Golf!!!2!

[Dion]

Mounting financial losses par for the course for majority of City of Calgary golf courses

The City of Calgary confirms four of its six golf courses failed to turn a profit in any year in the period from 2015 to 2017 and the City lost nearly $2 million operating its courses during that time.

In response to a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act request from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the City released its revenue and expenses for the six golf courses for 2015, 2016 and 2017.

The following is the net (revenue minus expenses) for each of the City of Calgary golf courses according to the City of Calgary’s ‘Golf Revenue & Expenses by Course: 2015-2017’:

McCall Lake Golf Course experienced operating losses of $589,336 in 2017, $666,162 in 2016 and $457,350 in 2015

Shaganappi Point: +$1,158,786 (profits in 2015, 2016 and 2017)
Confederation: -$204,770 (profit in 2015)

Lakeview: -$239,852

Richmond Green: -$469,379

Maple Ridge: -$562,375

McCall Lake: -$1,712,848

Total: -$2,030,440

According to the City of Calgary, the profitability of the courses during that time was impacted by:

67 days lost to inclement weather in 2017 (32 per cent of the golf season)
65 days lost to inclement weather in 2016 (31 per cent of the golf season)

The economic downturn

Ward 13 councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart says the financial losses of the municipal courses were inevitable given the economic conditions of late and an unsustainable operating model. "We need to think beyond the box here nd look at different models for these golf courses in the future to be sustainable."

"We absolutely need to keep our public golf courses but we need a different operating model and we need the private sector involved."

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/mounting-...rses-1.3929127

[DoubleK]

It's been mentioned before, but they need to see if the model Phoenix used would work here.

Basically you contract out the O&M to a golf operator.

I don't know if they had union labour like I assume Calgary does.

http://www.worldgolf.com/newswire/br...ent-facilities

[AltaGuy]

Yeah - there’s no way Maple Ridge should be losing money. I’m guessing the wages paid to city golf course employees are quite a bit higher than industry averages.

[2ArmBands]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

I like them all, they are just different, but I guess for Wow factor it would be Shadow Mountain.

St Eugenes is also good as it had, mountain holes, and links holes, but it was probably the worst condition, fairways were kind of crappy.

Riverside was probably the mehest, but probably because I have played there before many times, years ago.

Radium Springs, is always enjoyable, cool views, nice course, but there again, I have played that before, so hard to stack against, the 3 I hadn't.

Wildstone, also was a great mountain course. Tip for Wildstone, if you play once and want to play again, ask the starter, as he has some deal for $30 for the second round.

Cool. I always like discussing with people their favourites in the Invermere/Cranbrook area. I played Shadow/Bootleg/Eagle Ranch/Springs this past weekend with some guys that have never played out there. They were totally blown away by Shadow and I have to agree it certainly does pack a wow factor. I think we paid 50 w/cart as it was out second round of the day on twilight. Just can't beat that.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

It's been mentioned before, but they need to see if the model Phoenix used would work here.

Basically you contract out the O&M to a golf operator.

I don't know if they had union labour like I assume Calgary does.

http://www.worldgolf.com/newswire/br...ent-facilities

Calgary has union labour on it's golf courses. That in itself makes it hard for the city to compete with the private courses.

The city should have private operators that know who to run a course.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by AltaGuy

Yeah - there’s no way Maple Ridge should be losing money. I’m guessing the wages paid to city golf course employees are quite a bit higher than industry averages.

Maple Ridge and McCall are fantastic layouts on great pieces of land. The courses are suffering from neglect and mismanagement. There is no reason that the conditioning of those courses not be top shelf.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how the redo at McCall turns out. Anyone know who is doing it?

[sl888]

Originally Posted by Dion

Played this morning and the mosquitoes were out in full force. Thankfully I had some bug spray in my bag.

Which course?

[Northendzone]

i wonder how much they could really charge at mapleridge if the conditioning was better and it was owned by a large faceless corporation.

i like the course itself and i think it is more interesting than inglewood

[BurningYears]

I think a couple of issues on top of the obviously higher rates for employing unionized gardeners are:

- The ability to cancel at any time (I have literally done this 10 min before the tee time as I had a rough night and forgot about golf) as long as you call in with NO penalty at all.

- As well as just being able to no show to a 4 person (for example) tee time and not have a deposit or a no show fee charged. I believe your account just gets dinged a infraction but no financial penalty

- They just don't charge as much, Which I'm ok with as I see it as a public service to provide affordable entertainment/activities, I probably would not be cool with spending 100$ every weekend to golf. But with that they will see lower income.


now some things they could do to help out (assuming they couldn't just sell off the operations to a private company) would be tie a financial penalty to no shows and cancellations within a certain time frame prior to the tee time.

I also think they could limit the amount of tee times you can book. currently it lets you book 2 per day which should only be allowed under certain conditions (group bookings etc) but you'd need to call into the course for that (and get a credit card to hold it)

Thirdly they just don't seem to maximize their food/beverage leverage. They basically have you trapped for 4-5 hours much like a hockey game or movie theatre but I'm lucky usually if I see the food/beer cart 2 times.

Dont know if much will ever change or could be changed. but I'd like to think so anyways.

[sl888]

Originally Posted by Dion

Played this morning and the mosquitoes were out in full force. Thankfully I had some bug spray in my bag.

Originally Posted by sl888

Which course?

Nm, I just left Serenity. I played 1 hole and couldn't take it anymore. Their $17 can of bug spray didn't help at all.

[Dion]

Tournaments are huge money makers for private and semi private courses. A ton of beer and alcohol is sold as well as balls and tees. They help to keep down the costs of annual dues members pay and the price of a green fee for the general public. It's an area the city should explore if they want their courses to return to profitability.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by sl888

Nm, I just left Serenity. I played 1 hole and couldn't take it anymore. Their $17 can of bug spray didn't help at all.

Crazy. No bugs at all on Saturday morning.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Crazy. No bugs at all on Saturday morning.

I noticed them on Saturday at Serenity. A couple just before noon, then when we started the back 9, I was in the rough around the bunker that guards the green and was getting swarmed.

A few other times they got bad but generally in the fairway the breeze kept them away.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

I noticed them on Saturday at Serenity. A couple just before noon, then when we started the back 9, I was in the rough around the bunker that guards the green and was getting swarmed.

A few other times they got bad but generally in the fairway the breeze kept them away.

Ah - I finished by about 11:15. Lucky.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Crazy. No bugs at all on Saturday morning.

I golfed Sat, Sun and last night.

Sat, no mosquitoes, Sat night, at friends place, mosquitoes show up, a bit annoying, Sun, mosquitoes but tolerable, some wind helped. Last night, brutal, sprayed 3x, and it was still bad near any water and trees, Glad I'm not golfing today

[Weitz]

Lynx ridge was ok. The greens were trash but fairways were nice.

Shot 86.

[DoubleK]

Trash how? Recently punched? Winter kill?

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

Trash how? Recently punched? Winter kill?

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

Dirt/sand. Maybe winter kill? I’m not sure. The member I was with said it’s mucb better than last week but was still arguably the worst greens I’ve ever played. If I had paid I would have been really upset.

Not punched. I don’t reallt get upset at that as it’s a needed thing.

[malcolmk14]

Played Heatherglen on Sunday evening and it was great to get out for round one!

Greens ran really great. Other than that, it was... Heatherglen. Haha.

[Northendzone]

^ malcom first round? for some reason i thought that in the past you golfed a ton