Alva Arena Authority - Woods County Government

PROJECT PURPOSE

The Alva Regional Multi-Purpose Event Center is a project developed by a dual beneficiary public trust, beneficiaries being the City of Alva, Oklahoma, and Woods County, Oklahoma. The Alva Arena Authority (?Authority?) was established to create a multi-purpose venue to enhance tourism and recruit business and their workers to the region. Adding quality of life opportunities to the area that are key to keeping the younger generations would also be beneficial. The proposed event center, with 100% construction drawings completed, is designed to host a wide array of shows, events, exhibitions, sporting events, concerts, and meetings. The event center consists of an 85,000 sq. ft. dirt floor arena for main events; a 31,000 sq. ft. exhibition hall, consisting of offices, conference room, and an exhibition area appropriate for large events that can be divided into two or three smaller units if desired; a 35,000 sq. ft. exposition/livestock building (concrete floor); an additional 52,000 sq. ft. covered arena; and a 50,000 sq. ft. stall barn with a connector. The arena is expected to comfortably achieve a permanent seating capacity of 1,100 people with an additional 900 in potential portable seating and 2,500 seats on the arena floor. Project cost $29 million.

EVIDENCE

With a population of approximately 9,000 people, Woods County and its county seat, the City of Alva, is located in northwestern Oklahoma adjacent to the Kansas border. No facilities similar to the proposed event center exist within a close proximity to the City of Alva. A study commissioned by the City of Alva and conducted by Oklahoma State University?s Spears School of Business concluded that the expected increase in visitors will foster growth and creation of new business, thereby providing much needed economic diversity for our area. According to USDA agri-tourism articles and data, this type of project can provide opportunities for regions to diversify the area economy, provide additional sales tax collections, and assist in creating auxiliary businesses and jobs. Additionally, the travel and tourism industry has demonstrated numerous times that the public will travel to those communities that offer outdoor recreational opportunities and will plan travel/vacation options that provide a variety of programs and events. With Woods County's geographic location, and four state parks within a 45 minute drive, this project will further support the hospitality industry in the region and the creation of jobs and businesses that result.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

The travel and tourism industry has demonstrated numerous times that the public will travel to those communities that offer recreational opportunities and will plan travel/vacation options that provide a variety of programs and events. With Woods County's geographic location, and four state parks within an 45 minute drive, this project will enable Northwest Oklahoma to capture the benefit of the 250,000+ annual visitors to those state parks, primarily the Little Sahara State Park. The City of Alva saw a dramatic loss in sales tax revenue during the pandemic as people did not travel to the sand dunes at the Little Sahara State Park, nor other tourism related venues. This project will allow a dominantly rodeo/agriculture community and university to host an array of events which are difficult and unsafe to host at the current county fairgrounds which was built from parts of a prisoner of war camp. Safety of spectators, participants, and animals are the main factors venues look at when selecting a location for their event. The pandemic has created a building supply increase which as increased the overall cost of the project by approximately $5,000,000.00.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

The key metrics that will be evaluated once this project is completed include: Increased number of jobs paying at or above the area median wage scale; Increases in sales tax collections for the city, county, and state; Stabilization of sales tax rates for the City of Alva over a five year period which will improve the City's ability to provide affordable services to the residents of the City. Municipal governments rely so heavily on sales tax collections for the provision of services, and this project will help stabilize sales tax collections. The data for these metrics will be collected annually by the City of Alva and Woods County for evaluation purposes and to guide programming plans.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma