by: Diane Benjamin
Bloomington owns 3 golf courses. I previously report that these 3 courses DO NOT pay for themselves, even if Mayor Renner likes to say they do: http://blnnews.com/2014/03/29/golf-pays-for-itself-hahaha/
It’s hard to keep track of what is in the budget and what isn’t, but I think the $250,000 for path resurfacing at Prairie Vista got cut. That is a good thing considering what CBS News is reporting today: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/where-have-all-the-golfers-gone/
Here are some excerpts from the story:
Across the country, golf courses are calling it quits. More courses closed than opened in the U.S. last year: While 14 18-hole courses were christened in 2013, a whopping 157 closed. The majority of those closures were public courses.
What’s causing golfers to put away their clubs?
“The perception is that A, golf is an old white man’s sport, and B, it’s very hard to learn,” she said. “Golf courses and golf clubs are realizing that it’s not about him anymore. It’s about the wife, because she’s usually the one making the final decision about where the money is spent.”
Read the whole story. Rounds played in Bloomington are mimicking the rest of the country. Golf has been on a downward trend for years.
Since Alderman David Sage has hijacked the 2016 budget discussion, contact him. THREE golf courses is at least ONE too many! Better yet, tell the Mayor and whole Council!
Council email: [email protected]
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Golf, what used to be a sport that cost a little too much has been replaced with the age old sport of just gettin’ by thanks to the massive loss of jobs and an ever increasing monster of a government that says feed me more of your money so I can tease you about giving your money back to you if you give me more power to take more of your money to give it back to me to give me more power and just keep it all as,,,,,