Fate of Redding Sports Park Prompts Larger Discussion about Budget Shortfall

A decline in sales tax and other revenue sources has put the City in a tricky situation. Redding is facing a $5 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year, City Manager Barry Tippin says, and that deficit has muddied the waters of an already-challenging budget cycle. 

This week, as Redding Council members discussed how to keep the City’s beloved Sports Park open, those budget shortfalls held center stage. The City has been running the Redding Sports Park facility since last fall after third-party operator Big League Dreams Redding, LLC, pulled out of its contract to manage the facility in July 2024. The 40-acre park includes a 26,000 square foot multi-purpose building that accommodates roller hockey, indoor soccer, basketball and more.

In August 2024, the Council voted to spend $200,000 from reserves to keep the park running for six months allowing the Sports Park to reopen on October 6 under City management. So far, Redding’s Director of Community Services Travis Menne told the Council Tuesday, City staff has utilized that funding well, managing to maintain central park services while staying in the black. But continuing to operate the park as the spring nears, Menne said, will require hiring a new general manager for the facility. That’s largely because the City has been relying on existing staffing, including limited-term staffing from the Redding Aquatic Center, who will need to move to their role in pool operations as swim season nears.

The decision of whether to take the leap of hiring a new manager for the Sports Park raises fundamental questions about whether the City will continue to operate the Park in-house with City staff, attempt to out-source operations to another contractor, or close the facility down completely. The third option was considered only briefly by Council members, who were unanimous in their desire to do what’s possible to maintain services at the facility. 

Twenty years ago, the City spent about $11 million in state grant funding to develop the Redding Sports Park, Menne told the Council, but the property has deteriorated over two decades of use, and will soon require significant repairs just to remain safe. Repairs to the facility, which will include turf replacement, are estimated at a minimum cost of $5 million, Menne appraised, emphasizing that the City has only about two years left to use the Park before such repairs become imperative for safety reasons. 

During a spirited discussion on the topic, Redding Council member Tenessa Audette advocated for seeking another outside contractor to run the facility, saying she believes a nonprofit has the best chance of finding a way to bring in the $5 million needed for repairs over the next two years, while keeping the Park open and sustainable. The for-profit Big League Dreams has operated the Park since its inception. City staff say the facility had fallen into disrepair in recent years and money has not been set aside for needed upgrades, such as turf repairs.

Mayor Jack Munns and Council member Mike Littau disagreed with Audette, pushing for the City to continue to operate the facility as is, saying for now the City’s plan is working. That wait-and-see approach frustrated Council member Erin Resner, who called Munns and Littau out for deferring a difficult decision.

“As soon as we say the City is going to manage it for the next two years, it is a band-aid,” Resner said, “and everyone will look away and say ‘its fine for two years and the next council will figure it out.’”

Urging that the public need to understand the dire budgetary position the City is in, Resner brought up the City’s looming $5 million annual revenue shortfall and other facilities that will need major upgrades and repairs in the years ahead, including the Redding Civic Center.

Resner said she’d like to do whatever she could “to motivate the entire community to understand that we are going to have to make decisions between (sports) fields and (law enforcement) officers.”

“Nobody asked,” Resner emphasized, “but I’m just going to continue to reiterate that the community needs to figure out what they’re willing to live with and what they’re willing to live without.”

Her statement prompted City Manager Tippin to weigh in calling Resner’s assessment of the City’s budgetary situation “exactly correct” and reminding the Council of some of the other key priorities they’ll have to take into account in the months ahead as they prepare to finalize the next two-year budget in June.

At the moment, Tippin advised the Council, “we’re focused on the Sports Park. (But) you have $125 million worth of fire station improvements and new fire stations that we need… we always have an (Civic Center) auditorium that needs repair…. The list goes on and on. And so while this conversation is about a soccer park, the conversation as a whole is going to be much larger and much broader.”

The Council eventually voted unanimously to direct staff to bring forward a budget proposal that lays out costs if the City to continue to run the Redding Sports Park. The Council’s vote also included a decision to issue a press release soliciting interested parties to bring forward ideas for how to operate, maintain and repair the facility, moving forward.

That press release, which was issued by the City on February 5, calls for “active input from potential partners, funders, non-profits and businesses to provide viable sustainable ways to support the necessary capital investment and long-term management of the Redding Sports Park.”

In early March, as part of larger budgetary discussions, the Council will review any informal proposals that have come forward as a result of the press release while also considering the budget for continued City operations of the Sports Park that will be provided by staff.

After several Council members mentioned that they had already fielded contacts with third parties interested in the operations of the Redding Sports Park, Audette made clear that she’s not interested in a behind-the-scenes deal for operations of the facility, saying if the initial press release yields results and leads the Council to solicit a contractor for the park, any such contracts should be put out to bid through the City’s usual RFP process.

What’s Behind the City’s $5 Million Budget Shortfall? 

During a January budget workshop Redding’s Director of Finance Greg Robinett told the Council that the majority of the City’s lost revenue is coming from a decline in sales tax.

Last September, the Council made some initial decisions on how to address the developing revenue shortfall, including holding vacant positions for nine police officers and 12 firefighters. But even with those cuts, the City is still facing a $5 million deficit annually between revenues and current expenses beginning in the 25/26 fiscal year which starts in July.

That gap will necessitate steep cuts by Council members during the coming months of budget talks. In January, Council members shared a number of ideas for how the City might increase revenue, including raising fees, selling merchandise or increasing specific kinds of taxes. Only one of those ideas, Tippin said, has the capacity to significantly increase revenue: raising local taxes on cannabis. The success of such a plan, he said, depends whether the market will allow for a tax increase without dropping current sales levels.

He also noted the significant revenue that could be raised by increasing some of the City’s standard fees, such as development services fees and recreation fees, among others. Those efforts have historically been supported through the general fund at a cost of $4-5 million annually.

The significant downside of raising those fees, Tippin explained, is that charging the community the actual costs for at least some services is likely to reduce community use, especially of important recreational activities like the Aquatics Center, which benefits young families, many with lower incomes.

“We’re trying to find where those balance points exist,” Tippin concluded.

Along with the decrease in sales tax revenue, Tippin says, Council decisions to implement raises for public safety employees have also contributed to the City’s budget crunch. Together police officers and firefighters make up about 220 of the City’s total employees, so any small percentage raise for the group as a whole, he said, adds up. But he also emphasized that the City does a significant amount of research to ensure a fair market wage.

“I don’t feel like we overpay in any category,” Tippin continued. “And I’m very comfortable where we’re at with our overall compensation packages.”  

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