Beyond The Baselines

How do you make a private members club a destination? Aaron James, one of the leading club managers in our industry, believes it's all about creating a sense of community. His experience at facilities from the global Club Med to Atlanta's Cherokee Town and Country Club forced him to realize that member service is key to creating a destination.

The Country Club of Asheville, one of the oldest and most established clubs in North Carolina and the nation, is now the focus of James's efforts, where he has been general manager for the past year. With 650 members and $1.3 million in food and beverage and 25,000 rounds of golf per annum, Country Club of Asheville is a large club.

Owned by McConnell Golf, an active holding company with sixteen properties in its portfolio, the Country Club of Asheville is a leading club in terms of golf and hospitality. McConnell Golf, although based upon an initial love for golf courses and Donald Ross's final design in North Carolina at Raleigh Country Club, has created a stable of elite country clubs based on hospitality. Their quarterly magazine, located here, shows a passion for golf and private members clubs rarely seen at such a high level.

McConnell golf hosts the PGA Tour's tournament The Wyndham but focuses on its members and families. A member of Asheville has reciprocity with 16 clubs and courses across the Southeastern United States.

The Statistic Behind Community

Seventy percent of members who resign from a club are not engaged, whether it's LA Fitness or an elite golf clubs says the young general manager. James spends time in the restaurant introducing members to each other and says the bar is a tool for maintaining a social connection and is the most social part of the entire club. You could almost say the club's bar is like the TV Show, Cheers, where "Everybody Knows Your Name." Just like Sam behind the bar in the fictional Cheers knew every regular, so should the club manager who is key: he or she is at the center of building a community.

James is still working on how he will grow a program introducing new members into the coterie of friendships that comprise the current and established membership. Quarterly new member events are on his agenda, even though he already has an onboarding program for every new member.

A Changing Menu Every Two Weeks

Asheville's head chef changes the menu twice a month. Every two weeks James faces a new menu, with the best-selling regular items but adding new items. That's quite a challenge for any food and beverage staff, but James says both his membership and the staff are attuned to the bi-monthly change.

From his background in and love for health and fitness to his passion for member service, James is creating a destination at Country Club of Asheville, where everybody knows your name. "You've got to have that type of personality that brings people together," says James in summary. Come and have a listen to better understand his philosophy and some of his secrets behind his success.

Imagine forming a global conference from the ground up. And a new breed of conference at that. One which encompasses what we know as the entire racquet sport industry, not just tennis, but pickleball, padel, racquetball, squash and even ping pong!

"The player of the future might have a racquet in one hand and a paddle in the other,"states Robyn Duda, chief executive and co-founder behind RacquetX, the racquet conference to be held in Miami in late March. Duda's entrepreneurship and marketing experience has brought new headlines to the industry: "Nothing Can Squash The Popularity Of Squash" and "The Anatomy of Experience."

How do you start a brand new conference? Duda goes through a list of ideas that she “throws against a wall to see if they stick.” From creating and then “gating” an industry trends report, to organically creating mailing lists, she’s trying them all.

Duda has gone out and networked and formed industry partnerships between her creation, RacquetX, and professional associations and companies. With those connections, Duda is pushing TheRacquetX in front of people through content, advertising, and social media channels.

The Anatomy Of Experience

Creating an experience that is over the top to create a memorable experience is something that Duda believes that The Masters in Augusta possesses. Duda desires TheRacquetX to be a similar experience and memory. She believes there is profit in loyalty and that many for-profit businesses often neglect that the experience creates loyalty, which in turn keeps prices low for the consumer and creates profit.

Comparing the experience to The Masters in Augusta, known for its grandeur and tradition, suggests a high standard that TheRacquetX aims to achieve. This level of ambition can indeed set the conference apart and create a memorable and valuable experience for all attendees.

TheRacquetX can be found at TheRacquetX.com and is slated for March 24 through March 26, 2024 in Miami, Florida. Duda has formed a partnership with the Miami Open, and Monday night at the Open will be RacquetX Night. All tickets are merged and consumers can visit both the stadium and the conference hall in South Beach. Get ready for an inauguration that will see consumers meeting industry executives, and interesting and rare occurrence.

Eric Loftus was there as a businessman through the past decade as tennis grew in the Northeast, and in New England, in particular. He's been building pickleball courts throughout the region and has seen that sport rise almost as fast as slam of a whiffle ball. Now, he is hoping to be there for the boom that will be the new sport invading our shores from Europe: Padel. He believes the sun is only just rising over the future growth of padel.

With his high school mate, Loftus built an empire through tennis court construction. Working with country and tennis clubs and private residences, Loftus has crisscrossed New England and the northeast in search of new spaces for tennis, and running tracks, provided for the other segment of his clientele: educational institutions and public facilities. He knows the market for courts and tracks, from the clay courts of Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, to the tracks and concrete of Providence and Springfield.

Padel Is Far Different From Pickleball

But now, he's looking at Padel. Loftus believes that, long term, padel rather than pickleball may be the sport to usurp the grip that tennis has on its racquet competitors. He even sees a possibility of padel joining forces with tennis, say, at the US Open in Flushing Meadows. What's interesting about his view is that, unlike how many regard pickleball, he doesn't view padel as an opponent trying to take replace tennis courts and kill off his main business of building tennis courts. He sees padel as an addition.

Country clubs are going in circles, says Loftus. He calls it the "wild wild west" is the current state of play with padel court construction. Clubs are watching what investors are doing with the sport and promotion. While private equity team up with racquet sport enthusiasts to join forces and investigate various ways to house and build padel courts, Loftus is left holding the figurative shovel until the nod is given. Once he receives the "ok" he can import the structures from Spain and start to add to the 350 courts already here in the States.

Finally, it might be time to invest in those old red-brick mercantile and textile factory buildings in New England from New Bedford to New London and inland along the rivers like the Housatonic and the Connecticut. Loftus is always looking up, as he has to find ceilings over 24 feet. Come and have a listen and maybe you'll be raising the roof!

Tennis and golf are two sports central to all country clubs. With such a concentration of players and spectators emanating from the private members clubs, is it that tennis is still inaccessible to many? We ask this question with famed writer Amisha Savani, the co-author to The People's Wimbledon.

How the media and contributors views tennis, both at the major tournaments and at the private members club, is so important to our club industry. Last year we brought on the podcast the publisher of Racquet Magazine and this summer we recorded a conversation with one of the leading British writers covering tennis: Amisha Savani. As this is a rather timeless piece, we thought we’d bring it out as we head into Autumn with the memories of Summer 2023 in our mind’s eye.

Amisha is a regular contributor to Courts Magazine, and recently has written a book, The People’s Wimbledon – a coffee table book. "It’s aimed at 'the people' " she says, priced right for all to enjoy. She believes that Wimbledon is for the people.

Discussed are the differences between the four major tournaments – the romance of the French Open, the tradition of Wimbledon, and the exuberance of New York’s US Open. There have been so many changes to the the majors: roofs, ticket prices, alcohol policies, and where we position tournament play within the tennis and private members club industry.

Jesse Gotlib, having served as Director of Junior Tennis at one of New England's most elite clubs, has brought his learnings to the public sector and the inner cities of Eastern Massachusetts. After five years in the private club industry at Sippican Tennis Club in Marion, Massachusetts, Gotlib set out on his own to bring tennis to the inner cities of the port towns on Buzzards Bay along the South Coast of Massachusetts.

Jesse Gotlib took what he learned in the club business to the youth in the inner cities along Massachusetts South Coast.

His program, which started in just a single town, has grown to three municipalities. He works with a core group of juniors throughout the year, serving not only as their tennis coach, but also as a mentor as they grow through elementary and middle school years.

Gotlib takes us through his offerings and marketing materials. He realized long before that communication with the the kids on and off the court is imperative, but even more importantly, communication with the parents is truly essential. As a special education mathematics teacher, Jesse realizes the importance of maintaining relationships with both the juniors and the parents. His marketing, mainly on social media, keeps him in front of the juniors and allows his program to grow across the three towns he now serves.

Please join Jesse on the podcast with our sister website, www.theinstututeofclubdirectors.com, which will launch in May 2023 as we look to work more with the governors and decision-makers in the club industry.

Before Breaking Ground, New Club Has Hundreds Of Applicants

Patricio Misitrano has been a Director of Racquets at some of the best-known clubs in the country. From the hallowed clay courts at both Wee Burn and Greenwich Country Clubs through to the tennis courts at New Canaan Field Club, Patricio has served elite memberships across both Westchester and Fairfield counties for decades. But now not only will he be a service provider, he'll also be a stockholder and shareholder of his new club.

The Sports Haus, which will open its doors this coming summer, is a new, energized method of bringing pickleball, padel and golf to one space. Three sports, one enormous warehouse.

With three partners, each with a focus on racquet sports in their own way, and a bravado and entrepreneurial instinct rarely seen, Patricio Misitrano has moved into the ownership category in the industry. He's only sent the blueprints to the city of Norwalk, but he already has over six hundred applications for membership.

Applications For Membership Outpacing Building Of Facility

It's a great way to build a club - building to suit the waiting membership. With approximately 70 percent of the pre-signed up members being individuals, the rest of the club's membership will be comprised of families and, here's a great new idea, local teaching racquets and golf professionals. The Sport Haus will offer a club professional membership, created to welcome those local pros inside the walls, both to better understand these new-to-market racquet sports and with the hope that these professionals bring and teach the sports back at their respective clubs. Rain days might no longer be lost revenue days as pros will be able to bring their members and guests inside.

Patricio has brought together a  veritable think tank as the team behind this new venture: Juan Arraya, Director of Racquets at Greenwich Country Club and Mark Parsons, a fellow director from Weston, Connecticut's Aspetuck Valley Country Club, and Mark Fischl known to most of us as the voice behind platform tennis broadcasts and former president of the APTA. These four industry leaders have teamed up to create a literal think tank to blaze a new road in the industry.

Creating a marketing plan focused on their email newsletter and website at www.sports.haus, this team found a vacant warehouse located in the downtown district of Norwalk, CT. Bringing air-conditioning to a 35,244 square foot warehouse is just one of the obstacles that they have overcome as they are bringing excitement and members from the affluent areas of Greenwich, Darien and New Canaan to South Norwalk, once a no-go area, but now a bustling hive of streets with restaurants, cafes and young people.

The Sports Haus will have its own café with beer and wine where one can watch action across five padel and four pickleball courts and two golf simulators. Armed with the knowledge of who is ready to apply, Misitrano has both the professional and social side of the business wrapped up in one giant warehouse.

Join us on the podcast this week with Patricio Misitrano, a former Argentine padel player who has brought his love for that sport and all racquet sports to SoNo – South Norwalk – as he builds his dream, The Sports Haus.

Princeton University is known for its eating clubs: Cap and Gown, Charter, Ivy and Colonial. But this private members club isn't associated with the university and doesn't hold open houses to find new members. The Nassau Club was founded by Woodrow Wilson to bring the townsfolk and the University together. It now stands as one of the most elite dining clubs in the nation and Nathalie Wilson is its Director of Food and Beverage.

Nassau Club's Food and Beverage Director Nathalie Wilson

Wilson has served elite memberships across the country. As General Manager at Suburban Golf Club to Restaurant Manager at Greenwich Connecticut's Stanwich Club, Wilson has seen the scenes behind the iron gates at the highest levels of private members clubs.

But Nassau Club is different. Wilson takes us through a day in the life of the club, from its guest rooms upstairs to its breakfast service through to dinner service. With just a dozen staff in the restaurant, Wilson takes care of each and every member, of which there are 1,100. Although membership seems heavy, half the membership is rarely seen but just continues to hold the membership for nostalgic reasons and perhaps their once-a-year trip to Princeton.

Search Firms Are In Bed With Private Clubs

The podcast turns toward finding talent post-Covid and how Nathalie believes executive search firms are not always finding talent but are more inspired to ensure they get the nod for the next search rather than find the right candidate for the search at hand. With a consolidation of executive search in the industry, Wilson is concerned that candidates are not being found and compensation packages are being artificially restrained.

The Wait Staff Olympics

Although Princeton might be a bit stodgy, the wait staff at various restaurants and clubs is not. The town holds the Wait Staff Olympics annually, in which waiters and waitresses might be seen trudging through Palmer Square with trays full of drinks and trying to gain the fastest time with the least droppings amidst cheering colleagues. Bonding for a service staff in a university town that is heaving full of people servicing the students, faculty and university dignitaries.

The Grass Court Cutting King

Maurice Gardner gives us the secrets to what makes great courts… and that’s grass courts. Former Head Groundskeeper at Wessen Lawn Tennis Club in Pontiac, Michigan, Gardner takes us through a day in the life of a groundskeeper as well as the cost of the maintaining such a high standard of grass courts.

The cost of keeping grass courts appears to be often too high, and in the case it may have been too high for Wessen which went out of business after boasting itself to be the first grass court club built in the USA in over a century.

Country Clubs Have The Equipment

Gardner, who studied agronomy after working at Wessen, mentions that country clubs already have much of the equipment required for keeping the grass courts. “All you really need beside what the course superintendent has is a painter for the lines,” says Gardner.

Is The Allure Of Grass Still There?

Randy Walker hosts this week’s podcast here at BeyondTheBaselines.com and wonders if people will still want to play on grass, as grass courts are so elusive. “People travel to Newport” just to play on grass, says Walker. “Grass courts can add value to any club.” And he muses, throughout the podcast, if grass court play will grow once again in the United States. It's a dream that, one never knows, might become a reality.

Not the Swing, but Visibility, Member Service and Access is Paramount for any Department Head

Visibility is crucial for a Director of Golf and Pat Gunning understands that. His daily ritual as Director of Golf at the famed Noyac Golf Club takes him to the club to greet the members teeing off at 6.30am. His day is basically set up to make himself as visible to the members as possible. Although at the club most of the day, he limits the number of hours he teaches, so he remains available to the membership, and sometimes more importantly, to his staff.

Tee Times for Management Flow

“Starting times, tee times, it really allows you to anticipate what is going to happen better. It makes the flow of the day that much easier,” says Gunning who has worked at clubs with and without tee times. Covid, says Gunning, really ended the "Caddy Yard" – and with Covid and starting times changing people's thought processes on tee times, it allow caddies to be reserved and also get on with their work and with their day too rather than just hanging at the caddy barn.

“The Little Things Take Care of the Big Things”

Pat Gunning, Director of Golf at Noyac Golf Club, Sag Harbor, NY

Pat realizes that golf and tennis professionals, and really anyone in the club business, are in the hospitality business. He learned the above quote from one of his mentors, Jack Druga, who is Director of Golf at Shinnecock Hills.  And, recently retired Bob Ford who served as Director of Golf at both Oakmont and Seminole, always told Pat to treat members as if they were guests in your own home. Pat says keeping these two thoughts in his mind during a fast-paced summer season allows him to succeed.

Is it the Era of Reconstruction for Golf Courses?

Clubs want to create a better and more memorable experience and the design of the golf course falls into making that playing experience better. Having viewed changes across the nation by some of the best golf course architects, Gunning believes that the best changes are tweaks and modifications which make the golf course harder for the A and B player but slightly easier for the C and D player. The architects, Gunning says, are masters at making holes playable for all level of players.

Golf course design and modification is part of a long-term strategy. Gunning adds that long-term strategic planning is really all about idea creation. Timelines may be either adopted or changed or completely shelved by the Board, but it’s imperative to keep new ideas flowing through the strategic plan, believes Gunning. Planning for next year is essential and reviewing the calendar, event by event, is a crucial exercise to do post-season. It helps keep the season flowing and allows to avoid staff burnout and member boredom.

Pat Gunning joins the BeyondTheBaselines.com podcast as one of the leading Directors of Golf in the country.

Here at Beyond the Baselines we're excited to catch up with the co-founder and publisher of Racquet Magazine, Caitlin Thompson, for our latest podcast.  

Caitlin Thompson, former D1 player for University of Missouri, and editor of Racquet Magazine

Caitlin offers wise and salient observations on the state of tennis, both on the court and in the media, just as getting on the court and socializing with like-minded friends remains as important to Caitlin as is scheduling a business meeting in an office, In fact, she seems to enjoy the court more as an office!

A former Division 1 player at Mizzou, Caitlin's media career has included time at the The Washington Post, Time Magazine, and The New York Times before Racquet exploded onto the scene in 2016. This boutique magazine aimed at an aspirational leadership embraces yesterday's culture and moves forward to attract new and returning tennis fans. The roots of Racquet? Nostalgia for tennis's past culture with a flair toward the future. Caitlin was keen to revive an image of tennis that is more approachable and immersed in culture. We recall a heady blend of nostalgia and style that was both wild and exciting which in turn has become a celebration and homage to the stylish days of tennis in the  '70s and '80s. Racquet Magazine recalls the characters, flair and style that epitomizes the golden age and ethos of the sport. 

Tennis, Twitter, and Time - How Tennis Can and Should Transcend Media and Centuries

In conversation with Ed, Caitlin draws upon a wealth of experience to give us her observations on a variety of eclectic topics: Twitter may be a giant platform for celebrities to air their views, and for fans to respond, but will the social media platform become a dusty relic in a changing, more closely regulated culture within social media? Caitlin is immersed in marketing and publishing and we query with her how important is the written word in a world of brisk social media. On a light-hearted note we talk about those behind the microphones - who holds the microphone today and who should hold it in the future for tennis commentary? Maybe this podcast offers a couple of suggestions for the changing of the guard for the CBS and NBC commentary boxes! JP and Martina watch this space!

We talk about how politics is currently transcending sport and its positive and negative impact on tennis and its image. Outspoken players have existed in the past but new social platforms with outspoken players today might not always be enhancing the image of our sport? Politics influences sport in multi-faceted ways. Maybe the stories that hit the headlines aren't always properly contextualized and challenged. It's a discussion that will go on for years, we believe.

Our regular business-sided listeners will be keen to hear Caitlin's views on the need to attract dynamic investors to the sport and media surrounding the sport as she ponders some of the best kept secrets in NYC - both courtwise and foodwise! courts and an appetite for a narrative and tradition in tennis.

Finally, in whimsical mood we explore a sense that the halcyon days of tennis appeals to a large group of people who remember an era. However do missed opportunities mean tennis has not capitalized on its strengths by adding new fans? In fact could it have marginalized itself through a boring narrative and brand dominance. Caitlin cites NBA vigor while tennis may be seen to suffer from a bland corporate narrative.

Truly a breath of fresh air in a somewhat stagnant post-Covid environment, Caitlin continues to create a space that invites exciting, influential and vibrant personalities in to the world of tennis. Tune in to the podcast to find out even more!