Where does my membership money go ?

Where does my money go?

What do I get for my money?

 

With the recent significant increase in subscriptions across the entire Club the above questions have been raised more than usual. Normally, most of the spending is quite obvious such as new changing rooms etc but the last 4 years including the pandemic have seen massive changes to the Club, not all quite so obvious.

Capital Expenditure

Over the last four years the Club has and still is undertaking capital projects now approaching £245,000. The significant amount of the spend going on the extension to the Clubhouse, which is still ongoing, and we hope this will be completed in this coming season.

Why did we do this?

We have been on the same site at Finstall Road since 1955 and for the first 40 years it was male only playing environment, certainly in senior but also mostly in the M & J Section. As such the facilities within the Club were based on male showers and changing rooms. We recognised that our rugby offering to girls and women was poor to non-existent but to resolve this we had to reconstruct the changing rooms giving girls/ladies teams private changing rooms and showers. This change also required a wholesale improvement in our hot water delivery requiring greater capacity not only in volume but in shower head numbers requiring greater water storage both hot and cold, this had to be incorporated into the build.

But it didn’t stop there with girls/women’s rugby comes a requirement for Physio and Referees in addition to the existing male facilities, which are open to the communal shower facilities. When all of the above was costed out an initial estimate of £120,000 was seen as the potential cost but after the pandemic, building material costs skyrocketed. Quite naturally no builder at that time would commit to a fixed price contract. So, a team within the Club project managed the build,(yes it has taken longer but costs contained), which is now close to completion, but not after a firm went into liquidation part way through the M & E phase. This month will see the engraved tiles being cemented to the new wall of the Clubhouse.

Refurbishment of the kitchen including a new commercial size oven was also planned and installed at a total cost of over £20,000.

Every year there is a spend of between £12,000 and £15,000 on the pitches involving basic maintenance to reseeding top dressing and irrigation fixes. Plus labour.

An outside bar has been established to help cover some of our mainstream outside events at a cost of £25,000

After the theft of the lead on the Clubhouse roof resulting in huge areas of the roof being far from watertight it was decided that time was up for what remained of the roof and a new roof was therefore installed at a cost of £60,000, the insurance monies coming to only £15,000.

Finally, Global Warming – we have had 3 very warm summers in the last 4 years, often with little or no rainfall (not this year) irrigating the pitches has had a massive effect on our water bill not to mention Electricity and Gas, which we have all experienced.

In addition to all of the above the Club has to progress and deliver rugby for everyone. We have established an Academy within the Club to make a smooth pathway into senior rugby. In maintaining 4 senior sides on a Saturday we have bucked the national trend whilst many Clubs struggle to get two sides – our 2^nd XV often play 1^st XV sides of other clubs.

So how has all this been funded?

You may be aware that the Club has over recent years seen involvement with new events such as Digbeth Dining Club, Social Eats and many others. Bonfire night which is always enjoyable is now a major undertaking masterminded by Lee Ward. Sportsman’s Lunches and Dinners as well as the Summer Ball and Beer Festival. Your continued support for these events is always appreciated.

There has been some grant money success and the “Bounce Back Loan of £50,000 utilised however this needs to be repaid.

The players and families have also helped, raising monies through the Around the World in 80 Days challenge.

There has been a substantial increase in costs all around (something we have all experienced) including the increase in the minimum wage more recently. In 2023 we recognised that everyone was feeling a level of financial pain so the subscriptions across the board whilst raised were kept as low as possible. This was thought to be the right thing to do however, it meant that all 3 areas of the Club (Senior, M&J and Clubhouse) made a loss in day-to-day operation. We allocate the costs of running the Club equally between all 3 areas. The total loss for last year was just short of £30,000. We simply can’t afford that loss again therefore the subscriptions have increased for everyone, bringing us more in line with other clubs in the region. We genuinely believe that with the M&J subs equating to approximately £5 per session, the membership are getting good value for money.  This fee covers (but is not limited to) the cost of having medical cover on site for all training sessions and games, coaches and first aider training courses, training equipment, post-match and training food for both home and away players, referees and player insurance

Your Club is now a £500,000 turnover business and to that extent. We have recently engaged a professional bar manager and are actively looking to establish catering team to move the Club food offering to a higher level.

Looking at grant funding and other avenues of fund raising is now a major undertaking and here we have established a new person this year to move this forward. In addition, we have business development person who is looking to maximise room hire and events at the Club both of these have commenced within the last few weeks.

Your Exec Committee, all unpaid, continue to move the Club forward but if you feel you could volunteer to help and improve the Club you’ll be very warmly welcomed. All you need to do is contact Chairman, Clare Foster on ruggermad@gmail.com

The Executive Committee