Time to sell golf club

Time to sell golf club – shareholder

Author: Frank Matys

Date: Dec 09, 2009

Text Size

Frank Matys

Len Cotton, a shareholder in the Couchiching Golf and Country Club, says the neighbourhood course is in dire need of a redesign.

ORILLIA - The money-troubled Couchiching Golf and Country Club should sell its sprawling property or cede control to the city in return for a redesigned course, a shareholder says.
“It has the makings of a good executive course that would be busy and make money,” said Len Cotton. “As it is, it is never going to make money. If they are not going to change it, they might as well sell it.”
The local club is $500,000 in debt and requires another $100,000 to stay afloat until April when the course reopens, the board revealed in a recent letter to shareholders.
At a follow-up meeting, the board said it would present a business plan in the near future.
Cotton, 87, recommends the club explore two options: sell the neighbourhood property or invite the city to manage and upgrade the course.
Under the second scenario, shareholders would retain ownership of their shares and the municipality would redevelop the course and run the operation, retaining any profits, he said.
“They would have to make it pay or give it back to us to sell it,” he added.
Cotton recommends the club first approach the city to gauge interest, and then have the property valued.
“With that information they can ask the shareholders one simple question: do you want to sell to the highest bidder, or do you want to loan your share to the city for as long as they keep it as a golf course?”
The board has not approached the city with an official request for assistance, Mayor Ron Stevens told Orillia Today.
“We can look at anything,” he said. “It is a matter of what the expectations would be.”
Stevens has heard from at least one shareholder who wondered whether the municipality would be interested in buying the property and running the operation.
“If we don’t break even, it is taxpayers’ dollars that are being used to offset those costs,” he added.
In the same breath, Stevens said he hoped the neighbourhood property would be retained as open green space.
“I would be very concerned if it was to be sold to a developer and developed into homes,” he said. “It is a 50-acre open area in the middle of the city.”
Cotton said a decision several years ago to replace the aging clubhouse with a new facility was costly and unnecessary.
“They should never have built a (new) clubhouse,” he added. “The old clubhouse was rundown, but it was adequate.”