Across the country, city and county leaders are navigating a fiscal environment where traditional funding sources are under increasing pressure — from tax limitation measures and shifting state policy to rising operating costs and growing infrastructure backlogs. For parks and recreation departments already competing for limited general fund dollars, the question is no longer whether budgets will tighten. It’s whether your system is built to absorb that pressure without cutting the programs and services your community depends on.

This panel brings together parks and recreation experts, and facility operators who have done the work — reengineering how systems are funded, managed, and positioned so they can continue delivering community value when the general fund can no longer carry the full weight.

The conversation will move quickly from problem to playbook, covering the strategies that are working in cities of all sizes and geographies right now.

The cities that protect their parks systems through budget pressure aren’t the ones that got lucky. They’re the ones that stopped treating parks as a cost to be managed and started treating them as assets to be optimized. This session will show you how.

Speakers:

Allan Rice – Former City Administrator, City of Hoover, AL

Mayor Bruce Rector – Mayor of Clearwater, FL & General Counsel at The Sports Facilities Companies

Michael P. Kelly – Executive Vice President of Operations, The Sports Facilities Companies

Moderator: Eric Sullivan – Partner & Executive Vice President of Business Development, The Sports Facilities Companies