Private Club Marketing

09/28/2026

Budget approvals, the dues letter, and the 90 day close, all in one October playbook. New piece is live now.

https://privateclubmarketing.com/october-club-marketing-ideas-budget-approval-dues-letter/

The best october club marketing ideas run three calendars at once: budget, dues letter, and Q4 revenue. Here's how top clubs do it.

09/24/2026

The Fed's September call landed right in the middle of club budget season — and it touches every number on your board's capital agenda.

Only one financing lever reprices with the Fed: debt. But the cost of debt changes the right mix of capital dues, assessments and borrowing together.

What the data says:
→ Members of 710 West Region clubs injected ~$1B in initiation fees and capital dues/assessments in 2023 (Club Benchmarking)
→ Capital dues are expected to rise at 2× the rate of operating dues (GGA Partners, 2024)
→ 33% of clubs still charge under $500/yr in capital dues — headroom most boards haven't used
→ Only 43% of clubs teach the club financial model in board orientation (Club Benchmarking, 2025)

Cut, hold or hawkish — the full playbook has all three scenarios, five real clubs (Sawgrass, Woodbridge, Centre Hills, Devon Yacht Club, Blue Hill) and the one-page board memo to send the week after the decision.

Link to full article in the comments below...

09/22/2026

Medinah hosts the Presidents Cup this week.
What it actually takes to host a team championship without losing your members. New piece live now.
https://privateclubmarketing.com/presidents-cup-2026-medinah-country-club/

Presidents Cup 2026 Medinah kicks off this week — here's the membership communication playbook every private club GM should study.

09/17/2026

The Olympic Club reports more revenue than the next two California clubs combined. That is not a survey number. It is the number the club files with the IRS.

We spent this week rebuilding how we track private club financials at Private Club Marketing: every Form 990 on file for every member-owned club in the country, matched to the club, fourteen years deep. California was the first state we've ranked, and a few things in it are worth a board conversation.

1. The top ten member-owned clubs in California report $361M a year between them. Los Angeles holds four of the ten. The Coachella Valley two. The Bay Area and Monterey Peninsula three.

2. Growth is real but no longer a wave. Across the 68 clubs with back-to-back returns, median revenue growth is 5.3%, and about one in five reported a decline. The post-pandemic surge has settled into dues plus inflation.

3. The balance sheets tell the more useful story. Bel-Air's assets are up 43% in two years. Eldorado's up 40%. Sharon Heights reported $13.9M in initiation fees in a single year while its revenue dipped. None of that is decline. It is what a club looks like when it has sold its members on a capital plan and the money is arriving.

4. LACC is down 17% against fiscal 2023. Fiscal 2023 was the U.S. Open. Championship revenue does not recur, and a board reading a one-year comparison without that context would draw the wrong conclusion.

5. What is missing matters as much as what is listed. Riviera, Sherwood, Bighorn, The Madison Club, the resort clubs at Pelican Hill and Pebble Beach: none of them file a public 990, because none of them are member-owned nonprofits. This is a ranking of member-owned California, and it should be read that way.

The clubs that will struggle over the next cycle are not the ones with the smallest revenue. They are the ones that have not yet found a story compelling enough to fund the next twenty years.

Four slides attached: where the revenue sits, a decade of history for each club, the ranking, and the same ten by total assets. Full analysis and the year-over-year table in the comments.

Which state should we run next?

09/15/2026

A 6% dues increase does not cost your club 6%.
It costs you the members who leave because of it. We ran the actual retention math.
https://privateclubmarketing.com/dues-increase-retention-math-2027/

What does a 6% country club dues increase actually cost in members? Run the breakeven math before your board finalizes the letter.

09/14/2026

The Forbes 400 just dropped. We mapped where America's richest actually hold club memberships.

Full breakdown is live now.
https://privateclubmarketing.com/forbes-400-private-clubs-2026/

Billionaires private clubs cluster around a surprisingly small list — Augusta, Yellowstone Club, Zero Bond. Here's what that reveals about exclusivity that works.

09/08/2026

No Applications, No Tours, No Waitlist you can buy your way onto.
Our updated list of the 15 most exclusive private clubs in America is live now.

https://privateclubmarketing.com/most-exclusive-private-clubs-in-america-2026/

The most exclusive private clubs in America, ranked — from Augusta National to Zero Bond — with real membership and cost data.

08/31/2026

Your September Playbook:
Fall Season Open,
Board Budget Approvals,
The 2027 Dues Letter, and the Q4 membership push.

September club marketing ideas that work double duty: budget prep, dues strategy, and a Q4 membership push — backed by GGA and NGCOA data.

08/28/2026

Winter is 120 days. Your members are paying for 365.

08/26/2026

Everyone is Watching Tennis for Two Weeks. Your Courts are Empty.
Do the Math.

Read More :
https://privateclubmarketing.com/us-open-tennis-2026-club-racquet-membership-programming/