Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee, Knoxville is known for its quality outdoor activities, modern nightlife, rich culture, and natural beauty. To capitalize on the citys location and proximity to more than 50% of the population in the United States, city commissioners decided to build a sportsplex that could host a multitude of events. The new sportsplex has 5 open fields, which can host up to 10 soccer matches at one time, 4 baseball diamonds in a clover design, and 16 tennis courts. Since opening in 2012, the facility has bid on and won several national, regional, and state tournaments in a variety of sports, including baseball, soccer, lacrosse, tennis, softball, and ultimate Frisbee. The director of the parks and recreation department has been very excited about the success of the facility and thought he could use the success to get more support from the local government.
The director knew the importance of demonstrating the economic impact the facility is having on the community and commissioned an economic impact study. The research firm he employed conducted several survey-based studies of a dozen events hosted at the facility during the peak season, the summer months. The research reported the facility was having a major impact on the community, even roughly $5.7 million in income growth. They also reported the facility created 20 new jobs due to the new economic activity but cautioned officials that the majority of these positions were likely part time. The parks and recreation director saw this as a win and realized he could utilized this information to garner more financial support for the fields.
In addition to the economic impact investigation, the director conducted his own survey of event owners to develop an understanding of their satisfaction with the facility. He was pleasantly surprised to find that the event owners thought the location was great because it provided a significant number of hotels, restaurants, and entertainment options for their participants. The event owners reported that the staff and volunteers ant the facility were very informative and provided high-quality customer service. They also reported that the facilities were a great size for the current event scope, but they were not as pleased with some of the amenities (e.g., concessions and restrooms) the facility provided, which the parks and recreation director thought would be a great investment for the facility to improve its services.
Using the economic impact report and satisfaction survey as sources of information, he solicited from the city commission an extra amount of investment to expand the facility. He was hoping the positive impact on the community and the demonstrated need for improvement would make this an easy negotiation with the county commissioners. However, the county commissioners quickly turned down the proposal. They cited the local residents displeasure with the increased traffic, the lights being left on late at night, and the overcrowding of the restaurants. Additionally, they highlighted that while the facility was in use and did well for the local community, it was not performing as well as they had hoped financially and any new investment would end in a loss.
The parks and recreation director, feeling defeated, returned to his office and immediately called the consulting firm. Together they discussed the various issues with the local residents in search of ways to better the issues they were having with the facility. In addition, they decided to evaluate more functions of the organization to determine how they could improve organizational efficiency. Acting as the consulting group for the parks and recreation director, complete the following tasks:
Based on the new indicators, outline who the appropriate stakeholders would be to determine the current organizational performance.
Provide a few strategies based on your expected results that the parks and recreation director can use to improve the facilitys efficiency and overall financial performance.
Establish three new key performance indicators that could be utilized to determine the facilitys efficiency.
Outline the steps and instrumentation you will use to measure this group of stakeholders.
