Like chris said they are looking for some suitable land or existing building to buy outright & build/convert into a badminton (& probably other sports) community hall. The members will own the club & pay a membership fee every year to cover the costs. It is a good idea providing they have the funds to start it. If they just rent it and convert they put a similar level of money in to convert, pay what is likely to be a punitive rent, which means their memberships fees would be higher & they could get evicted if landlord does not sign a new lease. In the long term the private clubs in the UK are a lot cheaper, and gernally have better facilities (as they invest in their own club, rather than penny pinching and not investing) than commercial sports halls/leisure centres. It also means the community can use it whenever they want, tournaments when organised will be cheaper & easier to accomadate. It makes total sense as long as you have the people willing to devote their time to get it started and money of course.
I'm still not getting it, esp. I thought Chris mentioned that it's taken them a long long time to come up with $300K, and they're still short. I guess it all depends on how much more is needed (thus projected feasible start date of the project). This can be compared to saving enough money to buy one's own house. These days, people usually get a mortgage, and try to pay it off with cash flow over a long period of time. Also, I'd think breaking even is less ambitious than making profits, and thus easier to achieve.
Our associations are 'not-for-profit' organisations . Our associations are 'not-for-profit' organisations. I suppose this makes it difficult to borrow money from banks. I shall find out more info from the associations before I can make more comments. .
The community associtation cannot prove long term cash flow to pay it off, as they rely on member, persumably on an annual subscription and although neither could a business the thing is banks don't like break even, they like profit! Also I doubt the members would be willing to take on debt........... If it is so easy, do it yourself & reduce your badminton costs!
Take it easy . I'm just a causal observer making a rather causal comment here (without any insight). No offense intended. There are a few discussions about the proliferation of badminton gym here in California, but it seems difficult in Australia. I'm just curious. As of today, we've 13 privately started dedicated gyms in our neighborhood (I might have miscounted). It appears there's an exponential growth here. This is in addition to the existing multi-purpose gym in community centers, colleges, and high schools. This growth seems to make starting a badminton gym look "easy", esp. I heard some started as a non-profit (similar to your situation?), and expands in number of gyms. How do they do it? Someone has to take some risks to begin with, I suppose. Of course, I'm also aware of some dedicated gyms down south that are built from ground up (and not rented). They cost north of a million USD. So the spectrum here is quite wide. It all depends on your ideal. Which one are you shooting for? How high a demand you anticipate? Do I want to do it myself, and cut costs? To start with, I never really like the idea of carry truck load of debt (i.e. mortgage). Rental suits me just fine. Sometime paying an ongoing higher cost in order to free up your capital for something else might be a better alternative.
I was being tongue in cheek.....with the amount of courts in your area the competition levels should keep cost manageable anyway. I asume Chris has less choice (probably no badminton only gyms?) which may be tough to block book at times onvenient to users & if land/build costs are cheap enough, it will be worth it. I wish them the best of luck!
From what I've heard about Smash City, it was very hard for them to make back the money they spent on opening that place. Training is the main cause of revenue.
It's very hard to make back the money spent . This is true. The cost of the coaching is usually higher because trainees are paying for the teaching service. The cost of the hire of courts cannot be too high because it could discourage social/family players from going there. .
I don't like how the prices kept going up... before it was only 3 bucks.. then 5... then 7... then 8.50.. one point it got to 10$... now it's average 8 bucks for an open gym... I wonder what the price will be like after 10 years.. I guess this is the result of having so many gyms...
Assuming inflation rate of 3%, in 10 years, it'd be $11.4. Maybe they're trying to encourage you to become their member? If you get their introductory price, you can do your math again... 3-5 bucks are only for lunch hours, AFAIK. Now this is a new gym also.
Without preaching economics to you (you probably know more than me anyway) If you have more gyms it shouldbe more competitive so price lowers, but the reason why there are more gyms seems to be the demand, so until the supply (number of gyms) outstrips the demand (people wanting to play) the price will rise. At some point there will be an equilibrium and the price will stabilise, or if fewer people go, the gyms may lower to the price to keep their gyms full (at the expense of someone elses gym...
I don't think that is the case. You got to know the opening a professional badminton gym here in Bay Area is something new. I don't think it is the demand, the demand is always there, but only to a limit. By opening a new gym, the population will be diluted and therefore not enough money to gain in 1 place. I really think the price is higher because not enough people are playing at there gym. They simply cannot lower the prices because it won't be enough to even pay monthly rent. The reason I don't think there are more gyms because of the demands because whenever a new gym open, the rest of the gym lose customers. Haven't you noticed the trend? The owners simply cannot lower the price because even if they do, the customers aren't always going to their club. Mainly because factors such as competitive and locations comes into play. I know of a club that tried to lower their prices because they have few customers, however it went out of business after a couple of months. I don't think the theory of supply and demand apply to badminton that much. It's pretty logic to think that if you lower your price to 3 dollars an open gym, and someone could always open another badminton gym and offer the same and all the other gym would offer the same rate. Your gym would go out of business in no time. I think the high prices are just to pay back the rent and investment they put in.
I wonder what the price will be like after 10 years . The gym operators hope that players would support their business ventures. The players hope that gym operators would not charge high prices that they cannot afford. Sooner or later, these 2 forces will be stabilised. And everyone will be happy. .
I am no economist but I don't think the supply and demand apply either. I think the price reflects people's preference on convenience of more court time and less waiting. And of course, the environment, customer service, and more importantly, where-my-friends-play. So, I think the price will stay up unless someone gets desperate. The only thing is if any owners make terrible decision, e.g. letting the gym deteriorate, poor service, or jacking up the price, players can move to another nearby gym much easier.
Let me try that again If you're not playing there often, then $7, $8 per play is not gonna break your wallet. But if you play a lot, you should take advantage of their Grand Opening special. It's like ~$230 for weekend only (annually). So this amounts to about $2-$3 each time, if you play once each of Sat/Sun every week. There are other packages. You can compare with other clubs' membership also, I suppose. The way I see it, competition does drive down the price. For the example that you gave, if lowering the price doesn't help the business, raising the price is certainly not gonna help. Presumably some other factors are in play. Again, the price differential between per-play drop-in rate and annual membership package is to encourage you to sign in early as a member. It's good for them, and for you.
oh, i'm not talking about CBA. lol. The grand opening price is awesome. However, I just think the prices that was set at first was a random price. Bintang used to have it for 4-5 bucks and once UBC came out and put the price at 7$, it was overwhelming. And I think that is when all other club started to raise the prices at >$7. I hope that if there are more clubs, then the prices would go down. However, when people talk about the demand, they only talk about the supply. You got to factor is which issue that shift the demand curve. i.e: change of income personal preferences changes in substitute prices ( other gyms) population sizes expectation climate. Therefore, I do not think if we have more gyms, the prices would be lower. I think location is the key point. People won't drive 10miles more just because a place is 2 dollars cheaper. $7-8 might not be expensive for you, but its a lot to many people. Also, not many people have enough $ to buy annual pass to have great discount. But I guess there's nothing to complain, badminton is an expensive sport. lol
Oh, LOL I also see I need to refresh my ECON101. In case you don't notice, some of the gyms are now really within 10 miles (or even closer) of each other. If they're all off H.W., it really isn't that far apart. A price change would have an effect, all else equal.
Well you know better than me, you live there, but normally a reduced demand in relation to supply brings lower prices, hence why deflation occurs in a contracting economy (amongst other reasons)
BTW, judging from the number of gyms started/run here, I get the impression that money supply here is not that tight. Most gyms expect they can survive and quite possibly thrive. So you might actually have a lot more people that can afford to pay for an annual membership than you might think, assuming they believe the deal is much better than other monthly deals they have seen, or that they might continue to see.
