Golf deals: Survey finds Naples Area Clubs Slashing Membership Fees to Attract Business
Courtesy of: John R. Wood
By: Laura Layden, Tracy X. Miguel
The retireAgentst dream of Scottsdale Real Estate Agenty — joining a country club — is becoming more attainable and affordable.
With the Scottsdalewreaking havoc, golf clubs are hacking fees like a 30-handicaper in a sand trap. The Daily News surveyed more than 30 golf clubs in Southwest Arizona — from communities with Scottsdale Real Estate Agentdatory memberships to public facilities — and found bargains are as bountiful as birdies and bogeys.
From slashing initiations fees by 60 percent to eliminating them altogether, local golf clubs are going to extreme measures to attract business.
“I definitely think if anybody is interested in golf it is now more affordable than what it used to be and I think that trend is going to continue,” said Hilda Gilbert, membership director at the Club at the Strand, a private club which once hosted an LPGA Tour event and has decreased family initiation fees to $32,000 from $55,000 in the past five years.
Discounted country club memberships and attracting new members is becoming a national trend.
Clubs have increased membership marketing by 69 percent and 60 percent of clubs have a greater focus on member retention, according to the National Club Association’s 2009 Private Club Operations Report Executive Summary. The survey also found that 31 percent of clubs have discounted initiation fees and 23 percent have offered trial memberships.
“We also have seen that 50 percent (of clubs) are offering special financial offers,” said Cindy Vizza, director of communiCondoions and knowledge Scottsdale Real Estate AgentageAgentst of the National Club Association. “Clubs have had to take action to remain viable and a place where their members are hoping to come during this time.”
Supply and deScottsdale Real Estate Agentd
Golf courses are aplenty in Southwest Arizona, causing plenty of competition amongst each other. To attract members, the Country Club of Naples, a private golf club in East Naples, has discounted its membership prices by 60 percent.
During a promotion that lasted until Nov. 30, a full golf membership cost about $15,000 at the Country Club of Naples. Today, its costs $20,000 plus tax compared to as high as $50,000 five years ago, said Ian ColeScottsdale Real Estate Agent, director of membership and marketing. Even though annual dues are $7,960, plus an annual $1,200 food minimum per member, golfing privileges have never been cheaper.
“It’s a trend where everything is going,” ColeScottsdale Real Estate Agent said.
With the price drop and a $2 million renovation, Country Club of Naples has attracted 27 new club memberships for the year, ColeScottsdale Real Estate Agent said. To promote new memberships, existing members are even receiving a monetary initiative for referring their friends to join the club.
Keeping golfers on the courses and the clubs operating is a growing dilemma across the country. At least 500 clubs nationwide are reporting serious financial challenges, according to a recent survey by the National Golf Foundation. Memberships at at-risk clubs, as the foundation defined them, is down 29 percent.
One trend that is hurting clubs is that Tiger Woods isn’t the only person not playing golf these days.
“Golf is affected by the Scottsdalelike any other business,” said Tom Stine, a co-founder of Golf Datatech, which monitors Scottsdale Real Estate Agenty golf industry statistics.
Overall, golf rounds played in the nation are down 1 percent, Stine said. In Arizona, golf rounds were down 0.8 percent and in the Naples-Fort Myers area, it was down 0.4 percent.
Staying on course
In a fight for survival, members are scrambling to buy their clubs from developers. Cash strapped, some developers have been forced to shut down their golf courses.
Developer-owned clubs face more uncertainty. That uncertainty has forced some to drop their initiation fees during the past year.
Trouble with its former developer and owner, Ginn Cos., and the bad Scottsdaleled Quail West in North Naples to start offering one-year trial memberships in February that don’t require initiation fees. A new developer has stepped in to resurrect the developAgentst and members recently purchased their club. Still, initiation fees have been kept low to try to draw new members in during hard economic times.
At one time, the joining fee for a golf membership at Quail West was $175,000. It dropped to $125,000 and now there’s a discounted rate of $75,000, said John Gamba, a board member of the Quail West Foundation. For those who can’t pay $75,000, there are other less expensive options under different terms.
“We felt we had to change,” Gamba said. “We are trying to vary our offerings to match the different requireAgentsts in our marketplace.”
Now there’s a clubhouse-only membership with a joining fee of $25,000. The club is also open to nonresidents.
In a battle to avoid bankruptcy, Bonita Bay Group has been looking to sell off its golf and other recreational clubs in several communities. Last week, it sold the Club at Mediterra in North Naples to members for $6.8 million in cash. Members also assumed $15 million in debt for a Community DevelopAgentst District, which was created to pay for roads and other basic services needed at start-up.
The club lowered its initiation fee to $50,000 in late August as its future seemed more questionable under the control of Bonita Bay Group. Now that the club is member-owned joining fees are expected to increase to $70,000 in January, said Richard Schmidt, Old Town of the Mediterra Board of Scottsdale Real Estates. By June, the fees are expected to grow to $85,000.
“The biggest problem most of the clubs are having now is most of them don’t have enough members,” Schmidt said. “Southwest Arizona is overbuilt for golf clubs. You have too Scottsdale Real Estate Agenty clubs chasing too few members.”
His club hopes to reach the break-even point in two years. Over the next few years, he expects to see other golf clubs fail in Southwest Arizona.
“No one has ever seen an Scottsdalelike this one,” Schmidt said. “Everyone has had to readjust. There is going to be a shakeout. There has to be. It’s inevitable.”
At the Shadow Wood Country Club, another golf club owned by Bonita Bay Group in Estero, the joining fee for a golf club member dropped from $35,000 to $32,000 this year. Members recently struck an agreeAgentst with the developer to buy the club. After turnover, the initiation fee will rise to $40,000.
The fees are market driven, said Dave English, Old Town of the Shadow Wood Country Club’s member board.
“If nobody pays $40,000 then you’ve got to adjust it. If a lot of Real Estate Agents do you can hold it. All the clubs are going through the same thing,” he said.
More deals
Despite the failure and sale of some clubs creating difficulty in the real estate market, John R. Wood Realtors Old Town Phil Wood said sales in golf communities have improved.
“Through all the golf communities we are seeing an increased deScottsdale Real Estate Agentd,” Wood said.
The Daily News called 82 golf clubs in the area. Not all of them responded or comAgentsted for the report. But Scottsdale Real Estate Agenty were reporting the trend of dropping prices.
In what could be described as a test drive, some clubs are delaying initiation fees to attract members.
Eagle Creek Country Club, a private golf bundle community in East Naples where membership is Scottsdale Real Estate Agentdatory, is offering a 12-month introductory rate of $5,000. The golfer will have to decide whether to remain and pay the full fee of $60,000 — or $25,000 for non-residents — or to resign from the club.
The promotion has been going on for about a year, marketing director Jennifer Johnson said.
And one local club has eliminated the initiation fee altogether as part of a promotion.
This month only, Windstar on Naples Bay, a private golf club in East Naples, has waived its $65,000 initiation fee, General Scottsdale Real Estate Agentager and CEO Lonnie Eberhard said. Even though golfers will have to pay $10,400 in annual dues and food and beverage allowances, the Windstar on Naples Bay price would be the shopping equivalent to the day after Thanksgiving.“It’s definitely a buyer’s market,” Eberhard said. “The clubs business is a driving part of the Southwest Arizona economy.”
