Subscriptions/current course closures - what is your club doing?

[Blue in Munich]

On the other side of the road?

Main entrance; the other side already have gates preventing vehicular access.

 

[Jamesbrown]

I cancelled my membership last year due to doing the house up with a hope to return this year. but another local club has gave fully paid up members 2021 included with what they paid this year.

 

[Tgcgc]

It’s not quite as you say “Garry”’! We’re looking to fund £400k, and actually the figures are fine, approx 500 members that’s £500k - what’s your problem mate. I’m paying my membership regardless of and CH rumours

To tidy up part of the hearsay, we have 550 members, of which 370 are full, paying just under £1k each..call that approx £360k, the test of the membership income is from flexi & junior fees which come in at approx £15k..so £360k is the guaranteed income (subject to everyone renewing) this is woefully short of the £500k you mention! The funds aren’t there, not as being represented anyway.

 

[OnTour]

Moved the renewal date from 1st April to 1st May

 

[Deleted member 1740]

I play at Tenterden Golf Club, have done for over ten years.
They’ve sent out a message to members that it won’t survive unless we pay up our subs now (in full), they’re all due shortly. Goodness knows why they need all the cash in one go when the overheads have reduced hugely, they must know that members are having it hard at the moment too. They reckon they need it for immediate cash flow and payment of furloughed staff because they won’t get the money from the government for months even though other businesses have that cash coming in already (smells a bit fishy to us lot) They’re a secretive bunch that run it and apparently they misrepresented financials to the members when trying to borrow money (to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds) to push through a new club house that pretty much no one wants, other than them, it’s their ivory tower.
They’re not coming forward with any substantial plan for us despite being asked...a lot of our swindles reckon they’re going to leave, apparently Chart Hills locally may offer TGC members 50% off to join them.
Shame Tenterden is a nice little club but has no loyalty towards it members, the committee members have had a sniff of power and it’s gone straight to their heads. ?
Stay safe people - we’ll be back golfing in our two balls in a few weeks

Is it a members “owned” club?

What's the general consensus of the members with regards the subs/club survival?

 

[upsidedown]

It would be wrong of me to detail how this might impact on my club but lets look at a hypothetical members club with fees of £1000 per year and 500 members . They decide to reimburse every member half of their subs per week for every week they are closed for Covid 19 . They would be looking at £4807 per week , times this by say 8 weeks of non playing and it's £38,461. Thats a big chunk out of your budget .

 

[Mick68]

Our club is down to 250ish members - like a lot of clubs in Scotland we're struggling. We have a big old clubhouse and 2 courses (an 18 and a 9) to maintain. We're only just staying afloat and had to sell some land recently to pay the overdraft. I'm quite happy for them to keep the money and get no special arrangement as I do feel loyalty to the club and enjoy playing there. I hope as many people do that as possible as if not we could go under. I realise I'm lucky to still be working on full pay and that there might be others who are losing money and maybe were struggling to pay their fees in the first place and the club might need to look at giving them something back if they ask but that could then open the floodgates. So far I've not had anything except an email towards the end of March asking those who hadn't already paid to pay.

 

[Deleted member 18588]

Our club is down to 250ish members - like a lot of clubs in Scotland we're struggling. We have a big old clubhouse and 2 courses (an 18 and a 9) to maintain. We're only just staying afloat and had to sell some land recently to pay the overdraft. I'm quite happy for them to keep the money and get no special arrangement as I do feel loyalty to the club and enjoy playing there. I hope as many people do that as possible as if not we could go under. I realise I'm lucky to still be working on full pay and that there might be others who are losing money and maybe were struggling to pay their fees in the first place and the club might need to look at giving them something back if they ask but that could then open the floodgates. So far I've not had anything except an email towards the end of March asking those who hadn't already paid to pay.

Without wishing to take this thread off track I just have to say I am amazed that any club can survive with so few members.

Must need plenty of visitors to help make ends meet.

 

[Mick68]

Without wishing to take this thread off track I just have to say I am amazed that any club can survive with so few members.

Must need plenty of visitors to help make ends meet.

Virtually no visitors. We're out of the way with no through traffic and not special enough for people to go out of their way to play our courses. There are a lot of courses up here with this number of members. I'm pretty sure the club in the next town is down to 150 - they might not survive much longer. Again, don't want to get off topic but we live in an area with 80000 people and have 6 courses and another, at least 7, within a 30 min drive. There aren't enough youngsters taking up the game to sustain the number of clubs (there must be a thread somewhere about that). A lot of clubs will cease to exist in the next 20 years.

 

[Mick68]

What's your annual fees?

£790

 

[Deleted member 18588]

Virtually no visitors. We're out of the way with no through traffic and not special enough for people to go out of their way to play our courses. There are a lot of courses up here with this number of members. I'm pretty sure the club in the next town is down to 150 - they might not survive much longer. Again, don't want to get off topic but we live in an area with 80000 people and have 6 courses and another, at least 7, within a 30 min drive. There aren't enough youngsters taking up the game to sustain the number of clubs (there must be a thread somewhere about that). A lot of clubs will cease to exist in the next 20 years.

Hats off to your Club and your Committee for keeping the club going in those circumstances.

It can't be easy with so much competition for relatively few members.

 

[Diamond]

Virtually no visitors. We're out of the way with no through traffic and not special enough for people to go out of their way to play our courses. There are a lot of courses up here with this number of members. I'm pretty sure the club in the next town is down to 150 - they might not survive much longer. Again, don't want to get off topic but we live in an area with 80000 people and have 6 courses and another, at least 7, within a 30 min drive. There aren't enough youngsters taking up the game to sustain the number of clubs (there must be a thread somewhere about that). A lot of clubs will cease to exist in the next 20 years.

I think culturally things will change after this pandemic. Golf and fishing will be the go to past times and watching teams sports in stadiums will struggle. I am not sure where football can go from here. Travelling to the ground, queuing for food, beer and entrance to the ground. Massive queues for toilets, everyone invading your personal space. Rugby is the same. I still don’t understand why fishing is not allowed.

 

[clubchamp98]

I think culturally things will change after this pandemic. Golf and fishing will be the go to past times and watching teams sports in stadiums will struggle. I am not sure where football can go from here. Travelling to the ground, queuing for food, beer and entrance to the ground. Massive queues for toilets, everyone invading your personal space. Rugby is the same. I still don’t understand why fishing is not allowed.

Not to sure about that!
People have short memory’s.
If lockdown ended tomorrow the PL grounds would be full Saturday.

No other sport is allowed so why would fishing be exempt.?
No spectators , nobody else touches your equipment , you can do it alone.
Think of any other sports that applies to?

 

[Diamond]

Not to sure about that!
People have short memory’s.
If lockdown ended tomorrow the PL grounds would be full Saturday.

No other sport is allowed so why would fishing be exempt.?
No spectators , nobody else touches your equipment , you can do it alone.
Think of any other sports that applies to?

I am a season ticket holder and there are several seniors I sit with. None of them are renewing, due to COVID19 and I was already debating whether to with the VAR debacle. The young, reckless and feckless will still go the Football. However if you took your family would you still go without a vaccine or knowing if you had the antibodies? I know I wouldn’t.

Fishing like you say is safer than walking, running and cycling. Every time I go for a walk the close proximity of cyclists and runners makes me wonder why I risk it and I would be much safer on a golf course on my own.

The other problem with the big sports [Football/rugby) is they make money by herding people together into enormous stadiums where the hygiene is shocking. If you have been to a football ground recently and been to the loo you will know what I mean. They can not reopen and allow spectators in without a vaccine.
With 3 distinct strains of CoVID19 already the future does not look good for any business that herds people into areas of close proximity. Music concerts is another problem, could you imagine 80,000 at Wembley all wearing masks. They won’t be singing along and as for football the chanting will be muffled.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I think there will always be a core demand for football, especially in the PL and many of the top 6 clubs have waiting lists on season tickets so they'll always have enough fans to fill the grounds. What I would hope, and this applies to a certain degree to rugby although perhaps harder with clubs having larger catchment areas, is that this feeling of togetherness and community the crisis has brought about will bring about a re-emergence of people actually supporting their own hometown teams and going to the smaller grounds. If we aren't to lose a lot of the lower league sides they are going to need a lot of help once football starts again

 

[Mick68]

I'm a season ticket holder too and was discussing this with my dad (STH and OAP). I wonder if clubs will have to greatly reduce attendances but increase the amount they charge TV companies for the rights to show the games which will then be passed onto the customers who now can't attend so will be more likely to take out the TV packages and use their ST money to pay for it. We're getting a bit off topic here - is someone going to give us a ticking off. I think we should be cut a bit of slack as there's no golf happening for us to discuss!

 

[Diamond]

I'm a season ticket holder too and was discussing this with my dad (STH and OAP). I wonder if clubs will have to greatly reduce attendances but increase the amount they charge TV companies for the rights to show the games which will then be passed onto the customers who now can't attend so will be more likely to take out the TV packages and use their ST money to pay for it. We're getting a bit off topic here - is someone going to give us a ticking off. I think we should be cut a bit of slack as there's no golf happening for us to discuss!

Yes we will probably get a warning from a Mod.

I am ready to play golf at my club and have offered to put £100 on the bar card when they start back up. Hopefully this would initially help them in the early days after lockdown.

Saying that I hear Ireland are talking about charging people 5 Euros just to get into a pub and 1 Euro added onto the cost of a pint. Hopefully it does not come to that here but maybe members only clubs/bars will do better (same social circles as opposed to different people every time you go in).

I know a lot of season ticket holders, for different PL teams, over the age of 40 and none of them want to renew, its not their own safety but their relatives and friends they are worried about.
Would you rather go the game or spend time with you Mum or Nana?

The problem with local non league teams that the opp suggested is that people will much more prefer to play football themselves or take up a low risk contact hobby like golf or fishing.

Non league and lower league clubs need people to queue for entrance, beer, food and to go the toilet. Its just as bad as larger clubs.

My point is golf clubs like fishing has an opportunity that a lot of other sports wont.

 

[IanM]

Our steward has started doing take away Sunday Lunches and boxes of groceries which he delivers to local oldies... he at least is keeping some business ticking over.

As I said before, our place pays subs in January and has already said not refunds for time closed per se.... I wonder how many resignations we will get, as under the rules you would be entitled to a pro rata refund. (But have to pay joining fee to get back in) If any have left, the committee havent said so.

...and, I can walk to a fishery from here - I think taking my fishing gear along and sitting there on my own is "low risk!"

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

David Lloyd Fitness Clubs have suspended their monthly DD collection for my wife's membership. She is doing their exercises (On Demand) through their free DL app (for members only) - casting it to our telly on the wall in our back room. She doesn't feel ready to do any of their Live Classes. Don't think I'm allowed to be in the room - but maybe she'll relent as she is endlessly going on about my gut...and she's right

 

[Diamond]

David Lloyd Fitness Clubs have suspended their monthly DD collection for my wife's membership. She is doing their exercises (On Demand) through their free DL app (for members only) - casting it to our telly on the wall in our back room. She doesn't feel ready to do any of their Live Classes. Don't think I'm allowed to be in the room - but maybe she'll relent as she is endlessly going on about my gut...and she's right

Yep, I will need new trousers by the end of this lock down!