Tribal Council approves construction loan for Spirit Mountain Casino virtual golf suite

By Danielle Harrison

Smoke Signals editor

Tribal Council approved a $893,600 construction loan to Spirit Mountain Gaming Inc. at its Wednesday, Feb. 7, meeting for the construction of an indoor virtual golf simulator.  

“TopGolf, the product we are looking at, is part of the national brand,” Spirit Mountain Casino Chief Operating Officer Clint Johnson said during a Tuesday, Feb. 6, Legislative Action Committee meeting. “People are probably familiar with the outdoor version but they also have a sister operation, TopGolf Swing Suite, a virtual golf simulator that you can play inside a building. These are very high-tech.”

The suite will be located inside Spirit Mountain Casino near the BetMGM Sportsbook. There will be four bays with a capacity of up to eight people per bay.

“We plan to hopefully start this later this month or early next month and expect to be done with it before the summer,” Johnson said.  

Other uses for the golf suites include renting them out for meetings, business retreats and major sporting events, as well as hosting indoor golf leagues.

“This will be a great tool for us, especially midweek as we’ve struggled to get people out here and we think this could be an amenity that will drive them out there,” Johnson said.  

In other action, Tribal Council:

• Declared a per capita date of Friday, March 8, for the time period of December 2023 through February 2024;
• Approved the purchase of a mortgage note from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 184 Loan for a vacant property in Grand Meadows in the amount of $10;
• And enrolled two infants into the Tribe because they meet the requirements outlined in the Tribal Constitution and Enrollment Ordinance.

To watch the entire meeting, visit the Tribal government’s website at www.grandronde.org and click on the Videos tab.