SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane City Council deferred the decision to raise the amount of money the city pays to keep Hoopfest safe.
The ball was in the city council's court as they discussed an agreement to pay 65 percent of the costs to secure the annual 3-on-3 tournament.
City Council President Ben Stuckart said it is unfair to other events that the city pay for most of the security at Hoopfest. He said there needs to be a universal policy for these agreements.
"We need a policy in place. We can't just be making every single event a one-off decision based on how people on staff or people on council are feeling at the time about that event. That is not fair to event providers here in our community," Stuckart said.
Councilwoman Kate Burke agreed.
"We don't have a policy set in place for special events. So some are paying, some aren't and there is no rhyme or reason to it," Burke said.
Carly Cortright, My Spokane customer experience director, said Spokane's top three events the city shares costs with are Bloomsday, Hoopfest and Pig Out in the Park. These events draw tens of thousands of people each year and generate millions of dollars for the local economy.
But Hoopfest takes the cake when it comes to profit. The two-day event generates about $46 million a year, while the other two pull in a fraction of that amount.
"With the overnight stays, so the 'heads in beds' as we like to call it, they have a greater economic impact. People are downtown for a long time," Cortright said.
The current agreement with these events is the city covers 40 percent of the public safety costs and the event covers the rest. The current agreement will remain in place.
Hoopfest leaders asked the city to shoulder more of the cost. Hoopfest Executive Director Matt Santangelo told KREM 2 rising costs for police, firefighters and public works staff has caused the price of maintaining the same level of security to increase each year.
Bill Burke, the man behind Pig Out in the Park, said they are comfortable with the 40/60 split but they requested the same consideration when the discussion came up about Hoopfest getting more financial help from the city.
City and Hoopfest leaders will continue to work on a new contract as preparation continues for another year of downtown hoops.