[jdulej]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

Since this nonsense was resurrected from the previous amenity fee thread (twice), I'll resurrect the true response:

Now for some remedial math:

Cost of maintaining a golf course, according to the CSGA, varies from $80,000 to close to $ 2 million/year depending on location and the course. The average is $500,000/year for a full 18 hole championship course in very good condition, or $250,000 for a 9 hole course. Our 9 hole exec courses are less than 1/2 of the length of nine holes on those courses, but the most expensive parts of a course to maintain are bunkers and greens, so let's go high and say it costs $200,000/ year to maintain each of our execs. So, 44 execs x $200,000/year = $8.8 million/year.

On the income side-----approx. 65,000 homes in TV paying about $170/MONTH amenity fees: 65,000 x 170 x 12 = $ 132.6 million/year. 8.8/132.6 = 6.6% of the amenity fee going to golf (far from 100%). We can debate these numbers a little, but they are certainly well in the ballpark, so I doubt more than 10% of the amenity fee goes for exec golf.

So.....$170/month x 6.6% = $11.22/month or $134.64/year, then add $144 trail fee (if using cart) for $278.86/year divided by 104 rounds = $2.68/round , or only $1.29/round if walking and playing twice a week-----this is the real cost of "free" golf, far from $24/round. Play 4x/ week and those costs go to $1.34 and $0.65 respectively.

I wonder if some factor should be included to account for the mark-up the developer gets for each house they build and sell. They are trading on their name and the amenities they brag about (right or wrong, doesn't matter). If you take any Village's house and plop it down 1/2 mile outside TV, it will be 30% less (at a minimum)