[Thomas Dai]

I would take 18 months of being an itinerant golfer in exchange for a 1/500th share of a mere 10 million pounds. Gladly.

Members should be very aware of the legal regulations governing their clubs. Individual clubs differ, but as an example, the rules of some UK private clubs are written in such a way that the proceeds from any sale of assets have to be spent on golf developments and cannot be shared out amongst the members, assuming of course, that the members are actually the shareholders, ie so no personal windfalls.

A potentially complicated subject and one with scope for legal folk to make some £££

atb

[Adam Lawrence]

Goymour is a party to the deal; as part of the package, they will sell the Weston Park site to Royal Norwich. Also, as I understand it, it's not a question of  building another nine holes; the 27 holes will essentially be all new. Ross McMurray of EGD is in charge of the design.

Interesting stuff Adam.

I wonder where the RNGC members will play in the interim period? They'll have sold their own course so you can't play on it as it's a building site for houses. Can they play on the existing Weston Park course? Well not really if that's being dug up to build 27 new holes. Unless they, and the existing players at Weston Park, are allowed as part of the deal to play on the existing RNGC course there'll be nowhere for them to play until the new 27 are built and opened and that'll take a while.

atb

If all goes to plan I imagine they'll not close the old course till the new one is ready. Precious little skin off Persimmon's nose - they will make a lot of money on this deal, even if they have to wait a couple of extra years for it.

[Brent Hutto]

I would also be willing to play around elsewhere for a year and a half in return for 10 million accruing to a club of which I was 1/500th of the membership.

Keep in mind I belong to a club which has had a large note hanging over its head like the Sword of Damocles for a decade and a half with no end in sight. Financial security and maybe even a nest egg to fall back on sounds splendid from my perspective.

It would only take a small series of unfortunate events to render my own club insolvent. Although the likelihood is very small it is unsettling.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Thomas - As you say it all depends how a club is set up and there are many scenarios one being the land may have been gifted by Mr x for the purpose of golf, however some rules can overturn other rules and one is often that ' a club can change the mem & arts/ constitution/ it's rules' by the members voting, further its rules will dictate what percentage requirement is needed to change a rule. If a club has limited status and many are made up that way UK company law will dictate the way to amend the changes to allow. Different resolutions of Special, Ordinary or Extra-ordinary all carry slightly different rules but in principle the key numbers are 26%, 51%, 75% and 90 or 95% (they may have changed the rules).....
26% you can stop a resolution change
51% standard majority
75% you cant stop a resolution change
It is the percentage of votes cast as well, firstly by hands or someone can call for pole in which case the posted votes are counted and the number of shares each holder has is taken into account.
Members could vote to pay themselves if they agree to change their rules.
A club may have signed to CASC in which case the money could never be divided up to individuals.
There would never be a one size fits all, but when you start talking of £100,000,000 and it is still hard to spend 10,000,000 on a great UK golf facility, the whats to do with the 90,000,000 between 500 members = £180,000 per member. It takes a strong individual not to vote YES. Ryan's Knowle Golf Club is a course that has potential to be built on, Filton, Henbury are other's probably 130-140 acres, maybe with planning has a value's of £750,000,000, it is possible they could find land within 3 or 4 miles. I don't know how Knowle is set up or the ownership situation, but you could end up with a better course and money, so its win win.
On a smaller scale we have seen lots of football clubs and rugby clubs at a local level move their three pitches of 8 acres two miles away into th countryside and realise £5,000,000 for the club....The club goes from a bumpy uneven pitch on a slope with a tin hut for a clubhouse to something pretty special...its win win.

[Niall C]

Adrian

I'll not argue over £600K per acre although up in this neck of the woods that would be quite toppy. However that kind of price would be on the basis of net developable serviced land. Therefore the questions/issues are;

1 - how much of the 100 acres is developable ?

2 - once you have the net developable you need to factor in a discount for the later phases because you sure won't be developing it all at one go.

3 - however before that you need to pay for, up front, the sizeable infrastructure costs associated with a development of that size. Roads don't come cheap and utility companies have been given a licence to name their own price, so you can take a hefty lump sum off your price for that.

4 - and just when you think you are home and dry, you have planning gain. I assume they have a similar system down south that they have up here where you pay so much per unit for schools, cemeteries, public art etc. Something of this size could require a whole new school that the developer would have to pay for.In addition, if it is the same as in Scotland, a portion of the housing land goes to the Council for affordable housing ie Council houses. In Scotland that is typically 15%.

So when you take all that into consideration, and include the cost of professional fees, interest etc. you are going to be a long way short of 100 mil.

Niall

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