in Scottdale four events in
Orange Orange County four events in
Milwaukee four events and 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
but that's what's really cool about the
civic pride is the ones who cares about
the Scottsdale 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
I'm crazy loyal with and so there's four
events after this one for Scottdale 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 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 bed TX
collections through January is 18.9
million which represent about 57% of the
estimated total bed tax collection for
the year of 32.8 that's our working
forecast and it represents about 57% the
next bullet I bring up just more
emphasis on the non- hotel uh total bed
tach 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 Tas 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
Smith travel report 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 took a look at
group occupancy 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 want 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 good the other
thing I'll mention probably related to
our tables that you get Holly and our
will probably work on how that's going
to be presented going forward into the
new fiscal year maybe make it 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 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 then 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 may be 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 and a perfect
Scottdale day there was the game going
on and it was just busy and buzzling and
fantastic so anyway all right well
moving on any further public comments
Steve I don't have 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
promote Scottdale for everyone when
actions do other things and so at the
end of the day we're our role appears 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 USF 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 a 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
coming 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 a 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 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