Letter From The Board

May 2023

Dear WRAC Member-Owners,

One year ago, the WRAC board affirmed two key strategic initiatives:

1. Relocate the lower facility amenities to the upper facility property we purchased in 2006.
2. Capture the growing demand for pickleball without diminishing tennis offerings.

We’ve been making progress with each of these initiatives, and wish to update you on their status. First, we’d like to share a couple of guiding principles in our strategic planning and decision-making process.

• The WRAC is successful because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The synergy of our offerings makes the WRAC financially viable. If we were a singular offering of only tennis, or only swimming, or only pickleball, or only fitness, we would not be successful. We certainly would not consider opening a new business today with a singular focus. Our tennis-loving founders knew this back in 1961, when they realized a tennis-only business would not be viable, and thus the Wenatchee Swim and Tennis Club was created. This principle has guided us through multiple expansions, most recently in 2016 when we greatly expanded our fitness facilities. That investment proved to be a positive step-change to our business model, and gave us the financial cushion to survive through the pandemic.

• Standing pat is not an option, and we must continuously assess our recreational offerings in the marketplace. This means investing in our current offerings while responding to new interests and opportunities. If we do nothing, we will become obsolete in the marketplace.

• We are a member-owned non-profit organization governed by an elected board of directors. Planning and decision-making is an open and deliberate process, and transparent communication with our membership is our objective. Any major decisions will allow feedback opportunities from our members before proceeding.

With these guiding principles in mind, here’s where we are with the two major initiatives:

Relocate Lower Facility

As previously discussed, the lower facility tennis courts and pool are over 60 years old, and the ongoing maintenance and repair costs are significant and increasing every year. Our objective is to relocate those facilities within the next five years, and to sell the lower facility to help fund the relocation. We created a request for proposal (RFP) last fall, seeking offers for the lower facility. We have received interest from multiple parties, and we will utilize a weighted criteria scoring model to help us with selecting an offer. Here are those criteria:

•  Purchase price and terms, with consideration of net present value of purchase installments and/or leaseback rates. Closing date of importance - sooner is better. 

•  Phased use agreement of lower facility amenities. Does the proposal allow the WRAC to continue use of the outdoor tennis courts, the clubhouse, and the swimming pool as these amenities are relocated to the upper facility over the next five years? 

•  Impact of proposed use to the WRAC. Will the proposed use be positive, neutral, or negative for future WRAC operations and revenues? 

• Impact to neighborhood community. Will the proposed use enhance the immediate neighborhood and not negatively impact property values? 

• Financial means, experience, and reputation of the purchaser. Does the purchaser have the financial means to perform and develop the intended use? What is the prior experience and reputation of the purchaser? 

Pickleball

Last winter’s indoor pickleball offerings exceeded all expectations, and significantly increased club revenues through seasonal memberships and daily use fees. Our local experience is shared by clubs throughout the country as we all try to balance ongoing tennis demand with the grassroots explosion of pickleball participation. In the short-term, this has created a squeeze for court time and limited resources. But the long-term opportunity bodes well for both sports. Incorporating pickleball can provide greater revenues to racquet clubs while offering dedicated facilities for both. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) sees this as a synergistic opportunity, and has embraced pickleball with expanded staffing and resources dedicated to the booming sport. They believe pickleball is not a threat to tennis due to limited resources, but rather an opportunity to grow both sports. So do we.

We are actively planning an indoor facility expansion to add dedicated pickleball courts in a new addition to the west of current indoor Courts 3 & 4. We are currently soliciting multiple bids for the new addition, refining revenue projections, and working out how we will pay for the expansion. We have identified four sources of funding:

1. WRAC financial reserves
2. Pickleball prepaid memberships
3. Asset sale proceeds (lower facility sale)
4. Bank financing

We believe we can fund the expansion with a very conservative approach, and we want the bank financing portion to be as small as possible.

The board will consider an initial approval to proceed at our June board meeting. Then we will  thoroughly share the expansion plans with architectural renderings and membership outreach events through the summer. Only after soliciting comprehensive feedback will the board consider a final approval to proceed in the fall. If we decide to proceed, opening of the new facility would be in the fall of 2024.

In the short term, we are creating six dedicated outdoor pickleball courts at the lower facility, on the former tennis courts 4 & 5. These will be available for advance reservations by our pickleball members or for non-members paying a daily use fee. To make sure we are not limiting outdoor court access for our tennis players, we are consolidating our summer junior programs to maintain five court availability for our tennis players. We hope to see more overall use of the lower facility this summer than ever before. We have five tennis tournaments and two pickleball tournaments planned. It’s going to be busy!

By choosing the indoor expansion for pickleball first, we are selecting the capital improvement we believe will have the greatest return on investment (ROI). The significant pickleball membership additions will synergistically benefit the entire club.  This will allow us greater financial capability to relocate the outdoor tennis courts and the pool to the upper facility within the next five years. This phased approach is the only way we can accomplish the strategic initiatives we affirmed last year.

We believe our strategic and capital expansion plans are sound, but only after thoroughly vetting them with our membership will we consider proceeding. We’ll be sharing lots of information with you the next few months, and we’ll be listening carefully for your feedback.

Sincerely,

Your WRAC Board of Directors