Social Club Survival Today: Adapt or Slowly Disappear?
Social clubs are still an important part of communities across the UK. For generations, they have provided somewhere to meet friends, have a drink, play sport, watch the game, enjoy entertainment and, perhaps most importantly, have somewhere that feels like your club. But today, social clubs are increasingly divided between those that have adapted to changing times and those that are simply trying to keep going.
There are clubs that have diversified, invested in their premises and introduced new activities to attract people through the doors, maybe a unique food offering, tribute bands etc These clubs have recognised that what worked 20 or 30 years ago may not necessarily work today.
Then there are the clubs that are clearly hanging on.
Membership is falling, existing members are getting older and there is little obvious attraction for a new generation to join. The club may still be operating, but increasingly it can feel as though it is simply waiting for something to change.
For some, the main activity bringing people through the door is an occasional visiting sports team, whether darts, snooker or another competitive fixture. But there is an important question here: are people coming because they are interested in the club, or because they are interested in the sport? If the darts team wasn't playing, would they still be there?
The same applies to bingo. Some clubs still run occasional bingo sessions, but without enough players the prize money becomes smaller, which in turn makes it less attractive and creates another difficult cycle.
Admittedly some are doing their best tying to attract people in; karaoke or open mic nights, the ofdd night of entertainment or a big cat bingo night but these are just one offs.
Then there is the condition of the buildings themselves. Some social clubs occupy large premises and substantial areas of land, but those buildings are increasingly expensive to maintain and, in some cases, are in urgent need of repair. A club can therefore find itself facing declining membership, falling income, an ageing building and rising maintenance costs all at the same time.
What is sometimes overlooked, however, is that many traditional members' clubs have something ordinary pubs don't. A
lthough there are privately owned clubs, many are legally independent from the brewery and are collectively controlled by their membership through an elected committee. In that sense, the members are the masters of their own destiny. They have the ability to make decisions about the future of the club — but that also means they have to recognise when change is necessary.
For some clubs, survival may require thinking much more radically. A large site with an ageing building could potentially have significant redevelopment value. Rather than allowing the building to deteriorate while membership continues to decline, members could consider whether selling the existing site and using the proceeds to create a smaller, modern, purpose-built club could provide a more sustainable future. That could mean a facility designed around what members actually want today, with flexible spaces, sport, entertainment, community activities and opportunities to generate income, while still retaining the identity and traditions of the original club.
Of course, making that sort of decision takes vision, enthusiasm and sometimes the willingness to accept that preserving the clubdoes not necessarily mean preserving the building. The biggest danger for some clubs may actually be doing nothing — hoping for a sudden windfall, waiting for membership to return or simply carrying on as they have always done. But if the underlying problems aren't changing, waiting is not really a strategy.
The traditional social club can still have a future, but perhaps the question needs to change from "How do we keep the club exactly as it is?" to "What does our club need to become if we want it to still exist in another 20 or 30 years?
ome clubs are already answering that question. Others are still hoping for a miracle. And inevitably, many will eventually close. When they do, the community loses more than just a building and a bar; it loses a part of its social history.
For those clubs that still have choices available, the message is perhaps simple: change while you still have the opportunity to choose the future, rather than waiting until circumstances choose it for you.