I love this time of year. Sure, the new year is always exciting but I enjoy treating the Club Study findings as a journal to look back on. It makes me appreciate the wide range of topics we cover. In July 2025 we will be celebrating five years since Club Study's inception. We're very grateful for all of you that have stuck with us, filled out each, or most, of the surveys we've delivered and sent in questions for us to include in them. I was always hopeful the stream of inquiries would evolve and never dry up. We've gotten to a point where there are perennial questions and topics but there are still new and interesting queries coming in all the time. Alright, let's get to what you're here for, the recap! Here are our top 10 topics in data from 2024...
10. Club Surveys - If you want progress, feedback is imperative, but feedback can be cheap and come at you in unsolicited and un-actionable ways. The market is flooded with new tools to measure performance regularly and if you want to cut through some of the louder voices (usually the minority) you have to ask the majority...
Club Managers are obviously fishing around for new feedback tools and we are noticing, as you can see from the next graphic below that's based on full-scale membership surveys, clubs are putting less onus on an independent issue and more emphasis on abbreviated check ins ie: after events, particular areas of the club and so on...
Clubs are getting more creative with who, what and when they are sending them too...
In conversation, it seems like many are acknowledging the flaws of larger, annual surveying - 1. Recency Bias, only receiving opinions or moods for the week of month leading up to 2. Long, exhaustive questioning motivates participants to quit early or speed up as is progresses, answering without much care. Tightening up your questionnaires and getting them out more often also allows for more expedient change and improvement. Even surveying your staff more than once a year is good practice.
9. Sustainability - Energy consumption and efficiency is a bigger trend in Europe than the US but we are seeing many clubs taking actions to become more energy conscience by supplying EV charging stations, a change to LED lighting and adding water refill stations in the clubhouse and on golf courses...
8. Pickleball - This activity continues to climb the ranks in participation with not only the amount of clubs in the US having courts but the quantity of courts indoor and out. When Club Managers are asked if they believe pickleball will out-popularize tennis many say it already has while less than 25% think tennis will hold it's ground...
7. F&B Subsidization - It's long been thought by Club Management that the F&B operation is not a profit-centre though up until recently it was a tough sell to a House Committee or Board. Emerging industry data however is compelling and has helped educate boards, getting them off management's back when a negative bottom-line comes in. Take a look at how much the average club will subsidize in 2025...
We believe there is an important caveat to this change in thinking. It turns out the industry is really poor at selling. We know because we test this within 59club all around the world. Golf merch, memberships, beverages, desserts, you name it. The Industry Average for sales in 2024 with clubs 59club works with is 36% and clubs we don't work with is 25%. I can't help but wonder how much less this subsidization would be if we could double these numbers or even surpass 50% in sales as an industry!
6. Rising Costs / Rising Prices - Many clubs will look at the CPI when determining how much to increase dues. Let's see how that has compared over the last 3 years...
2024 (approx)= 2.7%
2023 = 4.1%
2022 = 8.0%
Accumulated avg of 14.8% over a 3 year run or 4.9% per year. Obviously 2022 was off the charts, in fact that highest we have seen in over 40 years. For some comparison and context, from 2010 - 2020 the avg CPI was 1.7% per year (almost 3x less!).
How is it shaping up for 2025 you ask? Not much of a let up. There are many clubs that are wisely making up for lost time and a lack of increases as well. Anecdotally, there aren't many clubs that will have escaped a 10% increase in a single year over the last five years...
Dues aside, we have taken a look at some staple items departmentally within a club to see where increases were experienced and will continue to do so as we get into the new year so stay tuned...
5. Member Attrition (or lack thereof) - Trying to keep attrition low is usually top of mind and annual good practice among Club Managers but it's provided some unique challenges in their own right over the past year.
What if we take a look at 2022-2024 as an average?
Member turnover is healthy. Keeping that wait-list churning provides consistent capital flowing via entrance fees. Pending members that joined wait-lists may not stick around as their wait-time has only increased recently.
Also, tee time restrictions and access is a challenge for many because clubs are so well subscribed which leaves members questioning guest play, with little regard for it's importance for how much revenue that actually brings in. It's easy to label demand as the cause when wait-lists are so prevalent but with attrition so low, clubs are forced to be more engaged with their wait-lists and in many cases we've seen them leveraging their position, increasing non-refundable deposits to get your name on the list.
4. (a) Staff Engagement & Satisfaction - Hospitality may have taken the hardest hit during the pandemic. Clubs have taken big steps to appreciate staff since that time. They are, after all, your greatest source for success and most important asset...
Long gone are the days of single household incomes with over 50% now housing dual incomes (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Gender roles in house have evolved and, for better or worse, people are just flat our busier than they've ever been. This makes it even more challenging to keep your people happy. Employees also have a lot more leverage than they've ever had. It sure seems like employers need employees more now than employees need their employment. So how is management adjusting? Let's have a look...
4. (B) Staff Skills - Th training the highest position in the club receives can impact big decisions on the club. In light of this, what is the ideal breakdown per level of hierarchy of the club? I'm not sure there is one, at least right now, but one thing is for certain, our front-line staff could see some investment on service and sales training. I know, I know, it's easy for me to say...
3. Board / GM Harmony - We get questions in every few months about how many other GM's are facing operational obstruction or meddling from their board. A story as old as time but I don't want to diminish this, it can be the most infuriating thing about the job. I am happy to report however, that those butting heads with their board members about french fry portions and green speeds seem to be in minority...
I have a bit of a hypothesis that every 10 years on average every GM will face a rogue board or at least a few overzealous board members that make their job a nightmare. You can try and firewall it with the nomination committee flexing a board skills matrix or an in depth manual of policies but getting these average numbers shown above and below to change a few points may just be too much of a utopia...
2. Waiting Lists - Membership demand and entry has stayed strong for a few years now with all but a few clubs seeing a decline in 2024...
Trial memberships have essentially dried up. What's more is how wait-lists have evolved in a short time frame relatively. In previous years, it was not uncommon for wait-lists to remain dormant, as in no dialogue or communication to see if the prospective member's interest was still there...
Many clubs have mandated a deposit to join their wait-list and that number rose throughout the year...
How else are clubs leveraging their strong position? Well, why not be selective with new member application criteria when replacing exiting members? Great idea...
1. GM Work / Life Balance - I've always related the job of a GM as the middle pinch of an hour glass with the board/ownership above and staff below. It can be a lonely and isolating position with little-to-no people to truly confide in. In light of this, we try and go beyond the technical aspects like finance and governance to shed light and find data on how routines, habits and in some cases ethics are trending in our industry. How are GM's coping out there? Are they keeping their sanity and what are they thinking?
Our first dive into GM tenure a few years ago saw averages for GM's around 4-5 years. We're happy to see this on the rise. 8 years is a real positive. Not that it's a great comparable but some recent research by Equilar found the median tenure among S&P 500 CEO's has decreased by 20% over the past decade, from 6 years in 2013 to 4.8 (2022)...
Upon initial look at the next graphic, the hours for your average GM could seem high but I have a feeling if we asked how many hours the average GM would like to work in a week during their busy season it wouldn't be too far off. Whether it's guilt or enjoyment of the job, a 40 hour week is just not in the cards...
Lastly, regarding compensation in work/life balance. A good chunk of GM's still believe they are underpaid, which may be fair given what they shoulder day-to-day, but these bonuses to end 2024 are respectable...
There is still a ways to go but it's safe to say aspects leading to job satisfaction for current club leaders is trending the right way.
Thanks for checking out our Year in Review and remember to forward us your industry questions anytime - ryan@clubstudy, no topic is too far-fetched.
In the meantime, a few comments from 2024 on what participants think about our service. All the best in 2025!
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