The Grapevine-Colleyville ISD revenue growth committee, which is a committee made up of volunteers, trustee members and district staff, presented ideas that could lead to $2 million in annual revenue after three years at the May 18 board meeting.
The board of trustees did not vote to move forward with these ideas, and discussions will continue to be held.
The overview
The ideas for generating revenue for the district included:
- Increasing bookings for events at Mustang-Panther Stadium year-round, which could include tournaments, camps and concerts
- Adding premium reserved seating at Mustang-Panther Stadium and reserved parking for the stadium and other district properties
- Advertising space printed directly onto speed bumps in parking lots
- Optimizing concessions by creating standardized menus, handling peak demand more efficiently and leveraging the district's bulk buying power to increase profit margins
“There are a lot of revenue growing ideas currently being implemented in the district,” said John Klein, managing director of
CEVOH, a company dedicated to revenue growth ideas. “The boosters, the [Parent-Teacher Associations], [and] everybody's playing a part to grow revenue. We have no intention of disrupting that. In fact, we want to keep all those efforts whole. Our intention is to add to it or to amplify.”
More details
These revenue growth ideas would be implemented slowly over three years, Klein said. The committee is predicting that after year one, the district will earn $360,480 through booking two standard events and one higher-fare event at the stadium, selling 60% of the reserved parking, seating and speed bump advertising, and improving concessions.
By the end of year two, the committee predicts to earn $677,200 by booking four standard events at Mustang-Panther Stadium and two higher-fare events, selling 100% of the reserved parking, seating and speed bump advertising, and continuing to maximize concession profits.
At the end of year three, the committee plans to book six standard events and three high-fare events, sell 100% of the reserved seats, parking and speed bump advertising and move concessions from completely band booster-controlled to district-controlled, with potentially having vendor partnerships and adding fountain drinks instead of selling canned drinks, which would result in $966,484 in revenue. GCISD would take the profits from a vendor partnership while the boosters would continue to take the revenue from concessions sold at the event.
“When you can buy in bulk and you can buy fountain drinks instead of canned drinks and you can deliver those more efficiently, then you have an opportunity to grow both revenue per patron but also margin per patron,” Klein said.
The discussion
Trustee members Lindsey Sheguit and Kathy Spradley raised concerns that the district taking control of concessions would negatively impact the band boosters who use revenue from concession stands to fund programs.
“Concessions are the main source of income for our bands,” Sheguit said. “It is a significant source of income for our bands and with decreases in funding from the district, the band boosters have to make that up somewhere. It really is band parents coming together to make those concessions work so that we can provide for our two high school bands and four middle school bands.”
Revenue growth committee members Klein and Lyndsey Hill said they plan to work with the boosters to maximize profit without hurting the boosters.
“There is no intention of taking any money away from any current efforts being made by any booster groups,” Spradley said. “We want to come along in tandem and make things even better.”
