Superior National Golf Course and Audubon Sanctuary continues to be lucrative even during these hard economic times. It has proven to be a countywide benefit.
Did you know that the Annual Health Care Golf Tournament has collected $312,508 that was given to the hospital for new and more advanced equipment? The hospital serves everyone.
In 2009, Superior National took in $1 million. Statistics show that each dollar a golf course earns brings in $15 of spending in the area. $1 million for the golf course means $15 million for Cook County businesses. Talk about a cash cow in the worst of times!
I recently asked a visiting group of golfers if they found the cost of golf at Superior National excessive. Their answer was, “What we spend today playing golf is nothing compared to what our wives and kids will be spending shopping in Grand Marais.”
There isn’t a business that doesn’t benefit from the flow of tourists that use the golf course. Well, maybe not the funeral home.
$15 million comes to our county with a zero budget from taxpayers. You heard right. Not a dime of county money in the 2009 golf course budget. Thedownside is that afterseveral lean years, golf course equipment is in need of replacement; ground work needs to be done and more manpower is needed
We are not the only area in Northern Minnesota with a first class golf course to draw tourists. The Wilderness at Fortune Bay in Tower is run on casino money – talk about deep pockets. The Quarry at Giant’s Ridge in Biwabik is subsidized by the State of Minnesota.
Superior National needs help. With zero dollars in the county budget, the answer could be in the 1 % sales tax being considered by voters. I am anti-tax, but when 70% of the needed money would come from visitors and only 30% from folks like us, I need to make an exception.
The golf course and the ski hill are the summer and winter main draws to the area. Picture Cook County, if you can, with both gone and you may find it more palatable to support the 1 % sales tax.
Superior National seeks $150,000 per year to keep itself up to the standards demanded by today’s golfers. Peanuts compared to the $15 million the golf course brings to our county. We need $150,000 to keep our cash cow healthy and giving milk in abundance.
The talk about total income from the 1% sales tax is $20 million from all sources. Superior National brings in 3/4 of that total by itself in one year on a zero budget.
Even in absence of money from the county, a great deal of work has been done in the last three years by unpaid volunteers, in flower gardens and landscaping, saving the golf course thousands of dollars. Positive administration changes have recently been made so that for the first time in years people who are experienced in business and marketing, with hands-on knowledge of how to run a golf course, will be making decisions on how to run Superior National.
Visitors will want to return again and again to Cook County. It may not be the whole answer, but it is a heck of a good start. If you could make $15 million by investing $150,000, wouldn’t you do it?
Eugene Utecht
Lutsen
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