Brevard officials review new marketing-support grants; TDC recommended $805,000 for 44 events, board to revisit Jan. 28

The Brevard County Tourism Development Council and county commissioners spent a workshop session reviewing the county’s new marketing support program and a slate of recommended grant awards, and directed staff to return to the board on Jan. 28 with options for distributing unallocated funds.

TDC Director Peter Kranas told commissioners the office combined the previous cultural and sports grant programs into a single marketing-support program for fiscal 2024–25 and that the TDC had recommended awards for 44 events totaling $805,000. “For this fiscal year, upon a initial recommendation from a commissioner’s office, we developed the marketing support program, and it was ultimately approved by the TDC and the board of county commissioners,” Kranas said. He said the fiscal-year budget tied to the tourist development tax (TDT) is about $27,000,000 before required state reductions and other allocations.

Why it matters: the marketing support program directs TDT dollars intended to bring out-of-county visitors to Brevard County events. Several nonprofit and for-profit event organizers told the board that retroactive reimbursement or direct payments are critical because they incurred hard costs and marketing expenses under the expectation of county support.

Key facts and staff recommendations

- The TDC packaged $840,000 for the new marketing-support program (combined from a $600,000 cultural fund allocation and $240,000 from advertising/promotions). Kranas said the TDC’s recommended awards total $805,000, leaving roughly $35,000 in that pot.

- The county’s cultural fund also shows other balances: a $202,000 contract with the Brevard Cultural Alliance and a $300,000 transfer this year to a lifeguard program; Kranas said about $65,500 remains unallocated in the cultural fund and could be carried forward or used this year.

- Program rules differ from last year’s grants. Under the previous (cultural) program, minimum eligibility included thresholds such as 1,000 out-of-county attendees and requirements that at least 50% of grant funds be used for out-of-county marketing. Sports grants historically used room-night thresholds (200 room nights minimum) and reimbursement rules tied to room-night performance (a nominal rate of $15 per room night up to a $25,000 cap per event in prior years).

Public comment from event organizers

Dozens of event organizers and nonprofit cultural leaders spoke to the board. Several asked for retroactive reimbursement for events run in good faith under the earlier program or for direct payments to cover hard costs (police, EMTs, staging) rather than county-managed marketing buys. Examples:

- Mitch Barnes, who organizes running, triathlon and surfing events, said the previous reimbursement system “worked” for sporting events and asked the board to restore per-event reimbursement for hard costs and to reimburse fall events retroactively.

- Peter Mulhausen and other running- and festival-organizers said they value the county’s marketing expertise but that many sporting events rely on targeted, registration-based advertising and need some direct cost support.

- Hadass (Brevard Symphony), Laura Lee Walco (Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation), Daniel Waite (City of Palm Bay), Kyle Smith (Cocoa Beach Air Show), and representatives from other theaters, museums and festivals described their out-of-county draw and urged support. Several said they had already spent money on marketing when grant expectations changed and asked for retroactive awards.

Commission discussion and next steps

Commissioners debated two central questions: whether to hold the TDC’s recommended awards harmless (i.e., pay the $805,000 recommended by the TDC) and whether to use remaining available dollars to assist smaller organizations excluded by the new eligibility thresholds. Kranas and commissioners agreed staff would prepare a Jan. 28 agenda item with options and numbers for the board to consider.

Commissioners expressed a range of views: some supported economies of scale for centralized marketing buys; others emphasized that the cultural fund should continue to support direct cultural programming costs — not exclusively centralized advertising. Several commissioners urged staff to propose one-time allocations to groups that applied in good faith during the transition and to draft longer-term changes to the program to avoid repeating the same controversy next year.

No formal vote was taken at the workshop. The board directed staff to prepare a Jan. 28 package that (a) details the TDC-recommended awards, (b) identifies remaining balances (the roughly $35,000 in the marketing pot and about $65,500 unallocated in the cultural fund), and (c) offers options for retroactive reimbursement, direct awards for hard costs, or reverting to reimbursement-based rules for some event types.

Ending

The TDC will address longer-term program design in a future meeting and will return to the board on Jan. 28 with a fuller set of options. Meanwhile, event organizers who said they had already incurred expenses asked the board to consider retroactive awards for events run in good faith during the program transition.