Fair Board Changes Tenant Payment Plan

The Tulsa County Public Facilities Authority voted Tuesday morning to change the way it pays the company that provides the midway rides during the Tulsa State Fair.

Tuesday, September 23rd 2008, 1:20 pm

By: News On 6

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, OK -- The Tulsa County Public Facilities Authority voted Tuesday morning to change the way it pays the company that provides the midway rides during the Tulsa State Fair.

In doing so the T.C.P.F.A., better known as the Fair Board, scrapped a system that had been in place for decades.

The old system was adopted because the Fair Board needed a way to determine how much money it was due from both Bell's Amusement Park and Spectacular Attractions, the company which has the contract for the midway. The old system was no longer needed, because the Fair Board let Bell's Amusement Park's lease expire in 2006 and the park moved off the Tulsa County fairgrounds in 2007.

Under the old system, tickets used at the amusement rides on the midway and at Bell's were collected in garbage bags every night and then weighed. Each tenant's cut of the daily revenues was then determined by the weight of tickets, not by counting the actual number used at each tenant's rides. Fairgrounds staff members said it was common for some of the tickets to get wet over the course of a day, requiring them to use hair dryers to dry them out.

Under the lease amendment approved Tuesday, the Tulsa County fairgrounds will take a flat percentage of the daily admission revenues, and pay what's left over to Spectacular Attractions.

According to the amendment, the fairgrounds will keep 28 % of the first $2,000,000 of daily amusement ride revenues, and 30 % of the daily revenues in excess of that amount. Spectacular Attractions is owned by Jerry Murphy, whose wife, Loretta, owns Big Splash water park which is also a tenant on the fairgrounds.

Interim fairgrounds CEO Mark Andrus told the board Tuesday morning that the new system will help the fairgrounds staff to better keep track of the money coming into the fairgrounds during the fair.

The four members of the Fair Board who were present voted unanimously to approve the new system. Tulsa County Commissioner and Fair Board member Randi Miller was absent.