If you think the weather is not that great right now, check out the weather in Minneapolis, Chicago, and Kansas City this weekend!

I wonder how much less it would be if they removed the walking paths
or the pickleball courts
or the neighborhood pools
or 2/3 of the rec centers

Nobody can decide that the community as a whole should only pay for the amenities that THEY like

They have Free Golf here?? hhhmmmm

that's exactly what I was thinking about when I said "but it's good enough". I spent 40 winters in western NY. This is my 6th winter in Florida. I don't miss NY winters a bit.

More than once we celebrated Mother's Day with snow. Now I strongly resist any entreaties to return before Memorial Day.

Only spent 31 winters in Western NY (Finger Lakes), and now 10 here. But speaking of Mother's Day:

If you're curious enough, you can find the answer.

Districtgov.org -> Departments -> Budget -> SLCDD -> FY23-24 Adopted Budget -> SLAD -> Expenditures:

311 Golf..: $3.2M
TOTAL: $94M

Golf expenditures are approx 1/30 of the amenities budget.

A Dec 18 letter from the Developer, presented at the Jan 8 meeting of the PWAC, sets the Contractual Amenity Fee for new sales at $195.

1/30 of $195 is $6.50. This simple, back-of-the-envelope calculation would say that removing golf would reduce Amenity Fee payments by less than $80/year.

Agree.
The wide disparity of available amenities guarantees there will be more activities available than anyone can have time and energy to enjoy, but it also is what makes TV what it is. I don't play mahjong (probably don't even know how to spell it), but I enjoy walking through a rec center and seeing a room full of people happily clacking tiles around the table. Or doing crafts, or shooting pool.

I like to chip and putt and when I take my cart to a local facility I often pass groups playing bocce, or shuffleboard, or horseshoes. When I play pickleball at Sea Breeze, more often than not there is a group of people playing beach tennis or beach volleyball.

All of this activity around, even though I don't participate in most of them, energizes me and makes me happy and proud to be part of this place.

I love it when my kids and grandkids show up and see all of these "old" folks out and about and doing these things. I like having them see what they might look forward to as opposed to what my grandparents did at my age, which was, as far as I can remember, sitting around the house watching TV.

Absolutely! It's basically a quid pro quo. I'll pay for your pickleball if you pay for my golf. Unfortunately, since I don't play the execs very often, it's more like I'll pay for your pickleball and I'll pay for my golf. But that's OK---like you said:
"All of this activity around, even though I don't participate in most of them, energizes me and makes me happy and proud to be part of this place."

free golf
 

Golf was definitely was factor. If there wasn't golf, I would have probably bought in a different part of florida.

Along this vein, I saw a lot this year of people saying: "my amenities fees are too high, let's get rid of the flowers". I also noticed quite a few responses to this thread were: I like the flowers or my wife likes the flowers.
Unfortunately, it's the complainers who frequently voice their negativity.
Hopefully, it is well known that many more love the flowers & the landscaping & the golf course views.

Well stated.

Well said!

No resident here uses ALL the amenities. So looking at it from that standpoint we're all paying in some manner for amenities that others use, but not us.

Golf was way down my list of desired amenities when I chose to move to The Villages. I know that is true of many “newer” retirees. Honestly, if golf was completely non-existent, I would still have chosen to retire in The Villages.

The free golf was important but the fact I could drive my golf cart to all our many courses and use same was great. I wouldn't have to throw clubs in the car, drive the car to any of courses, rent their carts, transfer every thing to cart and back in car and drive back. Can you imagine the nightmare that would be?

That's interesting. 3.2M for 44 exec courses = about 72K/year/course for maintenance. According to the USGA, the average cost of maintaining and full 18 hole course is 800K/year. Our execs are about 1/4 as long but have 1/2 the greens of an 18 hole course, so one would expect it to cost slightly north of 200K/year for each exec. Is there another source that contributes to the maintenance of these courses, such as the CDD they are within, or is this 1/3 of the expected expenditure the reason for the condition of most execs?