Raise, Reduce or Remain With ’09 Rates?

There are some interesting decisions to be made over the next couple of months about 2010 rates.

The economy is just starting to turn around, but many consumers are still without work, more so in certain areas of the country, or still careful about how they spend their money even if they are employed.

Certain regions of the country have reached a saturation point with all of the new golf course construction in those areas over the last 10 to 15 years and the economy dealt a double-whammy to those highly-competitive regions in 2009.

As of July next year, Ontario and British Columbia will be dealing with the HST, which will mean an extra eight or seven per cent, respectively, tacked on to green frees or memberships.

For a $20,000 initiation fee, for example, a person in Ontario will be paying an extra $1,600 in tax which, on its own, would buy a lot of golf at some nice public courses.

Affordability is always an issue in golf and the most recent players participation study for the Royal Canadian Golf Association identified it as the main barrier to people taking up the game.

It may be becoming even more of a factor since the good news economic impact study released recently by the National Allied Golf Association was blemished somewhat by news that rounds were down by as much as 10 per cent in 2008, before the economy went into recession.

We can only speculate, but it is scary to think how the number of rounds played might have decreased this year after all the economic bad news hit hard last fall.

So, have we gone as far as we can in our financial expectations, at least for now?

It was interesting to note the speculation during our HST series last week that some courses may actually eat the cost of the tax and charge lower prices next year to prevent consumer backlash, even though the extra money will be going to the government.

So, what’s your plan for 2010? Do you plan to raise your prices, stay the same as 2009 or go lower than this year?

That’s the question on the new GNN Poll now up on the home page. Be sure to cast your vote and, if you feel like expanding your thoughts on this subject, by all means do so at the bottom of this page or in the GNN Forum.