SPOKANE, Wash. — Hoopfest says city leaders are considering shouldering more of the security costs associated with the 3-on-3 basketball tournament in an effort to help the event stay in Spokane.
Hoopfest Executive Director Matt Santangelo said that rising costs for police, firefighters and public works staff has caused the price of maintaining the same level of security to increase each year.
"Our particular expense as an event that utilizes those services have increased as well," Santangelo said. "If we have to continue to incur the increase in costs through no fault of our own, eventually it is not a sustainable model."
According to the City of Spokane, they have covered about 40 percent of the public safety costs in previous years, while Hoopfest covers the rest. City councilmembers will consider a proposal to increase that help to 65 percent for the next three years of Hoopfest, which sees over 250,000 attendees, over 6,000 teams and generates $46 million for Spokane.
That proposal will come at the next council meeting.
"This is a bandaid to a larger problem and this is not a Hoopfest specific problem, it's just the cost of securing our city," Santangelo said.
Other cities in the Pacific Northwest, like Seattle and Portland, have approached Hoopfest about moving the event, but Santangelo said they want to avoid moving if possible.
"We do not want to leave the downtown core. What makes Hoopfest special is we get to shutdown 45 city blocks," Santangelo said.