Lewisville council reviews Thrive membership-fee changes as costs outpace revenue

Erica Tang, Lewisville’s recreation manager, told the City Council on Monday that Thrive — the city’s 87,000-square-foot multigenerational recreation center — is underperforming revenue targets while utility and personnel costs have climbed. "Revenues are continuing to increase at a steady rate, while our expenses are significantly increasing and outpacing the revenues," Tang said, presenting a multi-year cost-recovery analysis for the facility.

Tang outlined several proposals to reduce the general-fund subsidy: split the existing senior membership into a lower-cost "senior" tier and a new "active adult" tier with fuller facility access; apply incremental, CPI-linked resident and nonresident rate adjustments; and expand pay-for-play offerings for higher-demand fitness classes. Tang said the city currently operates a roughly 30% pay-for-play model for fitness classes and targets about 50% within five years. "We would do incremental rate adjustments to keep pace with the CPI, not to exceed the cumulative previous years," she said.

Council members questioned the scale and timing of increases. One council member warned that a jump from lower legacy senior pricing to the proposed active-adult price would exceed what survey respondents expected. Mayor TJ Gilmore noted the fiscal context: the facility’s operating shortfall has grown since opening and now represents roughly a $2,000,000 annual gap that the general fund subsidizes. "That's $2,000,000 out of the general fund that is subsidizing this facility," Gilmore said, asking whether councilors were comfortable with that level of subsidy.

Council asked staff for options that would soften large one-time increases for price-sensitive groups — for example, phased increases, lower introductory senior pricing, or installment (monthly) payment plans for annual passes — and to provide more detail on nonresident share and merchandise revenue. Tang said the membership survey showed roughly 44% of memberships are seniors, that more than 73% of survey respondents said a fee increase would be acceptable, and that many respondents preferred smaller, more frequent increases rather than a single large bump.

Tang also described operational steps to manage demand, such as adding class times for high-demand sessions and acquiring equipment to ease gym congestion, and previewed a program-pricing tool the department is using to model cost recovery for individual programs.

The council did not vote on fees; staff said proposed fee changes would be routed through the fiscal year 2027 budget and the formal city fee schedule for later approval. Council asked staff to return with refined pricing options that ease the impact on price-sensitive seniors and that include implementation details (payment plans, resident/nonresident timing and effect on the identified $2 million gap).