GAEA discuss Rate Increase Proposal

The Georgia Agricultural Exposition Authority (GAEA) met for a lengthy meeting on Wednesday, November 10 at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter (GNFA) to discuss several items on the agenda to ensure the long-term survival of the grounds by creating a solid foundation of plans. Stephen Shimp, Executive Director of the GNFA, proposed a 2020-2021 Revenue Plan that took a majority of the floor as the committee went back and forth on the Increase Proposal on many of the fairground’s perks and services.

First on the proposal, regarded the RV Park and adding a $5.00 increase to the fee. Shimp defended the request by adding, “I think [this] is pretty reasonable for the services that they give and the convenience of parking on the property. It’s still competitive with our friends across the street.”

Member John Hulsey chimed in by recalling his recent trip around the country. “We were paying $65.00 to $75.00 a night. And everybody booked up full all over the country.” He went on to point out that, “America is on the move. In record numbers, people are ‘escaping’ to the campers [and] RV’s.”

The committee agreed with this plan and to pick a future date for this to be enforced. All current reservations would be kept to the contract signed and would not be affected. Proceeding to the next item on the proposal, Shimp stated that he and his staff would like to have a 10% charge increase on Equine Events. “That’s basically across the board—stalls, shavings, everything that’s involved at an equine event,” he said.

Several members of the committee further discussed the option of charging an additional $5.00 for parking. Shimp, however, countered that many events go on at the fair at the same time and it would be difficult to determine what patron is going to what event.

“I don’t know [about] charging them five dollars a day to come in the gate – we have so many different events going on,” argued Shimp. “So we’d charge five dollars for the horse show, but someone is coming to the dog show…we’re going to charge them five dollars [twice] for parking? We’ve got several things going on at one time, so it’s hard to single out people. What if we’re having a wedding and a horse show at one time? How do we manage that? It’s more than just horse shows that we’re having.”

Members Ann Jones and Hulsey pointed out that parking fees are not uncommon and that this could be a great potential revenue for the fairgrounds. After much consideration and constructive debate, the committee decided to leave this on the table for discussion for future meetings so that each member could think on it and weigh the pros and the cons.

Moving on, Shimp brought up the options of raising the admission ticket prices to one of three ways: a two dollar increase on the gate all nights or a five dollar increase for a premium ticket on a Saturday or a Sunday, or going to $12.00 on a weekday and $15.00 on a Saturday or Sunday. These options brought forth several concerns from members Emily Watson, Foster Rhodes and Chy Kellogg.

“I wouldn’t penalize a family on Saturday and Sunday,” began Foster Rhodes, Chairman of the GAEA. “A lot of times, that’s the only times they can come. I don’t have a problem going up two dollars. But you’ll have another nightmare if you start fluctuating what you charge.”

Emily Watson expressed her concerns that people will no longer attend events due to the added costs. “For me, a $5.00 parking fee is easier to swallow than a ticket increase. I can’t justify it. I like the fact that we’re a deal.” She went on to say that one of the biggest things she appreciates about the business of the fairgrounds is that it provides an affordable event for people to come to and learn a lot from the experience. “I know it’s only two dollars…I just don’t want to get to a place where every year, we think we can throw one dollar on.”

Watson argued to keep the price of the fairgrounds as fair and affordable to people as possible, but also understood the position of revenue that the agricenter needs. “If it’s the will of the committee,” she stated, “I won’t stand in the way and I’ll support it.”

Chy Kellogg also spoke up on her thoughts of the ticket increase and proposed a possible idea. “I think it’s a good idea to keep $12.00 for the weekends too, and maybe have…tickets bought at a store for a discounted price. And then maybe that can help us with our lines, too. That way, they won’t be so ridiculous.”

Shimp informed everyone that they’ve spoken with some companies to do that very thing, but that the businesses wanted a pretty heavy percentage of the sales. Keaton Walker, Director of Marketing and Media Relations, also pointed out that there are sales for every night for qualifying people who meeting the daily requirements of the particular discount.

The discussion moved to possibly settling for adding two dollars per admission now over all over the days, but then changing it to adding five dollars in a few years. Kellogg and Watson expressed their discomfort in this by suggesting that if adding five dollars is the goal, to go ahead and change it to that price instead of the gradual increase.

“[It’s] more customer impacting than just changing it to have it there for a while. So if we’re going to $15.00 [per ticket], let’s just [add] five dollars—not two now and two years later, make it five. I feel like people are going to start saying, ‘Okay, you’re nickel and diming each year; what’s going on?’” stressed Kellogg.

The motion to move the ticket pricing to $15.00 through the week passed by all but two members. Hulsey gave some final words on the matter and said, “It would be $15.00 to come here. You don’t have to go all the way to Midway and ride rides. Boy, you could spend two or three days out here and never spend another penny if you don’t want to. I think $15.00 is a bargain.”

Jones agreed and mentioned that there was a difference between catching up and getting out of the market. Many of the committee agreed that they are indeed just catching up to competitors while still staying affordable to the public.

Other proposed changes included increasing the armband prices by $5.00 and increasing the commercial event charge by 10%. Both propositions were approved by the committee.

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