Fees going Up - Membership going down

[inthehole]

Membership is falling for many reasons
1)Supply - many more courses now
2)Time-see some of below
3)Social factors - more pressure to stay at home to help with kids
4)Many people work longer hours (esp white collar who used to be backbone of clubs) and or work away from home/commute
5)Population more mobile, therefore the concept of getting into a club and stopping there for ever with associated links is less applicable
6)Society golf - massive increase in societies, I am a member of three.
7)Drink driving- the days of spending all evening at your club and driving home has made a big difference to the social side
8)Competing interests - there are more things to do now
This is not an exhaustive list.Most clubs do not understand their position in the market place and the reasons for the falling membership so are not well placed to do anything about it.They are often run by older people who are less adaptable and who want to keep the status quo.

 

[surefire]

I'm confused about a couple of ideas suggested here.

5 day membership should be more expensive than 7 day membership - How would this work. If this was true why would anyone ever take 5 day membership? It would be absolutely pointless. The point of 5 day membership is normally so that people who take it are restricted to using the course at less busy times.

Weekend only membership - A nice idea, but how would it work. Given that the weekend is peak time, why would a club provide a membership that is cheaper than other options? I think even the most quiet clubs get pretty busy at weekends, so don't need more people turning up at this time.

I think the real answer lies in providing value for money, rather than making things cheaper.
People are happy to spend if they think they are getting something back from it. This is why Tesco value may be the cheapest option out there, but isn't necessarily the most in demand.