August 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 50

PA R T N E R S H I P S

" My advice to peers in other
cities would be to ﬁrst take
a deep look at your park and
attractions, identify all the
external-facing attributes and
the value that your park has to
oﬀer....Don't sell yourself short. "
variety of non-competing products and services. " There's a wide
range of organizations that Moore
cites, including " exclusive beverage partners, transportation partners, cellphone partners, airline
partners, mobile app partners, preferred hotel partners, not to mention our vitally important special
event title sponsors. " He adds that
he " sought organizations that we
thought had a reciprocal relationship of value with the park and
who also shared and embraced
our mission. "

Reflecting on their experience
with a P3, Moore says that " initially, there were some economic
motivations, as corporations were
leaving Tulsa and geographically migrating to larger markets in
nearby cities. We needed a park
with a halo effect that could help
make Tulsa a more vibrant place
to live, work and play. "
Moore and his team contend
that community-based parks have
lots of capacity for revenue generation and relationship building.
" My advice to peers in other cities
would be to first take a deep look
at your park and attractions, identify all the external-facing attributes and the value that your park
has to offer....Don't sell yourself
short, " he says. " There are more
propositions of value than you
might think. Challenge yourself to
look at things via a non-traditional
lens. Take a look at your community and identify those high-

probability businesses and organizations with a need and desire to
have [a] strong community presence. Identify those organizations
[that] are already spending on community and civic initiatives. "
To understand their civic missions, Moore encourages others
to find out what's important to
those businesses. " Be aware that
it's not always the very important
but more predictable needs, such
as corporate citizenships, employees' community involvement or
sustainability positioning, " Moore
says. " [It's] sometimes simple
needs associated with health and
wellness, hunger or homelessness.
Read their corporate reports and
seek to understand where they are
socially as an organization. You
may be surprised to find that there
are many low-hanging civic opportunities that your park can help in
curating by providing a public platform for community outreach. "
Peeking around the corner during
a time of uncertainty, Moore sees
" a resilient and stubborn movement where community parks will
continue to flourish. " Any such
successes, he says, " will only happen through joint synergies and
philanthropic inspiration, but this
has to be the commitment to the future. Our parks cannot die from the
reallocation or starvation of public
funding nor from the tightening or
spend-down of private philanthropy. It will require both the public
and private sectors. "

Lessons from Oregon

The decline of city and county tax
revenues due to COVID-19's economic
impacts mean that park budgets will
depend upon partners.

Parks & Recreation

| AU G U S T 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

Eugene, Oregon, with its 168,000
residents, is known as " TrackTown USA. " Eugene's official slogan is " A Great City for the Arts
and Outdoors. " It's also referred
to as the " Emerald City. " Runners
from all around the world come to

August 2020 - Parks & Recreation

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