MEETING OF COUNCIL - Town of Cambridge

COUNCIL MINUTES
TUESDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2012
CR12.177 WEMBLEY GOLF COURSE - FEE REVIEW 2012
PURPOSE OF REPORT:
To review the fees applied at the Wembley Golf Course (WGC), implement a new fee
structure effective from 1 January 2013 with a further review to be undertaken in June 2013.
BACKGROUND:
The fees charged at WGC are reviewed on an annual basis as decided by Council in
February 1996. To allow for any price increases other golf facilities may have implemented
during the previous year, the review period commences on 1 January annually.
Fees at WGC are benchmarked against nine other public golf courses in the metropolitan
area. Wembley has in the past increased fees where applicable to bring it in line with other
courses to cover increasing maintenance and dividend costs.
A schedule of fees charged at WGC and a competitive analysis (confidential) are provided as
attachments.
DETAILS:
The pricing policy adopted by Council in past reviews has been to increase the fees charged
at WGC to be comparable with other public courses.
Many of the golf courses that WGC benchmarks against have increased prices this year,
reflecting the continuing increase in costs to maintain a golf facility. Increasing fuel, labour
and material costs impact on the maintenance budgets of all golf courses.
Income remained steady in 2011/2012 even with sluggish nine hole participation rates. This
was in the main caused by a number of factors, including but not limited to:-
• Record hot weather in early 2012;
• Global downturn in golf participation.
The Swing Driving Range continued to perform well with 8.5 million balls hit for the year, an
increase 6.25% on the previous year. An overview of the golf participation, driving range
participation and income is provided as confidential attachment 3.
An overview of the golf participation, driving range participation and income is provided as a
Confidential Attachment.
1.0 Current Fees
Although competitively priced, the fees at the WGC are now at the higher end of industry
averages for 9 and 18 hole rounds, including concessional fees. There is still reluctance
amongst other metropolitan public golf courses to increase fees on an annual basis to match
the increasing costs in running a golf course.
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