Cowan Park Opportunity
- East Renfrewshire Council has a statutory obligation to provide tennis at its Cowan Park site which it is unable to fulfil.
- East Renfrewshire Council are willing to hand over responsibility for tennis at Cowan Park to Tennis Scotland.
- Tennis Scotland would contract with Giffnock for delivery of tennis coaching, schools support, LTA sanctioned competitions and a tennis academy.
- This would provide free leased land for at least 25 years and would attract £260k in grants funding to upgrade the Cowan Park site
Key Benefits of the Proposal
- Significantly increases the court times available to members at Percy Drive as part of the development and performance programme will move to Cowan Park
- Provides members access to an additional 6 outdoor clay courts (with a small floodlight charge)
- Provides access to 3 indoor tennis courts (at a discounted rate to members)
- Projected additional contribution to the club of £45k initially, rising to £91k when all loans are repaid
Supporting documents
Open Session
To provide you with as much detail as possible and allow you to ask questions in advance, we will be holding an open session at the club on Thursday 16th February between 6-8pm ahead of the AGM.
You can also send your questions to secretary@giffnock-ltc.co.uk ahead of the AGM.
Questions & Answers
Opportunity / Benefits
| Q. Why can't we build this in Giffnock? |
| A. Giffnock has no land available of sufficient size. Giffnock does not have 6 existing public tennis courts in need of refurbishment so does not have a facility eligible for the £200,000 grant funding. Ultimately we cannot build on our existing site because the bowlers veto anything we propose which either builds near to them or into the car park. |
| Q. What will it be called? |
| A. The name of the site is entirely for the club to decide. |
| Q. What is the income under booking, floodlight and season ticket based on (e.g. how many people paying how much and how often)? |
| A. All projected income is conservative in comparison to LTA projections. Bookings are club squads we can guarantee. Floodlight charges are for court hires. If members prefer to play on artificial clay to artificial grass during the winter, they will migrate to using Cowan Park at a charge. Season tickets are less than 5% of what the LTA would project as optimised uptake. All financial assumptions are available on the financial summary provided on the Members' Area. |
| Q. Is there an expectation for our membership to grow as a result of this development (or reduce)? |
| A. We have not projected any growth in Giffnock membership. Any additional membership is simply added profit for the club but will have to fall within constitution maximums set by the Club AGM. If there is demand for indoor courts and the member to non-member rate differential is right, then people may look to join in order to benefit from the member rate. Membership retention rates typically rise in clubs with additional sporting facility. We will not have membership at Barrhead, only season ticket holders. Our financial model is based on 80 season tickets, while the LTA project we have around 1,300 households who should be willing to join. |
| Q. Is there a proviso that membership fees will not be increased as a result of this? |
| A. There is no need to increase membership subscriptions to fund the project. LTA funding and deployment of club cash surpluses alone are required to build the indoor centre. Any future increases to subscription will be a matter for future AGMs on the basis of club performance and projections for your past and ahead. |
| Q. How is income generated to pay for this? |
| A. The model shows income in excess of £125,000 per annum (indoor court hire, outdoor court hire, season tickets, floodlight use). |
| Q. Who will play at 10am? |
| A. Any member or non-member who wishes to book a court. Coaches expect there to be a demand for lessons during the day given the ability to guarantee play. |
| Q. What are our plans for involvement in the Barrhead community? |
| A. The tennis team intend to immerse itself in the Barrhead community, working with East Renfrewshire Culture & Leisure Trust and East Renfrewshire Active Schools to deliver a range of curriculum and after school sessions. We also intend there to be a basic coaching programme, upon which to grow. Ensuring season ticket holders become ambassadors for the site is important too. |
| Q. We want this to be a second site for Giffnock but it should be a local club for Barrhead too - need to get right balance of both. |
| A. Giffnock will only be able to use a maximum 10% of court time for club programmes on the outdoor courts. Our work for local school children will demonstrate our commitment to the local community and ensure we can move forward with everyone engaged and happy. |
| Q. Income not based on 100% usage of indoor courts? |
| A. Income projections are based on 62% of peak capacity being utilised and 46% of off-peak courts being used. This is 15% below LTA projection for average indoor court occupancy. |
Costs
| Q. Is there anything on the financials that we can look at? |
| A. A detailed financial model is available in the Members' Area. |
| Q. Is £20,000 enough to refurbish a clubhouse that has not been used for four years? |
| A. This is a provisional sum. The existing clubhouse has toilets, changing rooms and wheelchair access. Bringing it up to a standard associated with current club facilities is thought unlikely to be structural. |
| Q. There does not seem to be any onsite staff costs in the annual net profit / loss list - is that right? |
| A. Yes, the site will be automated for access to courts using the LTA ClubSpark gate system. Access to toilets will be provided, with other areas of the clubhouse subject to door access systems. |
| Q. What are the planned charges to members for use (for floodlights, for indoor courts)? |
| A. All the model contains are projections and reasonable assumptions. Indoor - We believe it will be sensible to mirror best practice for indoor court hire with a “peak” and “off peak” rate. Peak will be charged at something like £10-£12 for members and £22-£25 for non-members and off-Peak £8-£10 for members and £15-£18 for non-members. Weekend rates are usually treated as peak from late morning. Outdoor - We project floodlights will be charged at £3 per hour against a cost of £1.72 to operate. We would be required to have a sinking fund for future replacement of floodlight heads which is what the £1.28 is to go to. |
| Q. Who is liable (or owns the risk) for the loans and the adherence to the conditions of the Grants, e.g. if the club is in debt and cannot meet the loan repayments what happens, are the members liable? |
| A. If the club were to default on a loan secured against land, then the land is taken over. In principle members are joint and severable liable. If they cannot pay, then the land is the security issued by them against a default. |
| Q. What happens if we don't pay our LTA loan? |
| A. If default on an LTA loan, the LTA are entitled to restructure the loan or call upon the security of the land and take over ownership and running of the courts. |
| Q. What will the impact be on using our surplus funds for this project? |
| A. Deploying club cash is designed to grow net annual surpluses over the next decade so that our existing clubhouse can be replaced at Giffnock. Simple payback is expected around year 8, with accelerating surpluses after year 15 when all loans are repaid. |
Operations / Management of the Second Site
| Q. Will it be manned? |
| A. We intend to use LTA systems ClubSpark, to automate the site as much as is possible. The site will be manned by coaches for much of the time but members and members of the public will use gate access codes to enter courts. Members will have a door access system to changing facilities, much as they do now. |
| Q. So I won’t turn up to coaching without booking in? |
| A. Access to coaching will be on the same basis as it is now. Gate access systems can be disabled for defined periods to enable access to courts under coach supervision. |
| Q. Will there be security at site and how will this be managed? |
| A. We intend to use the LTA automated systems, utilising their ClubSpark system. If the members wish to staff the site that is a matter for them based on working practises and finances of the venue. A comprehensive CCTV system will be installed to monitor use and surrounds. We will have electronic gate access systems for courts and a swipe or fob system for access to other areas. |
| Q. Will we need more coaches? |
| A. We do not expect to need any more coaches, although we are currently looking for an assistant coach to help on large squads (sessions of 8-12 persons). |
| Q. Is there a risk that we want to use more court time than we are allowed to? |
| A. Under LTA rules we will be capped at 10% of total outdoor court capacity. Our proposed programme is around 6% of total court capacity. We do not envisage growth to mini/junior membership which would get us anywhere close to exceeding the 10% limit. |
| Q. Would it just be the "young ones" playing at Barrhead? |
| A. It would only be the “compete” stream juniors who would have coaching at Barrhead. As to who can play, anyone who wants to play on artificial clay can book a court, and anyone who wants to play indoors can book and pay-to-play at the discounted rate. |
Project Management / Build
| Q. What is the timescale for the completion? |
| A. Timelines depend on a number of factors that may not be within our control. We will have the outdoor courts handed to us in 2023 and will floodlight and artificial clay installation as soon as possible thereafter. We would hope this would be complete by the end of this year but could be later. The indoor tennis centre build to start early 2024. |
| Q. What if the contractor is late? |
| A. All projects will be fixed price contracts with contingency costs included. |
| Q. Who is contractor? |
| A. All contractors have to be LTA approved contractors in order to be eligible for LTA loan funding. We will be required to tender the project to at least 3 qualified vendors. |
| Q. What if we get objections to planning? |
| A. Were planning applications to fail, we will be able to hand back the land without penalty. |
| Q. Will the contractors be answerable to us or LTA? |
| A. Contractors are answerable to the contracting party which will be the club. The threat to them is doing a bad job and losing LTA approval. |
| Q. Who will project manage this? |
| A. The club will manage the project with Tennis Scotland providing valuable input throughout. |
| Q. What type of building will the indoor courts be? |
| A. We believe it will be a framed fabric construction, although all types of construction will be considered. A bubble is too expensive to operate at current electricity costs. |
| Q. What is life expectancy of building? |
| A. Life expectancy of the building is roughly 50 years with some elements likely to be upgraded after 25 years. |
| Q. Will indoor court building be fenced in? |
| A. Yes, we expect there will be perimeter fencing throughout. |
| Q. Community asset transfer or lease? |
| A. The site is currently being offered on the basis of a Community Asset Transfer (CAT) although a short-term lease may be required with the CAT process reaches its conclusion. Were the CAT not to proceed, then a lease of not less than 25 years would replace a CAT. |
| Q. How is it going to be managed, how is the budget going to be controlled, we need to protect everyone involved and not have a scenario where the people approving any change in plans or budget are not the people responsible for the project and neither of them are the end users? |
| A. The project is offered to the club. It sets charges, controls expenditure and ultimately either benefits from profit or is liable for losses. Exactly as is the case for our Giffnock location. If Giffnock members do not want to proceed, the project will happen anyway and Giffnock members will benefit from a member style rate for reduced court hire costs. |
Miscellaneous
| Q. Why clay courts? |
| A. The tennis coaching team's professional opinion is that a mix of court surfaces is beneficial for all members and that artificial clay in particular is beneficial for members looking to improve technique. Artificial clay prolongs rallies, compared to artificial grass, so the ability to learn more, construct points and develop is just greater, regardless of your playing standard. |
| Q. Why only three outdoor courts to have floodlights? |
| A. It is our intention to seek to deliver six floodlit courts from the outset. Mention of three courts is the number the LTA believe can be delivered within the price structure shown. |
| Q. Can people join Barrhead and have access to Giffnock too? |
| A. Barrhead will not have “membership”, it will have a season ticket regime in line with LTA guidelines for public courts. To play at Giffnock you will need to join Giffnock as a member. |
| Q. What is the season ticket - what does that mean? |
| A. Season tickets are a fixed price deal offered to public court users so they use the courts whenever they want and access limited coaching programmes. Typically the LTA advise a family of four be charged around £80 per annum. |
| Q. How does this differ from what we tried before at this site? |
| A. We previously only mentored an LTA qualified coach delivering 2 sessions per week to site. We are now proposing to use the site for Giffnock sessions, to have indoor courts and to control tennis delivered within East Renfrewshire on Council courts. |
| Q. We are going into an area that is not affluent and this could affect usage |
| A. The LTA and Tennis Scotland have extensive demographic analysis and assess the site as having substantial demand. |
| Q. Has this model worked elsewhere? |
| A. Not the exact model, but our model is robust and has been tested by multiple persons to ensure its viability. The club is yet to set formal pricing structures nor does it know flexible costs which will apply once build (actual electricity unit charges for example). Members are invited to interrogate the model on the Members’ Area of the website. |