Costs your club can expect in your facility life cycle

The costs your club can expect in your facility life cycle will be dependent on who has ownership of the facility and/or the leasing, licensing or rental agreements you may have in place.

Regardless of your club’s agreement you can be assured you will have some financial responsibility towards the upkeep of your facility.

If clubs take the time to consider and apply their facility management plans appropriately, it can be expected most buildings will continue to operate safely over multiple life cycles.

The success of multiple life cycles is highly dependent on the commitment of your club to necessary and adequate maintenance through your facilities first life cycle.

So, what happens to buildings in their life cycle?

Every building is unique, as is the maintenance, repairs and asset renewals required to ensure operational viability and sustainability.

The requirement for maintenance, repairs and renewal is dependent on not only your club’s standard of upkeep but also the quality of construction, design ramifications and exposure to weather conditions.

Once again whilst each building is individual and susceptible to many factors, most facilities will fall within the typical patterns of a life cycle.

From a cost perspective, this can allow clubs and committees to anticipate potential future costs to allow informed decisions on budgets and required resources.

While this can be used as a guide it is important to remember the further your facility progresses in the life cycle the more expensive your facility management costs may get.

Stage 1: Under 2 years
This early stage encompasses the handing over of your building from the developer to your club or owner.

Most assets are new and will be more than likely covered under a variety of warranties or as part of your contractual agreement with the builder.

Maintenance is generally considered to be cleaning and annual inspections.

Stage 2: 2 years to 16 years
In this stage, it is expected your club and/or owners will have full or partial responsibility for maintenance, repairs and long term viability of your facility.

Your club needs to be aware of any obligations you may have under lease or licensing arrangements towards the upkeep of your facility.

It is also important to remember these arrangements apply to the terms of your leasing and licensing arrangements and may change when these agreements are renewed.

It is expected during this time the club/owner will have established and implemented a facility management plan with preventative measures and allocated monies to a capital improvement fund.

Some clubs will find they must address small renewal or replacement projects in this time.

Stage 3: 17 years to 29 years
This stage will have club’s/owners considering and assuming full responsibility for maintenance repairs and redevelopment planning of your facility.

This is also the stage where clubs may find forecasted budget expenses may not meet the financial demands of replacing building assets as deterioration is causing the assets to come to the end of their life cycle.

Clubs will notice an increase in larger redevelopment projects and will require clubs to review budgeting practices and consider more appropriate funding allocations.

Stage 4: 30 years to 49 years
This stage can be the most expensive stage due to asset renewal and redevelopment projects being a continuous requirement based on facility deterioration.

Clubs will find significant funds are being reinvested into your facility and operating budgets will need careful consideration. With many assets already being replaced or redeveloped clubs will also find they are managing assets of all ages which makes your facility management planning tool crucial to your sustainability.

This can add an increasing load to your facility manager as they will need to track differing aged assets.

Stage 5: 50 years +

Very often at this stage most of the major assets may have been renewed or redeveloped.

Basically, this returns clubs to the second stage of the facility life cycle again. Once again clubs and owners need to prepare for additional maintenance to ensure their facility can survive the next 50 year life cycle.

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