How does a club run up $7.2 MM in debt?
You'd be surprised at the mortgages of some clubs.
I know there are people here who find it unseemly, but as a member of a club that ended up in a Sheriff's auction, I was interested in just how much debt other clubs carry. Since most of them are nonprofit, their 990 forms are available on the Web.
For instance, there's a famous Midwestern club that has held a bunch of Opens and a couple of PGAs was carrying a mortgage of more than $12 million at the end of 2010. It's been remodeled a few too many times, IMHO.
Another multi-course club with similar aspirations in the southeast was in the 6-7 million range in 2010 as well.
Since the debt at places like those is usually far less than the value of the place, they aren't in any real trouble, but in light of the food minimum discussion, I wonder about places that pay their chef 150-250 thousand dollars.
K