The Club Managers Association of America 2008 Club Operations and Financial Data Report has just been released. The CMAA is the professional association for managers of membership clubs and its members manage more than 3,000 country, golf, city, athletic, faculty, yacht, town and military clubs.
This biennial report contains the results of a survey that addressed income and expense figures for each department and club type, initiation fees and dues, labour costs, rounds of golf and cost-per-hole maintenance expenses.
This year’s survey also featured expanded questions on club technology. A total of 828 CMAA members participated, representing a response rate of 36 percent. The majority of responses were from country clubs, representing 65 percent of respondents.
Highlights from this report include:
• Overall, since 2000, there has been a consistent upward trend in the number of clubs offering business centres, fitness facilities, cyber cafà©s and spa services.
• Gross revenues of CMAA member-managed clubs are approximately $13 billion; the average club has $5.5 million.
• The average initiation fee for a full membership in a country club is $31,912. Average monthly dues are $472.
• Average food sales equal $1.6 million, and average alcoholic beverage sales exceed $370,000.
• The total payroll for clubs is $5.3 billion.
• The number of clubs with web sites increased significantly, reaching 91 percent, up from 76 percent in 2004, 59 percent in 2002 and 40 percent in 2000.
• Ninety-five percent of clubs report that their dining facilities are non-smoking.
“CMAA has been conducting this exhaustive study for 20 years,” notes CMAA chief executive officer James B. Singerling. “Clearly this report reveals that clubs continue to make up a healthy and dynamic industry.”
Jerry Kilby, chief executive officer for the Club Managers Association of Europe, said, “The CMAA have been gathering data from their members regularly over the past 20 years, and this has resulted in the valuable data just released.
“Here in Europe, we are also gathering similar information from club managers all over Europe, and as announced recently, we hope to release the results of that programme in October. We are hoping that club managers will participate in our online survey, which can be accessed from the CMAE website www.cmaeurope.org.”
“As we know, trends in the USA market usually are replicated a year or so later over here in Europe, so the CMAA report makes very interesting reading for everyone in the club industry. This survey is potentially a look into the future for us,” Kilby concluded.
CMAA www.cmaa.org
CMAE www.cmaeurope.org