During winter days when temperatures in Colorado stubbornly stay below freezing — or worse, in the single digits — the local golf season may seem like it’s an eternity away.
But one event that makes spring golf seem not quite so far off is the Denver Golf Expo, which uses the catch phrase, “Your Season Starts Here.”
The 2014 Expo will take place a month from now, Feb. 7-9, at the Denver Mart (I-25 and 58th Ave.).
The 21st annual Expo will be familiar in many respects, but several notable changes await those who plan to attend:
— The decision by officials of the Denver Mart to require compensation for parking during the Denver Golf Expo has had some repercussions.
In response to the requirement, those running the Expo surveyed many of its customers about the parking situation. More than 1,600 responded, roughly 1,500 left comments, and 85 percent were unhappy with the prospect of paying for parking when it’s been free in the past.
Subsequently, Mark Cramer, who owns and operates the Expo along with his wife Lynn, decided to buy out the Denver Mart parking lots for $8,000. That will keep the parking free for the 2014 Expo, though it’s also led to small admission cost increases.
Adult attendees will pay $13, and seniors and military with I.D. will be charged $11 — in both cases $1 more than last year. In addition, where kids 12 and under used to be admitted for free, now attendees 16 and under will pay $3. Exhibitor pricing has also increased after the Expo’s rent went up.
“We have to recover the $8,000 (parking buyout) somewhere,” Mark Cramer said. “Some people (in the survey) don’t differentiate between us and the Mart, but we’re not the Mart. But the new owners (of the Mart) are putting a lot of money into the place, and you can’t blame them for trying to recover those costs. It is what it is.”
— The Southern Colorado Golf and Travel Expo, run by the same organizers as the Denver Golf Expo, has been discontinued, apparently for good.
The Southern Colorado show was held in Colorado Springs in 2010 and 2013, but it won’t return this year, Cramer said.
A major spring snowstorm led to attendance of just 1,600 for the two-day show last year — a little more than half of the 2010 total — but in general Cramer said the Southern Colorado Expo didn’t have the support it needed to be financially viable.
Beyond that, Cramer said that Denver Golf Expo attendance dipped both of the years there was also a show in Colorado Springs.
Cramer had signed a three-year deal — starting in 2013 — to hold the Southern Colorado Expo, but he had an escape clause in case the show wasn’t financially viable.
— Unlike recent years, the Season Tee-Off Luncheon, hosted by the Allied Golf Associations of Colorado (including the CGA, CWGA and Colorado PGA) won’t be held at the Golf Expo this year.
The establishment of a “G-4 Summit” — a day-long series of events involving the top golf associations in Colorado, along with other key individuals — led to the change. The G-4 Summit, designed to promote collaborative efforts to work on problems golf faces, will be held Feb. 11 at the Inverness Hotel & Golf Club.
— The Junior Golf Experience, one of the popular mainstays of the Denver Golf Expo in recent years, will return this year but it’s moving out of its traditional spot at the Denver Mart. Instead of being situated not far from the Expo entrance, it’ll be placed adjacent to the area where the Colorado PGA conducts its free 10-minute golf lessons for attendees.
Meanwhile, other major mainstays of the Expo — the CGA/CWGA Used Club Sale, a golf demo area, and swing and topical seminars — will remain where they’ve been in past years.
Speaking of the Used Club Sale, no consignment items will be accepted this year, unlike in previous years. All clubs and equipment that will be sold will come from donations.
