Why a Facility Master Plan is So Critical to Club Success

A major challenge for clubs today is the significant cost of providing and continually updating facilities. Millions of dollars are required to build, maintain and operate today’s clubs—and then every seven to ten years, major additions and upgrades are needed to address new offerings that are needed to stay competitive, not only with other nearby private clubs, but with emerging commercial clubs like Life Time Fitness as well.

Successful clubs today need a Facility Master Plan to guide their future improvements. But most clubs today don’t really have meaningful master plans. That’s a risky way to operate, if they want to stay relevant in our ever-changing club world.

Over and over again, clubs generally plan and build projects for today with no real understanding of future facility needs or costs. Most clubs ask us, with our facility expertise, to develop the framework of a Facility Master Plan, but then quickly abandon it when they actually build the golf course or clubhouse project that the Board wants now. 

Without a Master Plan identifying and prioritizing future projects, initial projects get built in ways that limit future project expansions. Take, for example, the numerous club innovations we’ve seen over the past few years, especially with the surge in clubs’ popularity following the pandemic. That’s spurred the growth of wellness/fitness, pickleball, changes in dining styles (both indoor and outdoor), swimming pool offerings, staff facilities, year-round adult recreation like golf simulators with member lounges, golf practice areas, improved kitchens with expanded dining areas, refocused club party rooms—the list goes on and on.

Effective master planning can make it possible for all of these innovations to come on stream in a way that helps to improve future club facilities and lower future costs at the same time. But that hasn’t always been the case. Clubs need to think ahead to get ahead, and visionary facility master planning is needed to do this.

As your club seeks to improve and enhance its facilities, be sure you have a good Master Plan that guides your future improvements. Innovative and visionary master planning lets a club plan ahead and allows for future expansion in ways that save money. It prepares the membership for funding future projects on feasible time schedules—which is always a major challenge—by showing how future projects can be programmed, and by utilizing and extending phase-one payment plans to build phase-two and -three projects with little member resistance. 

To properly plan for your club’s future, be sure to begin your facility improvements with a good Master Plan.