I swim with a combined age group and masters team and am the master representative on the team's board. Our team is roughly 100 swimmers from 5 to 50+ and we live in one of the wealthiest counties in the country. Last week, our board adopted a new budget that added about 20,000 on to the monthly expenses. Sadly, I'm also a scout leader and had to go to a scout event and missed the budget. Our current fee structure doesn't support the new budget so the board is looking to raise the fee the swimmers pay. So I'm looking in to what other masters pay for their team. I'd also like to know how many hours a week you are offered coached workouts, if your fee includes the pool entry and if it's a combined masters and age group team.
A board member claims he read on the ASCA web site that the average monthly fee to masters is $50 and that was in 2004. I'm looking around the area and out of state and I don't see anything to support higher than that today. My fear is that if they raise the fees too much for the masters, the members will leave (we currently only have 6 - with additional 5 recently leaving over coaching issues and lack of lane space as they moved to to 1 lane to give the kids a morning practice).
So here's where we are now:
$45 a month/ 3 hours a week offered/ pool fee not included/ age group and masters combined.
My YMCA team practices MWF, but has 3 different morning options to choose from. It's $45/mo if you only do masters and not the Y membership.
My last club in the Dallas area went through pricing changes for masters and there definitely is a point where you lose folks. It was $80/mo with a crappy coach, then we went down to, I think $60/mo and gained some members back after the coach left. There were discussions of bringing it back up, but some of the costs were being absorbed by the kids team until the masters could get back to a point where they'd be viable again. They had 2 different pools with M-F swimming in the morning, 1 pool with Saturday and MTTh evening practices. It was a lot to offer. For that many options, I'd be fine paying $60-70 knowing I could swim any day of the week, basically, if I missed.
With only 3 hours/week, $45 seems reasonable, but like GDanner said, one missed workout increases the costs and opportunities. ONe lane for masters isn't going to drive any new business, though. You'll be limited to only 6 people max and even that isn't going to be fun for your swimmers. Time to think of alternatives.
My YMCA team practices MWF, but has 3 different morning options to choose from. It's $45/mo if you only do masters and not the Y membership.
My last club in the Dallas area went through pricing changes for masters and there definitely is a point where you lose folks. It was $80/mo with a crappy coach, then we went down to, I think $60/mo and gained some members back after the coach left. There were discussions of bringing it back up, but some of the costs were being absorbed by the kids team until the masters could get back to a point where they'd be viable again. They had 2 different pools with M-F swimming in the morning, 1 pool with Saturday and MTTh evening practices. It was a lot to offer. For that many options, I'd be fine paying $60-70 knowing I could swim any day of the week, basically, if I missed.
With only 3 hours/week, $45 seems reasonable, but like GDanner said, one missed workout increases the costs and opportunities. ONe lane for masters isn't going to drive any new business, though. You'll be limited to only 6 people max and even that isn't going to be fun for your swimmers. Time to think of alternatives.
