Sometimes you’ve got to spend money to make money, or so the saying goes. Pierce County seems to believe it.



Tuesday, June 3, the Pierce County Council unanimously approved two contracts — one for the 2010 U.S. Amateur Championship and another for the 2015 U.S. Open.  Both events are scheduled to be held at the Chambers Bay golf course in University Place.



The contracts approved are between Pierce County and the United States Golf Association, and outline roughly $4.2 million in expenditures the county will be expected to foot in preparation for the major golf tournaments coming to town. These expenditures will include improvements and modifications to the golf course and the building of short and mid range practice facilities at Chambers Bay — both expenses the county expected when luring the USGA to U.P.  In addition, as the contract is written, Pierce County will end up financially responsible for the cost of staging the 2010 U.S. Amateur event, but expects to recoup all the money spent and then some from revenue from the 2015 U.S. Open. With the bulk of Pierce County’s revenue expected to come from a lease agreement between the USGA and county for the use of Chambers Bay during the 2015 U.S. Open — in the area of $2.5 million — and a share of “hospitality packages” to be sold for the event, Special Assistant to the County Executive Skip Stansbury, one of the main contract negotiators, considers the situation a very safe one for Pierce County.   



“It’s a pretty safe situation. (The U.S. Open) has a very good history. It was not an arduous process at all. There’s really nothing that could be considered a risk,” says Stansbury. “That said, it’s six years away. Who knows what will happen. But barring nuclear war or a huge earthquake there’s really no identifiable risk.



“The Amateur event is much smaller, and most of the expenses for that one will be ours. We could end up losing a little money on that,” Stansbury explains. “When you host the U.S. Open you also have to host the amateur event. Considering the overall revenue, it’s a very good situation. We’re all very excited.”



For Pierce County’s time, golf course and trouble, officials expect Pierce County to walk away with a profit of anywhere from $1.7 to $2.5 million for hosting the two tournaments. In addition, Stansbury reports that University Place will likely rake in around $1 million from admission tax, and the overall economic impact for our area is being talked about in the area of $120 million. These figures are both rough and tantalizing, mind you, but Stansbury indicates things could end up even better than projected.



“We wanted to design a world class golf course,” says Stansbury of selecting the Robert Trent Jones II golf design firm to bring Chambers Bay to life. “The golf course architects knew what the USGA would be looking for. The USGA told us, physically speaking, (the 2015 U.S. Open) could be the biggest U.S. Open they’ve ever had — based on capacity. If it’s the biggest in history a lot of the projected revenues are going to be higher.”



Now all we have to do is wait seven years and see how it all plays out. Barring a nuclear war or massive earthquake, though, everything should be just fine.



Let’s keep our fingers crossed. 



County Executive John Ladenburg plans to sign the new approved contracts next week during this year’s U.S. Open in San Diego.