By LIAM TWOMEY
BOWLS clubs in the Western Suburbs have been urged to embrace change or risk their long-term futures.
Stagnant playing numbers across the West have increased pressure on clubs which are struggling to attract new members.
The flow-on affect has seen clubs battle to pay green fees while the need for promotion of the sport in the community, a lack of support from local councils and the inability to attract younger members were also highlighted by clubs as the biggest issues in the Western Suburbs.
Bowls Victoria western and northern metro community development officer Paul Holtschke believes a change in attitude is the key to reaching a new market of potential bowlers. Holtschke said clubs which struggle for numbers need to form better relationships with other sporting groups and organisations in the community.
“If clubs don’t adapt they will die. There is no doubt about that,” he said.
“We are not capturing the new people like we need to and what is happening is that all the clubs are getting older. All the members are getting older and then the average age is creeping up.
“One of the main problems is that clubs are quite traditional. We play bowls Saturday, Tuesday … they will do social bowls during the week.
“What they are not doing is opening themselves up for others to come in and play or participate.”
While clubs implement long-term strategies to build membership numbers, such as school clinics and barefoot bowls, the need to attract members in the short term is a constant headache.
After fighting the numbers war for many years, Rosamond changed its approach in 2012 when the club amalgamated its pennant sides with nearby Footscray Park.
It was thought the partnership would lead to a full merger in 2013.
However, when the pennant season ended earlier this year, the pair agreed to remain separate identities.
Holtschke said that mergers are a delicate process for clubs which don’t want to lose their individual identities.
He is hopeful there will be more council support for clubs in a similar position in the future.
“It is a really tough gig, there is no doubt about that. We need the council support to come in and help with that,” he said.
“What they (some clubs) would like to happen is, they merge but they go to a different site and create a new name and create a whole new identity. That is really hard.
“The best way Footscray and Rosamond would have worked is if the council said, we are going to help you with this.
“We are going to build a clubhouse that you can use for functions and create more sustainability.
“When you have all these other issues it creates big stumbling blocks going forward.”
Based in one of the West’s busiest bowls hubs in Hobsons Bay, Altona North has gone from struggling to thriving in the space of three years.
While facing the challenges of a typical bowls club, Altona North also has to compete with nearby rival clubs Altona and Altona Sports, which are only a short drive away.
Altona North president Alex Welsh said his club has turned its fortunes around by operating like a professional business.
He said the change in attitude at the top and the willingness of members to adapt was a key to rebuilding the membership base.
“When I got to the club three and a bit years ago the majority of members were 70-years-plus. I’m talking about 80 to 85 per cent of members,” he said.
“The club was getting a bit tired because the people were getting older and just couldn’t do anything. We managed to rejuvenate it.”
Welsh and the committee took the numbers fight to the community with a focus on what he refers to as the four m’s – money, maintenance, marketing and membership.
Based on his club’s ability to turn its fortunes around, Welsh is confident that smaller clubs can compete with bigger rivals and said the focus needs to be on long-term survival.
“It is a great, friendly club we have at Altona North and the key to it is survival,” he said. “It is all about survival. Whether you like it or not, to survive you have to run the club like a business.
“We have about 100 members roughly and we have signed about 30 members in the last two years.
“It was a number of initiatives that allowed that to happen though. We really fought it on all accounts.”
While clubs search for new members, a number of West based clubs have raised concerns over attracting young players to the greens.
With the perception that bowls is “an older person’s sport,” Holtschke has encouraged clubs to embrace social media as a means to attract new talent.
“Facebook is a great medium that clubs need to use more of,” he said.
“If clubs have Facebook pages, then when they have corporate groups come in, (they can) encourage them to check in and put up messages and photos and videos and share it with their friends.
“We need to get more of that traffic. It is just another way of breaking down the perception that it is an older person’s sport.
“Clubs need to start looking to implement these things. We have clubs which do that and that is fantastic to see.”
