The City Council discussed extending OVG 360’s management of the Ford Wyoming Center and Hogadon food and beverage service on Tuesday. (Screenshot via City of Casper, YouTube)
CASPER, Wyo. — The Casper City Council indicated Tuesday it is comfortable with terms negotiated between the City of Casper and OVG 360, formerly Spectra Venue Management, to extend contracts for management of the Ford Wyoming Center and food and beverage at Hogadon Basin Ski Area.
The City Council will formally vote on whether to extend the contract for the Ford Wyoming Center for another ten years during its regular meeting on Tuesday July 5. The amended agreement would also include terms relating to OVG 360 managing Hogadon food and beverage for another five years.
The amended agreement would give the city greater flexibility to terminate the Hogadon food and beverage portion of the agreement with OVG 360 if the city thinks that is need Parks, Recreation & Public Facilities Director Zulima Lopez told the council.
Terminating the Hogadon portion of the agreement would not impact the Ford Wyoming Center management agreement. If the city were to terminate the Hogadon portion during or before fiscal year 2024, the city would have to pay OVG 360 a $15,000 termination fee. That would drop to $7,500 in FY 2025 and to $3,750 in FY 2026. Conversely, OVG 360 will contribute $50,000 toward capital investments if the city retains the food and beverage contract through July 1, 2027.
Under the Ford Wyoming Center aspect of the agreement, OVG 360 will contribute $350,000 toward capital investments if the City Council approves the ten year contract extension terms, Lopez said.
Spectra Venue Management, which was recently renamed OVG 360, began managing the Casper Events Center, now called the Ford Wyoming Center, in October 2016. While the Ford Wyoming Center still requires a subsidy from the City of Casper in order to operate, average net operating losses have been lower since Spectra/OVG 360 took over management of the facility than when the city managed the facility itself, according to a memo from Lopez.
The following table included in the memo shows net operating losses under city management compared with Spectra/OVG management:
The reduction in net operating losses reduces the burden on the City of Casper’s General Fund, according to Lopez.
“This was achieved despite increasing operating costs, COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020, and the slow recovery of the event industry post COVID-19,” she added in the memo.
While the Ford Wyoming Center requires a subsidy from the city, events held at the facility may be a benefit to the overall local economy.
“Based on a report provided to the City Council by Visit Casper in December of 2021, events held at the Ford Wyoming Center yielded just over $25,000,000 in economic impact to Casper and Natrona County in 2019,” Lopez’s memo stated. “Certainly, a major contributor to that impact is College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR), which recently garnered record attendance and revenues for 2022, with a renewed five-year agreement to host CNFR through 2027 beginning in 2023.”
“Successful management of this venue is critical to the sustained economic vitality of our community. The expertise, resources, and industry relationships provided by OVG 360 are invaluable to ensure we can continue to safely host events that attract citizens and visitors to the facility and the Casper area.”
The terms of the Ford Wyoming Center agreement would aim to ensure net operating losses would not exceed a benchmark of $994,919 per year. If operating losses were to exceed that level, OVG 360 would be required to rebate up to 50% of its management fee in order to meet the benchmark, Lopez said. On the other hand OVG 360 would earn a 20% incentive for decreasing the net operating loss below the benchmark level.
In addition to managing the Ford Wyoming Center, OVG 360 manages food and beverage service at Hogadon Basin Ski Area for the city. While Hogadon food and beverage has averaged an annual net operating loss of $6,692 per year since Spectra/OVG 360 began managing that in 2017, Hogadon food and beverage saw positive operating income during fiscal years 2021 and 2022.
Lopez noted in the memo that COVID-19 limited revenue Hogadon food and beverage revenue generation in fiscal year 2020 and with the exception of that year, income has been on an upward trend since Spectra/OVG 360 started managing that. Numbers are shown in the following table:
Lopez’s full memo on the subject can be reviewed below:
FordWyomingCenterManagementAgreementDownload
