I would interested in what others think of the upcoming fee change. I suspect as country clubs in particular start to hold their AGM's and begin their pre-seasons the real impact will be felt.
Be careful what you wish for. I've spent the last few days drafting a letter on this, so I have some points. Rant follows.....
Our club will be hit very hard by this - especially in light of our operational model. We are in a town of 10,000 with a heavy league dominance. Six or so years ago, both the junior and senior clubs were dead. Some hard work and a model to attract kids from poorer socio-economic groups and from summer sports has made inroads.
Our fees are incredibly low so that we can maintain our player base. We previously gathered sponsorship to help with that, but it has dried up. We had, prior to the NPF, decided to increase our fees gradually over three years.
But the $27.50 participation levy for juniors sees a 37% increase in fees by itself. Some players and parents will struggle to find the money up front. Previously, the club could offer to defer costs, but that option disappears now, too. This is probably a bigger issue for us than the fees themselves.
Add to that the fact that the average round trip for an away game is almost 300km, even for juniors, and you start to see the expense profile.
And you can forget about part-time and casual players in the senior club turning up with the requirement for up front individual fees.
We have developed a great staff - especially in the junior club and those people have all attended their ARU courses entirely at their own expense. Six years ago, we had less than 40 kids in the junior / Walla club and I was playing first grade (to show just how much they had to scrape the barrel) and getting flogged 50 nil.
Now, thanks to the hard work of a bunch of people, setting ourselves apart on both quality AND price, we've got 120 kids in the club, with 18 rep players last year and 8 kids in the JGC program. We've won a first grade premiership and come close a couple of times. We've just plain gotten better.
But the NPF means we need to re-evaluate the way we operate and several of our initiatives have to change. If we lose some of those athletes who can't (or won't) afford it, the change in competitiveness means we'll likely lose other quality players to league or they'll travel to other clubs. I really don't want to see us go backwards. I'm pretty sure our club, and ones like it, are an example of how clubs are supposed to work.
Another interesting thing is that each year, we gather sponsorship and fund raise to get the boys to a few Super Rugby games and the odd test match. It helps when most of them have never seen Rugby. Ironically, the ARU probably gets more out of the club that way than they will going forward with the NPF.
