Stadium deals: local club court hire costs?

This is relating to local clubs, not NBL teams.

I'm from a club in Melbourne and we think we are getting a bad deal relating to what we pay for court hire for our local comps, rep ball and training.

We pay over $30 an hour to hire a court from our council. We also have to hire all 3 courts at our stadium out, even if they aren't being used.

We are trying to build a case to take to council and are interested in what other clubs are paying.

If anyone is willing to share with me any details about their stadium deals it would be much appreciated. Don't need to name the club or anything if you don't wish.

I understand some clubs pay a yearly rent and are given pretty much 24/7 access to do what they want, allowing them to generate more income. However we are pretty much breaking even as all our game fees go straight back to refs and court hire.

Any information would be appreciated.

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Anonymous
Years ago

unfortunately thats about the usual for a council owned gym from what ive heard. but in saying that I dont think many if any of the clubs in sa hire gyms off of a council so you might be hard pressed to find a good example here in sa but im not 100% on that either.

Im assuming your club uses the courts quite frequently so show your worth, tell the council you will be forced to find another venue if they cant make a better deal, if your using the courts enough then surely they will be forced to re think the price as you would be worth quite a good deal to the council.

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Agree
Years ago

While it is not ideal that you pay what you think is a high cost have you considered what it costs the Council to maintain that facility? What other funds they could attract by hiring it out to other sports or by running a social competition during that time? What would it cost you to maintain your own facility?

I know it is not always easy for a club to accept but you do need to look at all those factors before putting anything to a Council because I think you will find you are getting a pretty good subsidy paying only that rate.

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Grote 90
Years ago

Our stadium costs us $30 p/h for crt 2 (the shitty one) and $45 p/h for crt 1 (the really good one).

The stadium is owned by the council, but managed by a third party (YMCA this year i think?).

We get "first dibbs" on what times we want it for, ie Mon-Thurs 5pm - 9pm etc then if we decide we want it extra, ie Sunday arvo for extra trainings for our rep teams, we pay that to the 3rd party.

We know we are getting a stiff deal when you look at other clubs/assoc's that play out of BASA owned stadia but there's not alot we can do.

We are also a break-even assoc, which is exactly where we want to be, we are not in it to turn a profit, just enough buffer to ensure we can continue if we have a bad few seasons.

Not sure if that helps or hinder's your case though.

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Skin
Years ago

Our Stadium is about $26 per hour in Country SA, more on weekends if they have to open just for ball.

Seems about right to me

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HO
Years ago

Agree.. Interesting point about subsidy.

A couple of years back some guys in Victoria produced some comprehensive data showing how councils subsidised outdoor sports and conversely provided no subsidy for indoor, in fact could be seen to be profiteering from indoor venues in order to subsidise outdoor.

I will (crudely) try and recreate their stuff here - they had real data - and embarrased at least one or two councils with it.

Cost of three court venue: 5 million
Potential Participants Weekly: 1800
Maintenance/Cleaning/lighting: 100k per year

Cost of Ten Footy Grounds + Pavillions/change rooms: 8 million
Potential Participants: 1000 (if lucky)
Maintenance/Upkeep: 120k per year

Utlization of Indoor: 5 nights x 6 hours/all sat and some sunday
Utilization of Outdoor: 2 nights per week, Saturday or Sunday

Income Indoor: 126 Court hours x $30 x 40 weeks = $150k
Income Outdoor: $2500 per field x 10 = 25k

Overall Indoor Result Income - Costs = 50k
Overall Outdoor Result: Income - Costs = -75k

you can break down the cost/benefit per participant from those results if you want.

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Hoops

Stadium deals: local club court hire costs?

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