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Audit finds Arizona Sports & Tourism Authority lacked checks on concession and event settlements; authority agrees to implement recommendations
Summary
A performance audit found the Arizona Sports & Tourism Authority did not verify concession and event revenues or fully comply with conflict-of-interest disclosure requirements; the authority agreed to 13 recommendations and said it will catch up event-settlement reviews before the six-month follow-up.
The Auditor General’s office reported that the Arizona Sports & Tourism Authority failed to ensure it received all concession and event revenues due under contract and that it did not fully comply with some state conflict-of-interest requirements, potentially exposing the authority to uncollected revenue and conflicts of interest.
Katie Grosbowski presented the November 2025 performance audit and said auditors identified two main issues: the facility manager (a private contractor) provided concession and event settlement figures that were not independently verified, and authority staff had not performed required event-settlement reviews since July 2024. The contractor review highlighted approximately $18 million in concession receipts and $229 million in event revenues over the last five years as the scale of funds at risk, though the audit did not state a final quantified shortfall.
Tom Sadler, president and CEO of the Arizona Sports & Tourism Authority, told the committee the authority has updated its conflict-of-interest policy and disclosure form, approved the changes, and committed to working with the Auditor General to adopt best practices for verifying concession revenues and event settlements. He said the facility manager, Legends Global, has incentive fees tied to revenue benchmarks and therefore has an interest in accurate reporting; he also said the authority’s CFO conducts event-file reviews and that the authority will complete outstanding reviews before the six‑month follow-up.
Auditors recommended that the authority verify concession revenues for fiscal years 2021–2025, enforce facility-management oversight procedures for event settlements, and revise conflict-of-interest processes and long-term reserve-use policies. The authority agreed to implement all 13 recommendations.
What’s next: the Auditor General’s Office will follow up later this spring; the authority said it will complete catch-up reviews and provide documentation of the updated policies.
