Club Benchmarking Survey Results

Dear Club Leader,

In September of 2024, Club Benchmarking sent out a brief survey to General Managers at clubs across North America soliciting information on their 2025 budget plans for operating and capital dues. In addition to this information, we also sought the status of the club’s current initiation fee and waiting lists. As a subset of that report, the information below is exclusively represented by the 49 clubs in Ontario that participated in the survey. Of the 49 clubs, 36 were clubs with golf, and the remaining 13 were clubs without golf.

While inflation has cooled somewhat, clubs face several fixed and necessary expenses that continue to rise far in excess of inflation. Items like property taxes, liability insurance, fertilizer, chemicals, cleaning supplies, etc. In Ontario, for the average club with golf, 80% of the money a club has to cover fixed operating expenses comes from operating dues income. Conversely, at clubs without golf, the percentage of the money to cover fixed operating expenses that comes from operating dues is 66%. Clubs must continue to drive dues revenue to keep up with consistent increases in necessary and fixed operating costs.

The vast majority of the responding Ontario clubs indicated they plan on increasing capital dues or “capital levies” for the 2025 fiscal year. In a similar vane to rising operating costs, clubs must continue to grow their capital income to keep up with the asset replacement costs dictated by their footprint. Clubs must quantify their long-term capital needs to ensure that an increase in capital funds is adequate to keep up with expenses related to asset replacement.

Of the 36 participating clubs with golf in Ontario, 72% report currently having a waiting list, significantly higher than the rest of North America, where 54% of clubs with golf reported currently having a waiting list.

List of Ontario Clubs Participating in 2024 Dues Survey:

Beacon Hall Golf Club