[villages07]

Way back in the beginning of this thread (or perhaps it was a related thread), I had planned to dig into this arrangement.... well, I talked to folks at Comcast, villages.net, and the golf and country club division of The Villages. I didn't get many clear answers and employees didn't seem to be told many details. It got to be a frustrating search with little hope of any relief, so I gave up.

The original deal between Comcast and the Developer is a little murky.... whether comcast was paying the developer or the tee time access was part of their original deal, I dont know.... and, it's somewhat immaterial now. The deal is over.

Villages.net is a private for profit company and is one of many owned directly or indirectly by the developer. They will reap all the revenues from the tee time system as well as the cost for operations and maintenance.

My issue before and now is that the projected revenues (and I agree with the approx $2 million) represent an enormous profit. I was an IT development manager and I know the costs of developing, maintaining, and operating an online system.... this is no $2M/year system.

As a golfer, I would not squawk with paying a reasonable fee to use the tee time system.... but something at or less than $50/year makes sense to me and still provides a tidy profit. I have great respect for the developer, but, sorry folks...this time I think we are being gouged. But, like Uncle Muncle, I'll grouse about it and pay the fee anyway.

I do suspect that comcast stands to lose a lot of subscribers in the next 3 months..... between this additional $8 and a recent $4/month cable TV increase.... the equation to go with Direct/Dish is getting heavily weighted to making the switch. I mentioned this to the Comcast staff and they shrugged their shoulders with a 'who cares' response.

I would not mind seeing a public campaign to expose the cash flow/costs/beneficiaries of this new charge. Maybe that letter/article in the POA will get more folks fired up about this.

All of the above are my own opinions.