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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBig Thaw 2018 (1)/ Interested in developing new or growing events, conventions, rallies, festivals and tournaments ( to be called “the event” hereafter) that have a proven or qualified ability to generate hotel-motel room nights in the city of Bozeman. The mission of the Bozeman TBID is “to enhance the economic vitality of Bozeman by generating room nights for the cities lodging facilities through effective sales and marketing strategies, building collaborative partnerships and promoting Bozeman as a year round visitor, convention and event destination.”. The Bozeman TBID is funded by a flat fee of $2 per room night on individuals staying at lodging facilities within the Bozeman City limits. The Business Improvement District Law, Montana Code Annotated 2007, 7-12-1101 through 7-12-1144 as amended, for funding of all uses and projects for tourism promotion within Bozeman as specified by the Bozeman Tourism Business Improvement District budget. Criteria Requirements The following criteria are required prior to any funding by the TBID. The event must have a proven or qualified ability to generate hotel-motel room nights in the City of Bozeman. The Bozeman TBID resources are available. The entire event must be deemed appropriate by the Bozeman TBID (no political candidate promotion, no adult style entertainment, other exclusions may apply at the discretion of the Bozeman Area Chamber of Commerce and Bozeman TBID). The Bozeman Tourism Business Improvement District and the Bozeman Area Chamber of Commerce must be listed as additional insured on your event insurance policy. Advertising The Bozeman TBID will, in some cases, consider underwriting advertising efforts to help publicize an event that has a direct correlation to increased hotel/motel occupancy in Bozeman’s lodging facilities. If approved, the following advertising criteria must be followed. The words Bozeman, Montana shall appear on all printed materials. The website bozemanchamber.com shall appear on all printed materials Acknowledgment of grant on collateral: “Produced with the support of Bozeman TBID funds.” Target Audiences must be a minimum of 150 miles away from Bozeman, MT. Copies of all advertisements must be supplied to the Bozeman TBID. Event Funding The Bozeman TBID will, in some cases, consider subsidizing costs that would otherwise make an event infeasible to have in Bozeman. In these cases the following criteria must be followed. No direct cash subsidy will be given to the organization. Cash subsidies may be used for rental assistance, transportation assistance, facility rental or other expenditures deemed appropriate by the Bozeman TBID. The Bozeman TBID shall be included in the bidding and planning of the event in an effort to maximize the number of overnight stays created and insure that all aspects are deemed appropriate. Other Award money will not be retroactive. (The TBID will not pay for advertising/promotions/obligations/other contracted services for the event prior to the grant being awarded) Other rules, regulations, policies, and procedures pertaining to this grant are at the sole discretion of the Bozeman TBID. Grant/Award winner must provide a wrap-up report and samples of produced advertisements to the TBID upon completion (within ten day of event closure). 20% of awarded funds will be withheld until this report is received. Recommendations While the Bozeman TBID will look at all events that create overnight stays, the following characteristics will improve grant consideration. The event occurs during the ten months that currently have lower occupancy in the Bozeman lodging facilities. July and August are the two highest occupancy months for Bozeman Hoteliers. The event is large in size. The event brings a large number of people from 100+ miles away. The event is multiday. The event is new to Bozeman and/or has significant potential for growth. The event is not weather dependent. The event organization requesting funds is non-profit. Process Submit one copy of the following: 1) grant application 2) projected budget that includes all income and expenses and 3) supporting documents (business plan, marketing plan, ad materials, etc.). Grant application will be reviewed by the Gallatin Valley Tournament Committee and Bozeman TBID. It will take a minimum of 45 days for grant application results. Failure to comply with any of the criteria listed may require full repayment of TBID monies from the awarded organization to the Bozeman TBID. Applicant must complete a follow up report within 45 days of the event being held. Acknowledgment of Criteria: Please sign below acknowledging that you have read and understand the above criteria: Name of Organization Requesting Grant The Big Thaw Tournament Signature Print Name Deborah O’Reilly Position Tournament Organizer Date 01/18/2018 BOZEMAN TBID GRANT APPLICATION GENERAL INFORMATION Name of Organization: The Big Thaw Tournament Director: Kandice Gregorak Tournament Organizer: Deborah O’Reilly Address: P.O. Box 1145 Bozeman, MT 59719 Phone: 406-570-3787 Email: dlo.bridger@gmail.com Name of Contact: Deborah O’Reilly Position of Contact: Tournament Organizer Phone: 406-570-3787 Email : dlo.bridger@gmail.com Title of Event: The Big Thaw Volleyball Tournament Proposed Dates of Event: 5/12-13/2018 Location of Event: Bozeman High School, Hawk Gym and CJ Middle School Amount of funding requested $ 5,500  Applicants Match (if applicable) $ Total Budget $10,000 SUMMARY OF EVENT The Big Thaw is a new volleyball tournament for 2018 with the intent to grow the sport of volleyball in the community. With the great response we have had with the Best of the West, we believe Bozeman can support another event. The Big Thaw will be ran by a tournament committee which has been involved in some of the most successful tournaments in Bozeman. Kandice Gregorak has been hired as our director due to her widespread expertise in youth volleyball. Kandice has successfully doubled the size of her club tournament the, Best of the West, in just one year. The Big Thaw tournament will host volleyball players ranging in age from 9 to 18. Teams will be traveling from Missoula, Helena, Great Falls, Butte and Billings. Team sizes will average 10 players and two coaches. We estimate 432 players and coaches plus their family members and fans to take part in this year’s tournament. The Big Thaw tournament committee is committed to ensuring that the Big Thaw will be run at the same quality as the other tournaments we have been involved with We continue to improve in the following areas: Expand marketing to website, Facebook, cross-event marketing and email outreach to attract teams from across the state. Knowledge transfer about how to run a high quality tournament, experience and volunteers are supporting both tournaments. Fundraising activities to make a profit for the tournament so we can allow more teams/more facilities/etc. As a new tournament we hope with the partnership of the TBID we can successfully get it off the ground. Bozeman is becoming known for its youth tournaments and we hope to continue the growth and success of these as they are great for the community. GRANT REQUEST PURPOSE Please provide a one paragraph summary of the purpose of the funding request and what it will subsidize. Please focus on the specific element for which you are requesting funding. The funding will be used to pay for the director costs, refs, AES (a bracketing platform), website launch, janitor fees, concession, and equipment needs. Volleyball in Montana is an AAU dominated sport. To get the quality teams from the region, we need to continue to be an AAU tournament. However, the allowable registration fee of $90 does not keep up with the costs that are associated with hosting a tournament. The partnership with the TBID is very important to our success and we believe the community will benefit from another youth Volleyball tournament in Bozeman. Hosting a high quality tournament is an expensive endeavor and very time consuming. With the TBID partnership this will ensure that the event will be successful this year and in future years. LODGING FACILITY IMPACT Explain how this event will bring people from out of town to fill hotel rooms and list the towns, states and/or regions you expect the participants to travel from. Explain your room night goals and how they will be measured. The tournament will begin on a Saturday morning at 7:00 am and will run through Sunday evening around 10 pm. Teams traveling 90+ miles are more likely to utilize local lodging for Friday and Saturday night, some may extend their stay through Sunday. The tournament is hosting 36 teams with 24 teams traveling 90+ miles or more outside of Bozeman. Our projection assuming a two night stay with approximately 10 players and two coaches per team and an ADR of $89.61, would result in $51,615 in potential room revenue for the weekend. We expect the tournament to grow next year; however, for this to happen we need to run a successful tournament this year. We are hoping the TBID board sees value in supporting this new tournament. ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW- Please give a brief history of your organization. The Big Thaw is a new entity developed by the tournament committee to run the tournament. The committee comprises of many of the same individuals who have helped develop and grow other tournaments you have worked with including but not limited to The Best of the West, The Fall Ball Classic and The Hardwood Classic. We have collaborated as a group to improve each of these events through sharing ideas, marketing strategies and tournament systems. The proceeds from this tournament will go directly to supporting the Bozeman High School volleyball program to assist in purchasing equipment and fund development opportunities. AVAILABLE RESOURCES What alternatives to TBID funding have been explored? Do you envision this grant as seed money? Will this event become self-sustaining in the future? We are working towards other sponsorships from local businesses. We are offering court and t-shirt sponsorship opportunities. The fund received from the TBID will help seed the tournament by offsetting some of the cost of our director fees, web design, custodial fees and online bracketing platform. It is our intention with the improvements and partnerships to attract more teams and grow this event so it is self-sustaining and also feeds into additional Bozeman tournaments. We have created the demand for Volleyball Tournaments in the area, we would like to capitalize on this and get another one off the ground. PROJECT BUDGET TIMELINE Please indicate when you will need the funds from the TBID. Be aware that once funding is recommended, a contract will need to be executed by the Bozeman TBID. A detailed budget is required to be submitted with the application. If this is the second year of funding please provide a Profit and Loss from the previous year. We have already secured 95% of our gym space and custodial services. We’ve already signed contracts with Advance Event Systems to take over the bracketing of our tournament as well as hiring Kandice Greorack as a director to insure the Volleyball side of the tournament runs smoothly. A majority of the expenses will occur about May 5th due to the custodial hours being billed to us within a week of the tournament. If the TBID grant money is approved, we would like to receive the funds on May 1st, which is two weeks before the event. Although our request is for director costs, web design, equipment rental and janitorial fees, we have product expenses that will be due prior to the event which need to be purchased. CHALLENGES What are the primary challenges your organization faces with regards to this event? Being a new tournament this year has been our biggest challenge. The growth and future of this tournament is dependent on us running a high quality and successful tournament. The second issue is the low registration fee associated with AAU within the state of Montana. This combined with the cost to run a tournament makes it difficult to get off the ground. We have put together a very successful tournament committee that has proven themselves over the years. ADDITIONAL COMMENTS Please provide any other comments that should be considered. The local community and tournament committee is often asked why we do not host more sporting events in Bozeman. Bozeman is a sought after location, as we are centrally located from a variety of population centers. The Tournament Committee wants to set the highest quality youth tournament for the Big Thaw Tournament. This coupled with the draw of the Bozeman community gives us the opportunity to host more tournaments and bring broader economic benefit to the TBID members and local economy. QUESTIONAIRE How many volunteers are required? 75 Has this event been in Bozeman before? No - Has this event been in Montana before? No - Could this event cancel on the same day due to inclement weather? Yes or No If yes, explain: While the likelihood is low, severe weather conditions could impact travel conditions. I would highly doubt this would occur in May. Could this event cancel a month or less before its intended date for any reason? Yes No If yes, explain: Yes. However, this is highly unlikely and could only occur if a severe event caused problems with facilities or logistics. The gym space for the Big Thaw Volleyball Tournament has been secured. What, if any, entities will proceed from this event? The Hawk Volleyball Program Are you a Member in good standing with the Bozeman Area Chamber of Commerce? YES Please sign below stating that the above information is accurate Name of Organization Requesting Grant The Big Thaw Signature Print Name Deborah O’Reilly Position Tournament Committee Member Date 04/10/18