SHEFFIELD CITY COUNCIL Development, Environment and A Leisure Directorate REPORT TO DATE: 1/09/09 CULTURE ECONOMY AND SUSTAINABLITY SCRUTINY AND POLICY DEVELOPMENT BOARD ITEM REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF CULTURE Subject: SHEFFIELD INTERNATIONAL VENUES SUMMARY To report on the activities and performance of Sheffield International Venues for the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009. RECOMMENDATIONS: The Board is recommended to note the report and agree to a further report on SCT/SIV performance in twelve months time. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS NO CLEARED BY Laura Pattman EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT CARRIED PARAGRAPHS OUT? YES/NO CLEARED BY John Hendley BACKGROUND PAPERS CONTACT POINT FOR ACCESS David Macpherson TEL NO. 2053149 AREA(S) AFFECTED CATEGORY OF REPORT OPEN CLOSED Paragraph (s) REPORT TO CULTURE, ECONOMY & SUSTAINABILITY SCRUTINY AND POLICY DEVELOPMENT BOARD 1st September 2009 SHEFFIELD CITY TRUST AND SHEFFIELD INTERNATIONAL VENUES (SCT, SIV) 1. PURPOSE OF THE REPORT 1.1 To review the recent past performance of Sheffield City Trust and Sheffield International Venues and to outline the challenges faced in the near future. 1.2 This report does not cover the performance of Sheffield City Hall which is considered in another report to be presented at the meeting. 2. BACKGROUND 2.1 Sheffield City Trust is a charitable company which operates the following venues via its trading arm Sheffield International Venues:- • Ponds Forge International Sports Centre • Don Valley Stadium and Woodbourn Athletics Centre • Hillsborough Leisure Centre • Concord Sports Centre • Beauchief Golf Course • Birley Golf Course • Tinsley Park Golf Course (Management Agreement) • Woodburn Road Athletics track (Management Agreement) • IceSheffield • Sheffield City Hall • The English Institute of Sport – under contract with and funded by Sport England In addition, SIV sub-contracts the management of the Sheffield Arena to a company called Live Nation. SCT also has a grant giving role in support of community sports and arts projects in the city. 2.2 Sheffield City Trust is governed by a Board of up to 16 trustees, half of whom are nominated by Members of Parliament representing constituencies situated within or partly within the boundaries of the City of Sheffield, and half of whom are nominated by the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Industry. 2.3 The City Council has long-term funding and management agreements with SCT and SIV. As a result, an officer of the City Council is invited to attend as an observer at both the SCT and SIV Boards. In addition, the City Council has a nominee director on the SIV Board and a councillor observer at the SCT Board. 2.4 It is important to note that SCT/SIV play a major part in both the city’s physical activity strategy – aiming to get more people, more active – as well as the city’s sporting agenda in terms of sporting excellence, events and income generation. Sports facilities – particularly swimming pools – are key settings whereby the city is striving to increase activity levels. They rank alongside parks, schools and foot/cycle ways in their importance. 2.5 During the year SIV were given permission to set up a trading subsidiary to seek contracts outside the City that could generate surpluses for re- investment in the Sheffield facilities. To date the company, SIV Enterprises Ltd (SEL) has won two contracts, Staveley Healthy Living Centre Café (purely a catering contract) and Tapton Park Golf Course in Chesterfield. 3. FINANCIAL OVERVIEW 3.1 SCT/SIV has three main income sources – customer income (from a mix of community and commercial activity); profit share from the Sheffield Arena and annual grant support from the City Council. Any income from SEL would be re-invested in the facilities and would therefore have a neutral impact on the overall accounts, however at present SEL is still in a development phase and as such is not yet in a position to generate surpluses. 3.2 The level of grant support from the City Council in 2009/10 is in the order of £5.619m – including support for Sheffield City Hall and payment of management agreement charges for Tinsley Park Golf Course and Woodburn Road athletics Stadium. 4. VISIT NUMBERS 4.1 The table below summarises the total visit numbers to SIV facilities in recent years, including the target set for visit levels in 2008/09. The figures include all types of visitor from sports participation, events and commercial usage such as seminars and functions. 4.2 The key points to note within the figures are as follows:- a) The dip in expected visits to Concord is a direct result of a planned closure to refurbish the swimming pool in 2009/10. b) The high point for Don Valley in 2006/07 was created by hosting two large pop concerts, the target reflects the Rotherham United football attendances but was set before the U” concert was announced. This may result in a better out-turn than forecast. c) Although the 08/09 figures proved that the new Gym was able to boost attendances, the Credit Crunch impact was taken into account in setting the targets for 09/10. It would appear that these may have been set on the pessimistic side as current performance is ahead of target as at month three. d) Hillsborough LC continues to perform well and is ahead of target at month three however the impact of the revamped gym has worn off and it is not as far ahead of target as Ponds Forge at this time. e) EISS had an exceptionally good year in 08/09 and continues to show steady growth. The target for 09/10 was set in the knowledge that, unlike last year, there was not the run up to the Olympics this year and therefore likely to be less activity. Hopefully in the next couple of years with training camps etc leading up to 2012 this facility will see a significant rise in attendances. f) Ice Sheffield exceeded expectations in 08/09 and while the target has been set against the backdrop of relatively stable figures in 06/07 and 07/08 it would appear from the month three figures this year that the potential exists for an even higher performance this year. g) In terms of golf courses, while in the last report we were expecting the targets for 08/09 to be exceeded, the bad summer last year resulted in a disappointing year where none of the courses achieved target. At month three this year, only Tinsley was achieving target and since then the weather has not been kind to golfers. h) Sheffield Arena – 08/09 continued the good run of performances from the Arena however the targets are always set based on the known dates etc. at a point in time and reasonable expectations beyond that. 09/10 is looking better than forecasts earlier in the year however is still not forecasted to exceed the 08/09 performance. Looking to the future there is the potential competition from the proposed new Arena in Leeds that will impact on the business performance in three years time. The city has commissioned an independent study to fully assess the potential impact of a new arena in Leeds and how the Sheffield Arena will best respond if the new arena goes ahead. 4.3 In 08/09 the initial target overall was exceeded by just over 10%, the overall the combined target visit levels to the venues in 09/10 is expected to be just under 10% lower than the levels achieved in 08/98 (3.514m as opposed to 3.867m) but still higher than the original targets for 08/09. Early indications would suggest that performance might exceed target. Golf is one area of concern where the performance last year was below target and this trend has continued into the current year however the Arena continues to perform well and is expected to exceed its initial targets. VENUE YEAR TOTAL VISITS Concord SC 09/10 Target 430,595 08/09 475,597 07/08 490,326 06/07 441,423 05/06 442,253 04/05 298,782 03/04 312,433 02/03 317,526 Don Valley/Woodbourn Stadiums 09/10 Target 197,738 08/09 305,795 07/08 181,745 06/07 256,945 05/06 209,327 04/05 125,612 03/04 214,702 02/03 228,708 Ponds Forge ISC 09/10 Target 789,750 08/09 808,014 07/08 758,551 06/07 896,518 05/06 970,940 04/05 942,754 03/04 1,031,241 02/03 1,101,373 Hillsborough LC 09/10 Target 730,462 08/09 823,803 07/08 705,624 06/07 647,737 05/06 679,597 04/05 585,449 03/04 656,591 02/03 505,569 EISS 08/09 Target 219,529 08/09 246,689 07/08 215,472 06/07 196,034 05/06 179,682 Ice Sheffield 09/010 Target 383,496 08/09 395,497 07/08 382,262 06/07 381,899 05/06 336,333 04/05 275,744 Beauchief Golf Course 09/10 Target 35,478 08/09 31,382 07/08 38,738 06/07 31,787 05/6 35528 04/5 35615 03/4 39736 02/3 35878 Birley Golf Course 09/10 Target 37,811 08/09 34,365 07/08 36,699 06/07 34,765 05/6 35409 04/5 35921 03/4 38903 02/3 34592 Tinsley Golf Course 09/10 Target 42,024 08/09 38,143 07/08 40,092 06/07 38,146 05/6 40357 04/5 40064 03/4 43377 02/3 37668 Sheffield Arena 09/10 Target 647,958 08/09 708,129 07/08 693,966 06/07 642,569 05/06 548,775 04/05 596,473 03/04 711,817 5.