A retirement golf community: That’s Sun City, Arizona

A look at the history and importance of Sun City golf, current status/concerns and suggested “fixes.”

By John Nowakowski | Recreation Centers of Sun City board director

View online at the Sun City Independent website where it is posted for anyone to read: HERE

 

I don't know about anyone else but I am bracing for quite a few meaty fee hikes across the board.

 

Good article but I have one suggestion. Passes should be used to fill the less popular tee times, not prime times. Maybe something like no passes honored before noon. Top tee times should bring in top dollars. We have to lose the idea of playing as much golf as we want for as little as possible.

 

Yesterday at the budget and finance committee meeting, there were interesting comments about how much more money we (the RCSC) needs to spend to fund golf properly. Two items, way outdated equipment and the inability to maintain golf maintenance employees were high on the list. We are about $3 an hour below Sun City West's starting rate which leads to really high turnover.

Both items will be really expensive fixes and the problem is with so many other deferred maintenance items on the list, golf is going to have to pick up a large share of those increases. John's article is/was the perfect segue into the entire budget and finance challenges ahead of us.

 

I'm sure the golfers aren't going to like it but I think the GM's proposed solution is reasonable. The increase in the costs to sustain golf should fall on the golfers and not shared with the members thru an increase in their assessments.

You know the old saying, "You want to play? You have to pay."

 

FYI My guess is we will see another assessment increase regardless. It isn't only golf costing us big bucks.

 

No argument there. Sadly we made this mistake of ignoring our needs and letting things go that should have been replaced. Being the "cheapest" isn't a good thing when you do so at the cost of our future. It was shortsighted and exactly what happens when the goal is simply to maintain the status quo.

 

I don't disagree! Dont want to go there yet.

 

I keep thinking about promoting "being the cheapest." I thought of sort of a corny analogy, but it sort of fits. For years, Sun City was the gold standard for retirement communities - it was THE newest, best idea the changed the nation! Top shelf. I chuckled one day as I took a jar of peanut butter out of the cupboard and asked my husband why he bought an off brand - we have always been "Skippy" people! He said, "it was cheaper." My reply, "so you saved a buck but are you satisfied?" His response - "not really, I won't buy it again." He went to the "great value" model. I immediately thought of RCSC promoting low assessments and "the great value" members receive. I don't know why it struck me like that, but it just did.

Just thought I would lighten the mood. Hope today goes well.

 

Creamy or Chunky?

 

Creamy - lol!

 

I want to commend the Board of Directors for having an informational meeting today and especially for the quick turn around on the video of the meeting! Very interesting presentation and discussion. Seems about 27 million is magic number to spend on MV project, though that number could still change? More still to be revealed or as Yogi said, “It ain’t over till it’s over”.

 

So using your logic, lawn bowlers will start paying 100% of all costs, including tournaments, right? And how much rent are each of the clubs paying? Since if you want to play you gotta pay?

 

Nope...not my logic. Just repeating what I heard at the F&B meeting.

If you were to attend the meetings you would better understand that comment.

 

What is the proposed GM solution?

 

There isn't one yet. The interim GM, while discussing the 20 million dollar elephant in the room (deferred maintenance), also mentioned two real issues regarding Sun City's golf courses. Both are wildly expensive fixes and cannot be ignored.

One is the RCSC is experiencing around a 40% problem with employee retention (turnover). With roughly 430 employees, the single biggest area is in the golf course maintenance category. He said, we were $3 plus less than Sun City West's starting rate and continually losing staff to them. That obviously comes under the yearly budget. The other one is even more insidious, because it was a decision made that could have been avoided. Way too many pieces of our golf course equipment has been used well past its "useful life." They need an infusion of "capital expenses" to play catch -up.

And to address Larry's comments, i'll avoid the argument we've had too many times regarding how the golf courses were purchased and simply deal with reality. Golf has never paid for itself, and it never will. Factored into their costs are capital improvements which are astronomical. When adding them in, golf expenses are always 2 million dollars greater than revenue produced. It always will be and when we start paying for golf course turf reductions (2025), everything will get much worse. That's simply the price we will pay to be a golf course community; which we are and for the long term where we will be. I'm not opposed to it; i simply want others to acknowledge and understand it.

The interim GM, Kevin McCurdy's point was this: We cannot afford to do business the same way we have regarding golf. We need to pay those employees more to keep them, and we need to start replacing the old outdated equipment so they can do their job correctly. His comment was the golfers are going to have to understand that cheap golf ($5-$10 a round) isn't feasible. To be even more clear, anyone who reads John's article above, can quickly come to see who has controlled how both rates paid and rounds played was driven by a small minority of the golfers.

We (the RCSC and it's members) have been led to believe everything was rosy. Folly for sure and things across the board need be addressed. It's all fixable, but it has to start with accountability and responsibility.

 

Thanks for the explanation Bill. And water won’t be getting any cheaper. With the assumption that drought conditions will continue, even having water for 4-5 golf courses is questionable. For me, the availability of water becomes an even more dire situation.

 

I cannot believe that every golf course in the state of Arizona will be able to comply with the new mandates. I’m betting we see movement on the regulations as it draws nearer to enforcement