Broken Arrow CVB Meeting Summary - January 13, 2026
Broken Arrow CVB Meeting Summary - January 13, 2026
The Broken Arrow Convention & Visitors Bureau board convened on January 13, 2026, to review funding requests for upcoming community events and approve the previous meeting minutes. The session featured presentations on an upcoming women's golf championship and the second annual barbecue festival, alongside a tourism director's report on fiscal year 2026 spending and future projections.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of meeting minutes from December 9, 2025.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Gary Serrano (KG Sports): Presented as the project sponsor for the Onica Women's All Pro Tour, stating the event involves 132 professional athletes from 20 countries, expects an economic impact of over $500,000, and requests a hotel rebate not to exceed $15,000 based on an anticipated 300-350 room nights. He expressed that the request is approximately 12% of the total $125,000 event budget.
- Event Organizer (Barbecue Tournament): Presented regarding the "Pretty Good at Drinking Beer and Barbecue" event, noting 735 attendees and 10 hotel nights. They expressed hope for funding but acknowledged the need for a better date in October to avoid conflicting with the Tulsa State Fair and other events.
Discussion Items
- Onica Women's All Pro Tour: The tourism staff noted that while the men's event two years prior had 450 room nights, this is the first year this specific women's event requests funding, with the LPGA increasing their ask. The staff confirmed the request falls within the FY26 budget, which has $36,500 in unencumbered funds before this approval.
- Barbecue Tournament Funding: A board member expressed strong concern regarding the $5,000 request, citing a newly adopted tiered funding structure and low hotel occupancy (10 room nights). A board member stated they believe $5,000 is unjustifiable given the attendance and hotel numbers compared to larger events generating significant economic impact. The board member recommended reducing the award to $1,000 to align with the "emerging event" tier (300-399 attendees, $1,000 funding).
Key Outcomes
- Approved: Motion to approve a hotel rebate for the Onica Women's All Pro Tour not to exceed $15,000 based on room nights up to 500 for a 5-night stay (Motion by unnamed, seconded; Vote: 7-0).
- Approved: Motion to approve a funding payment of $1,000 (not the requested $5,000) for the "Pretty Good at Drinking Beer and Barbecue" event, with reimbursement for actual hotel costs covered by the board as a collaborative decision. (Motion seconded; Vote: 7-0). Note: A board member who opposed the higher amount clarified their position after the vote.
- Approved: Motion to approve the Minutes from the December 9, 2025 meeting (Vote: 7-0).
- Report: Tourism Director reported FY26 remaining grant funds of $36,500 (excluding the golf tournament request) and pending film incentive funds of $23,827. Upcoming conferences identified include Tibetan Spaniel and Bloodhound conferences.
- Action: Motion to adjourn (Vote: 8-0, including the board member previously silent on the topic).
Meeting Transcript
Gary, describe um describe this, but is the FCA golf tournament um that's coming. Sorry, let me find my place here. Do we do the initial on this one the last meeting? Do what? We do like an addition initial new business presentation in our last meeting. Is this the same one? No, this is a different one. So that one was the American Junior Golf Association, and this is actually a women's championship. Okay. So this is a completely different golf tournament. Um this is going to be held in May, where the one last meeting was is going to be in August. So this one is going to be within this fiscal year as far as funds go. Okay. Um, and then it's also going to be at Indian Springs. What's the date on this one? So this one is May 13th through 15th. I only scanned it because I thought it was the same one. Oh no, sorry. Yeah, this one is May uh 13th through 15th, and hotel nights anticipated are three to five hundred three hundred to three hundred and fifty. Um, and they're just asking for the straight hotel rebate. So Gary, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Okay, we can hear you as well. So I will just let you go ahead and just give kind of an overview of the event and um open up for questions after. Yeah, great, thank you. Appreciate the opportunity to present today. Sorry, I couldn't be there in person. I just uh didn't know the dates until late notice, but uh happy to be here. Um first of all, Gary D. Serrano with KG Sports. We're the sports marketing company that manages two professional tours. One actually played in Broken Arrow for several years. It was called the All Pro Tour, it was a men's tour. And now we have a partnership with the LPGA and Onika Sorinstam, and we manage a female professional tour called the Onica Women's All Pro Tour. Um we have an event coming to Broken Arrow as was was mentioned, and played at Indian Springs May 13 through 15. Um we anticipate 132 women from 20 countries to come to Broken Arrow and requesting $15,000 in support for the event. Um I believe each of you may have this executive summary that I presented, and I just was gonna kind of go through that a little bit and then open it up to questions. Um just to tell you a little bit about what who the Onica Women's All Pro Tour is. We are a developmental tour for the LPGA Tour. We're an official partner with the LPGA and post-collegiate Gregs. We'll play the Onica Tour and then matriculate up to the LPJ tour. Uh the young lady on the front cover that you may see is Grace Kim. She was a major winner this year. She won twice as an 18-year-old Australian amateur on the Onica Tour several years back, and now since she's turned 20 years old, she's now a major winner on the on the LPG tour. So we're real proud of Grace, her accomplishments, and a lot of the young ladies who played us. Um a little bit of history of the tour. We've been around since 2019. Like I said, we're an official partner with the LPGA Tour is their official developmental tour. Um, and each of our events provides around a half million dollars in economic impact, and that's actual money spent by the ladies and their families, and we just use a conservative four times conversion rate. Um I don't have this in the presentation, but our major sponsors for the tour are Callaway Golf, Rolex, Southern Company, Track Man, and several other uh golf endemics.
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