CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (Heartland News) – A city committee is proposing to double Cape Girardeau’s restaurant and hotel tax to fund new sports tourism projects presented to the city council on Monday.
Box Fox, the former mayor and co-chair of the Parks Vision for the Future Committee, said sports tourism brings visitors into the city.
“It brings thousands of people into this city; it brings their parents into this city,” he said.
Fox said a one percent restaurant and hotel tax has grown revenue since it began.
“That’s why the restaurant tax is now bringing in 2.3 million instead of less than a million a year when it first started. So it really does drive it,” he said.
The projects presented to the city council on October 19 include a $23 million expansion to the Cape Girardeau SportsPlex, a new $11.75 million soccer complex and $1.48 million in upgrades to Capaha Field.
Fox said the committee is proposing doubling the restaurant and hotel tax to fund the projects.
“Those two big projects you could not fund with a 1-cent restaurant tax, so we looked at alternatives to make it go to two cents,” he said.
Local leaders from the hotel and restaurant industry expressed concerns about the process used to choose the projects ahead of the proposal.
In a letter sent to the city council before Monday’s meeting, representatives from Mid-American Hotels, Dury Southwest and Heritage Hospitality Management said: “A decision of this size should rest on a study of the visitor market, a benchmark against competing communities, and a measure of whether proposed projects would actually drive room nights.”
The representatives offered to create a task force to take a data-driven approach to determine what would draw more visitors to Cape Girardeau.
Fox said other cities are competing to host the same tournaments, and construction prices are in flux.
“I think you need to capitalize on what we’ve done now, and what we’ve done in the youth sports community, and I think we need to just let the people decide,” he said.
We also spoke to Cape Girardeau Mayor Robbie Guard, who said they intend to hear from the hospitality industry regarding their offer to pay for an outside consultant at the next city council meeting.
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