OPINION: Clubs in Merimbula - do they have a future?

In NSW, the business model for most registered clubs is predominantly based on a single revenue source – gaming. The real concern that needs to be addressed is the sustainability of such a model.

Registered Clubs in NSW are continuing to close and/or amalgamate at a significant rate – indeed, the CEO of Clubs NSW expects that over the next 10 years there will be about a 23 per cent reduction in the current club numbers. They are expected to fall from about 1300 now to about 1000. This is added to the reported 400 clubs that closed over the preceding 10 years.

The loss of any club can seriously impact the community to which it belongs – not just in support, services and facilities lost, but in the possible “domino” effect to jobs, the local housing market, schools, inter-dependent small businesses and can have future infrastructure implications.

Where clubs are forced into closure or significant downsizing due to financial stresses, they have most probably lost the ability to fully control their future. 

Where clubs recognise their problems and take proactive steps to manage their future, the community impact may not be as serious and can probably be mitigated over a manageable timeframe.

The community needs to be aware of these possibilities and engage in a serious and objective review of such circumstances. This action could enable all parties to retain greater control of their future.

However, failure to adopt such an approach and to continue along the existing “tribal” lines of multiple competing clubs in small country towns, could see a different and less palatable outcome.

Merimbula is not immune to the club malaise affecting NSW.

All three registered clubs in Merimbula are either experiencing, or expecting to experience, financial stress (to greater or lesser degrees), now or in the short-term future.

Waiting to see who fails and whether the remaining club/s can get a windfall outcome as a result, ignores the reason for having a club; it is not to build the biggest and best “castle” but to serve our community and to ensure such service and support can exist and grow into the future.

And it should be noted that the involved parties are much wider than just the registered clubs in our town. All community based organisations have a stake in this issue, ranging from Lions, Rotary, Probus and U3A to smaller sports clubs such as the Merimbula Tennis Club and perhaps most significantly the Merimbula RSL Sub Branch.

The Tura Beach Country Club is a community based club and separate from Merimbula and so not included in this process at this time. That does not mean that it might not also find itself subject to similar financial concerns in the future.

The clubs in our community are a bequest from those who came before and are held in trust for those who are yet to come. This bequest includes infrastructure developed over a period of time, including bowls and golf facilities.

Our responsibility must be to ensure that support for our community can be retained and indeed grow, now and into the future. 

This is even more important in times of financial stress across our nation, where there may also be a reduction in government support and grants, especially in regional areas.

We need to have a considered conversation about the future of clubs in our community and we believe this should occur sooner rather than later.

Club boards especially need to encouraged and supported by all members to engage in this conversation, for the sake of our community and our future.

The PMGC Board has contacted many of the major players in our community expressing our views in this regard and stands ready to help facilitate this process should there be an agreed need.

Peter McMullen president, David Boag vice-president, Bruce Walker Captain, Margaret Gaunson, Bruce McLaren, Lynda Jolly, Tony Freeman and Robert Pritchard

Pambula Merimbula Golf Club board

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