Most clubs don’t have a demand issue, they have a monetization problem. Across both racquets and golf, the issue is rarely participation—it’s structure, programming, and, frankly, outdated thinking.

When my firm is called into a club to help a struggling director or a department, it’s often so late that we are forced into emergency action to retain membership and steady the ship, and that ship is the membership. Membership drives usage, revenue and, hence, longevity. A private members club is a business and going concern, but far too often, clubs are leaving revenue on the table – revenue that could create not only a better funded club but help to create a leading membership experience.

Tradition is Fine, But Look To Create New Revenue Streams

Golf has always been the leader when it comes to simple gross revenues. It’s a sport that simply costs more to play. More than tennis, and certainly more than pickleball. But, a busy first tee and a bottleneck on the tee box outside the pro shop doesn’t always mean strong golf revenues.

How can you monetize the first tee? Easily. Dynamic pricing across tee times and guest fees. Yes, everyone wants that 7.30am tee time on Saturday morning. Well, time is money as we have always heard and in this case that slot should cost the member more. Why not charge for that privilege?

Just look at the airlines: You pay more for a later morning flight. You pay more for a seat toward the front of the aircraft, and you pay more for your checked bag if you leave it late and pay at the ticket counter. Ah, people will say but this is a club. Yes it is. But you pay more for a caddie than a golf cart. Pricing strategies should be tied to demand, and a private members club is no different from the airline business. Guests at peak times should certainly pay more – they are taking slots away from members. Carts and caddies should cost more during the early peak hours. And so should lessons.

Teaching at many clubs is capped, and capping teaching hours or the number of professionals is capping revenue. What business caps revenues? Golf directors often leave most of the teaching to one or two professionals out of caution for looking to salesy or hoping to leave the tee box open for member play rather than see playing lessons kick off the first tee. But what if you dynamically changed lesson pricing so that lessons in the late morning or early afternoon when the course is empty are far less costly and more inviting?

Golf is stuck in a myriad of traditional thought, one being – one lesson, one student, one hour. But opening up an incredible teaching program to include adult clinics focused around a shot, a strategy, match versus stroke play – these are all programming possibilities. And tying social events in with a 5-hole short course – even 9 holes takes 2 hours where members really just want an hour to 90 minutes on the course, especially as they get hungrier and hungrier during a Nine and Dine. I remember my father playing hole 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 and 9 on Waccabuc Country Club’s front nine in the early evening, avoiding what we called “the valley”. Times haven’t changed that much.

Traditional events may drive revenue – especially the men’s member guest. But, club championships, governors cups, and other traditional tournaments really don’t see a profit passed back to the club. In golf you measure the club usage by golf rounds. Why is that? The same governors and club managers look at revenue for food and beverage first. What golf committees, greens committees, club managers and directors must remember is that play doesn’t equal revenue. Usage doesn’t create revenue. Programming creates revenue.

Where Racquets Fail to Monetize

Pickleball, Pickleball, Pickleball. It is by far, and we can say this, the cheapest racquet sport on any club property. Born in a way that allowed it grow from the grass-roots, the easy learning curve denudes pickleball from monetization through continuous private lessons and programming. Even grabbing revenue through clinic programming can be difficult. Pickleball is social – so, in order to monetize the amenity – take the social angle.

Members look at pickleball as a cheap cousin to tennis, squash, and now padel, and don’t really expect to pay for the amenity.

No, the secret with pickleball is volume. It’s volume selling, and clubs should look at creating a social program to create revenue. Far too often, we see professionals continually trying to make the clinics popular and market the private lessons. Yes, you want to avoid free, organized play, at all costs, because it replaces revenue opportunities. Reservation play is fine, free open play slots are a killer to revenue.

Why not bring some of the padel programming over, with a Mexicana or Americana format for competitive round robins and charge for the invitational “tournament”. Supervised play at a lower cost, with one professional covering two courts can really add to revenues. That’s an 8 to 1 ratio and a real possibility of keeping an hour under $20. And, create your clinics by level-based clinics – pickleball has caught up with tennis of the 1970s and we are forced to really separate play and instruction by level for the most part. Gone are the days of teaching fits one size!

You can also build your young junior racquets program on the pickleball courts which can create a higher demand for pickleball courts at certain times. We know demand can raise prices across the board.  And this provides a transition to tennis and why too often clubs rely on their junior programming for the majority of revenue. And, that is a mistake.

Adult Programming Is Now Our Biggest Earner

For the last two years, at all our clubs, adult programming has been the majority of our revenue. Years ago, it was true that junior programming was the largest earner in the program, but with the advent of clinics such as live ball, cardio tennis, and the all encompassing and ever-popular “105”, adult programming has taken over. Some clubs are even turning their championships and member-guests and pro-ams into “105”. Our biggest event is now weekly: The Weekly 105 Club Championships – 5 to 8 courts with 8 players per court, but with fog horns and a digital display scoreboard where you play against the entire field. We give out glasses to the winning male and female and a cap to the lucky loser. If you’d like more information, email me at beyondthebaselines@gmail.com.

When we look back at the junior program, we can easily see now with hindsight why adult programming has surpassed junior revenues. Lower margins, because of higher staffing levels and cost per pro and per court, really hold back junior program’s profitability. Unless you are going to just offer a “babysitting service” on the courts, your higher paid pros need to be out there and with lower ratios, that becomes costly.

Finally, let’s get to dynamic pricing. Where we see it taking off at our clubs is pushing lesson courts into the mid morning and midday, leaving lesson slots open for the peak times to those higher paying customers. Don’t think about reducing the price of your hourly lesson for non-peak hours. Keep that price. Raise the price of the lesson at peak times. Once you start the ethos of dynamic pricing, and members understand it and change their habits, it’s a revenue game changer.

Take a look every month at the breakdown of revenues. Where can you increase profits? What has slowed down and why? Brainstorm among your department heads. Ensure you are reacting to demands that both please the membership but create revenue for the club. Nothing is free these days, and if you’re creating a best-in-class program, as I always say to the members, “you can’t have caviar on a tuna budget.”

Ed Shanaphy is President of SBW Associates, Inc – the parent company of BeyondTheBaselines.com. He has served internationally and domestically as Director of Tennis, Director of Operations, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director over his 35-year career inside marketing and advertising and hospitality. He lives in Vero Beach, Florida and is a “tennis Dad” in the middle of the college recruitment process with his daughter, Olivia.