While presenting a wrap-up report about the 2022-2023 season of MAD on Ice, Pam Griffin, president and CEO of MAD, started by saying she had "a little bit of bit of good news, bad news" as a part of a broader discussion about the future of the annual event.
Griffin told members of the El Dorado Advertising and Promotion Commission on March 15 that the fourth annual Mad on Ice, which ran from Nov. 19-Jan. 2, was hit, with a profit loss of $28,000.
In years past, MAD had met its goal of breaking even with operating costs of the ice-skating rink, which has been supported by the A&P commission since its inception in 2019, Griffin said.
She said the loss stemmed, primarily, from three circumstances, one of which was a revenue shortfall.
Earned revenue items reportedly fell $12,000 below budget projections.
Griffin described "earned revenue" as "all the things people come and give us cash for," including tickets, season passes, skate rentals, skating aids and food and beverages.
Moments earlier, Joanna Benson, marketing coordinator for MAD, had told A&P commissioners that, for the first time, MAD handled concessions for the ice-skating rink, noting that the entertainment complex was without a restaurant last season.
MuleKick @ MAD permanently shut its doors just four days after MAD on Ice opened in 2022.
Based in Magnolia, the restaurant had opened its El Dorado location in September of 2021.
New restaurant and bar Mad House 101 set up shop just in time for the Arkansas Governor's Conference on Tourism, which was held in El Dorado Feb. 26-28 -- the first time the 49-year-old conference has been hosted in the city.
According to a financial report that was provided by Griffin, gross revenue for Mad on Ice was projected at $207,857 and the actual number came in at $198,495.
Actual expenditures ($226,475) exceeded projections of $207,749.
"We generally try to be aggressive with our budgeting on the revenue side and with where we think we can grow ... the number of skaters, too," said Griffin.
Coming out of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Griffin said the number of skaters who pay to skate at MAD on Ice has leveled off at 4,500 over the past couple of years.
Benson reported that 6,286 people from 24 states attended Mad on Ice 2022 and 4,370 skated, averaging 141 skaters per day.
By comparison, a total of 8,903 people visited the rink in 2019; 5,886 in 2020; and 7,046 in 2021.
The average number of skaters per day in 2019 was 234. Daily averages were 133 and 147 in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Griffin reminded commissioners that the price to rent the rink increased by $12,816 in 2022.
In anticipation of the increase, MAD had asked the A&P commission to up its contribution to the rink.
At the start of the year, the commission had set aside $70,000 for MAD on Ice, representing a $15,000 decrease from the amount that was approved for the rink in 2021.
Griffin asked commissioners last September to restore the $85,000 funding level to help cover increased costs.
"... we are trying to cover that increase in cost but we can't cover an increase in cost and a decrease in funding from the A&P commission," she told A&P commissioners at the time.
Another contributing factor in the profit loss for Mad on Ice 2022 was an unexpected $13,000 expenditure to contend with issues that arose in finding the proper chiller to keep the ice frozen.
Utility costs also rose last year, Griffin said.
"We had not budgeted to allocate gas costs with the building and with the having the bay door open on the back of the building all day, every day. We thought we should allocate some gas costs to it, so we're over about $5,000, $6,000 on our utilities budget, as well," Griffin explained.
Taking smaller budget overages and "unders" into consideration, Griffin said the net budget overage for the fourth season of Mad on Ice is $28,000, adding that MAD absorbed the loss.
'Do we continue doing this?'
"We've been doing the same thing for four years now and while it's good, we're not seeing the increases that we would like to see," Griffin told A&P commissioners.
"So, then it begs the question, 'Do we continue doing this?' Is it something the community wants us to do? Is it something the A&P wants us to do?" she added.
Collectively, the losses that MAD has absorbed and with funding from the A&P commission and Murphy USA, the presenting sponsor of MAD on Ice, an average of $140,000 is being spent to rent the skating rink each season, said Griffin.
The total annual operating budget exceeds $200,000.
She asked if the rink is worth a $140,000 investment, reiterating that the number of skaters has leveled off to 4,500 and that costs will continue to rise.
She said the MAD team and A&P chairman Don Miller have bounced around ideas to add activities to MAD on Ice or to come up with a whole new "winter wonderland" event in the MAD Amphitheater.
In addition to MAD selling its own concessions of soda, candy and hot chocolate, Benson said another new activity was introduced for the 2022 season.
Ice that was cleared from the rink was repurposed for a snow-ball throwing area.
"It's when they would scrape all the ice off the rink, they would usually just dump it and kids would always run over and start playing with it," said Benson. "So, we figured we would actually utilize that snow this year, so we made a snowball-throwing, like a target area."
The entrance into the rink was moved to the front of the facility, allowing for better visibility and easier access.
Two photo areas, directional stickers to improve traffic flow and the use of the city's bleachers for a second viewing area were other changes that were implemented for MAD on Ice 2022, Benson reported.
"Those people didn't have to fill out waivers but we always had a handful of people just sitting out there that happened to be wandering around downtown and they would sit there and watch people skate," she said, referring to the additional viewing area.
Platinum and Gold Mad on Ice members received free skate rentals for the season.
Benson said visitors from 93 communities in Arkansas attended MAD on Ice 2022, as recorded by the adults who signed in.
Not surprisingly, most visitors came from the Golden Triangle, including El Dorado (1,184), Camden (217) and Magnolia (129).
Rounding out the top five were Smackover (90) and Junction City (91).
A total of 367 adult visitors came from North Louisiana, primarily from Monroe/West Monroe (70), Farmerville and Ruston (48).
Ideas
Some ideas to expand Mad on Ice or create a new holiday event are adding tubing hills, "fun with lights," inflatables, etc., said Griffin, adding that such activities are not as expensive as the ice-skating rink or the necessary implements to operate it.
Like MAD on Ice, new holiday activities could be promoted by the community, she said.
"Because I do see value in the collaborative efforts that we've done with the Diamond Agency and Main Street (El Dorado) and the (Downtown Business Association) holiday advertising campaigns that we've done for El Dorado as a whole, which I think are very important" Griffin said.
For the past two holiday seasons, the three groups, working with the Diamond Agency -- A&P commission's ad agency of record --, have teamed up to promote holiday marketing campaigns to draw visitors to El Dorado for the holidays.
The theme of the 2021 campaign was "Merry and Bright" and for 2022, the groups went with "The Best Christmas Ever!"
The campaigns targeted Central Arkansas, North Louisiana and East Texas.
The DBA and Main Street reported an increase in downtown visitors from North Louisiana as a result of the campaigns.
The A&P commission has supported the effort each year, approving $15,000 in matching funds in 2022.
"So, I wouldn't want to completely lose that value that we've been growing out of all that but I don't see where what we have been doing, as we've been doing it, is sustainable," Griffin told A&P commissioners on March 15.
She said MAD is amenable to continuing the ice-skating rink if it is the wishes of the A&P commission, but she could not, in good conscious, recommend continuing to spend $140,000 a year to do so.
Moving forward
Commissioner Dianne Hammond asked if MAD had looked into a potential cost increase for the 2023 season of MAD on Ice.
"I'm sure there is. We have not asked that question. I do expect for (vendor Ice-America) to do a better job of securing a chiller for us than they did last year and there are also some alternative rink providers that we can explore," Griffin said. "We have already done so to a certain extent but we need to do some more research on that."
She further stated that the MAD team will continue probing the matter and return to the A&P's next regular meeting in May with a proposal.
Hammond said she feels it "would be wise" to look into less expensive alternatives.
Commissioner Barbie Luther agreed, saying she would like to see MAD, MSE, the DBA and other groups continue providing activities to set the holiday atmosphere downtown.
"When you've been doing something for several years, people get used to what you're doing," said Griffin.
Another consideration, she said, is providing safe activities "that don't require so much skill or aren't as injury-prone to get a higher percentage of people involved."
"I think we also probably had people that thought, 'Oh, ice skating. That sounds like fun,' and then after a trip to the doctor, they're like, 'Well, maybe I shouldn't do that anymore,'" she said, drawing a laugh from the audience.
Miller pointed out that there are other skating rinks in the South Arkansas/North Louisiana region, noting that some cities have started or re-started ice-skating rinks since 2019.
"We're not the only game in town like we were when we first started, so it's probably a good idea to revisit our approach," he said. "I encourage the team to go back and think about building out some of those ideas."
Miller said he favored the tubing hills and "creating a winter wonderland walking space" with inflatables.
"We all know how popular Christmas-themed, holiday house lighting is. We could capture some of that magic and get people downtown," said Miller.
MAD and the A&P commission have also discussed purchasing, rather than renting the ice-skating rink to potentially cut costs.
Griffin previously presented a quote of $243,000 for the rink piece. The price did not include installation, maintenance and or the chiller.