Life Membership

peepee

With clubs struggling to bring in the same amount of revenue as before have any started offering life memberships for lump sums? Seems like a good way to get in some fast money and a sound investment for a golfer with some cash?

Russman

peepee wrote: »

With clubs struggling to bring in the same amount of revenue as before have any started offering life memberships for lump sums? Seems like a good way to get in some fast money and a sound investment ??? for a golfer with some cash?

I think this might be the problem.
With so many clubs going wallop, would you commit a lump sum fee to a club that may or may not be around in 2 years time ?

Besides, with the mentality of clubs here, if they got in a large volume of cash the first thing a committee would want to do is build a bigger clubhouse they don't need !!:)

slave1

Moate had an offer late last year, don't know if still there, life for €5k

D3PO

Life membership the ultimate in shorttermism.

A club can only survive with a regular income stream. Something like this would kill a club down the line. Not to mind who would be prepared to or even have the kind of money involved to make such an investment

slave1

Yes and no.
Yes it is long term poor financial planning.
But, it allows the club to survive the short term and if it can't survive the short term then the long term is a mute point.
Also, a lot of clubs are currently paying back for all those new/extended clubhouses, course re-designs, land purchases etc, these short-term cash injections will assist in high short term repayments.
As an accountant and investment critic in my day to day role there are advantages and disadvantages to this short term cash option, and usually I prefer the long term view but at present the short term edges it.

Survivial!!

GreeBo

D3PO wrote: »

Life membership the ultimate in shorttermism.

A club can only survive with a regular income stream. Something like this would kill a club down the line. Not to mind who would be prepared to or even have the kind of money involved to make such an investment

Agreed, crazy idea.

I think the best they could hope for would be to offer a deal if people pay, say 3 or maybe 5 years sub up front.
But it would want to be a good deal....say 25% discount or so, depending on the club.

matt-dublin

thats what got druids glen into trouble...
long term 5 year memberships, when they were up everyone pulled out and they lost a large member base.

also don't forget that life membership wouldn't be suitable for a lot of clubs due to lost revenue, they need to keep the cash flow running and a once off payment and some bar subs just won't do that.

there's only so far a club can stretch a once off payment before it comes back cap in hand or the facilities of the club begin to deterioriate.

death1234567

GreeBo wrote: »

I think the best they could hope for would be to offer a deal if people pay, say 3 or maybe 5 years sub up front.
But it would want to be a good deal....say 25% discount or so, depending on the club.

This is the sensible option. Allow people to pay for 4 years membership and get the fifth year free or something similar. Offer free coaching lessons, bar food vouchers, ability to pay fees monthly by standing order, etc. If your club is struggling then you need be sensible and run it like any business would be run in hard times.

GreeBo

matt-dublin wrote: »

thats what got druids glen into trouble...
long term 5 year memberships, when they were up everyone pulled out and they lost a large member base.

Wouldn't those same people just have left earlier anyway though? As such it seems to me that Druids Glen got more out of these people than they would have if they had left it at the usual yearly deal...

gokster

Life memberships are generally a means of funding a particular project such as a course redevelopment, clubhouse construction etc. Alarms bells would ring if it being offered in the context of clearing a debt. I know of huge number of people who joined one of the best known links courses in 1977 for £300, significant sum of money at the time but a bargain now and it was raised to fund an coastal erosion defence programme.

You would also have to look at the profile of the club, if its an established member own facility then it is a sounder investment than a privately own 'resort' type set up