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Sweet and sour season

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Bob Black

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 4, 2009

Welcome back, Snowbirds. Welcome back to the land of grapefruit and palms; the land where it never snows and Lake Woebegone never ices over.

I chose the grapefruit because it is both sweet and sour, and that is the kind of season we've been having while you have been away.

You'll be noting that the CA Atrium swimming and spa facilities have undergone major surgery and will re-open this coming month with new locker rooms, a new spa, improved pools and a general face lift. A number of other areas on the various campuses have had face lifts too, and more work is planned.

That is some of the sweet. The sour comes with WCI's closing of the North Lakes Golf Course and cutting back on other amenities. For example, there is no longer beer at Bunkers. WCI says it gave up the beer and wine license because it cost too much for too little of a return.

WCI came out of bankruptcy this summer and the "new" corporation is even more about money than the old one. Except this time it's about the debt WCI is carrying. The new board of directors of the now-private company is made up of creditors and it has offered up some very hard-nosed solutions to its financial problems.

CA meets with WCI

On Oct. 21, along with CA President Ed Barnes, I met with WCI's Vice President Rick Barber, who is in charge of disposing of assets, along with Regional Amenities Manager John Luper. The reason for the meeting was that WCI wanted the Community Association to drop its right of first refusal on both North Lakes and Sandpiper and to give them unlimited permission to open play to outsiders.

I was at the meeting because I'm a CA director and one of my charges is to be board liaison to the SCC golf community. And, as you probably know, WCI is trying to sell North Lakes, Sandpiper and the Caloosa Greens courses. They'd like to sell them as a package, but with North Lakes closed, this becomes iffy at best.

The answer to WCI from Barnes was "No, we won't sign our rights over to you because they are the only bargaining chip we have to ensure the management of the golf courses in the future gives us a fair shake." Barnes did say, however, that the CA would meet and negotiate with any company interested in buying the golf courses from WCI. "Our over-riding interest," Barnes said, "is keeping as much golf as possible in Sun City Center." Barnes added that the board is aware the number of golfers here is trending downward, simply because some people have dropped out because of age, the recession or lifestyle changes, but he notes that there is a strong core of people who play two to five times a week.

Because I have talked to a lot of golfers in past weeks and because what these golfers had to say, I warned WCI it might face a real drop in membership at Sandpiper this coming year and that would further imperil its ability to sell the courses - or for that matter, to support and improve play at Sandpiper. Further, I mentioned WCI's inability or lack of desire to communicate with the golfing community was truly setting people's teeth on edge. Having spent all of my working life - some 60 years -- in communication, either as a news person or in public relations, I know that talking to your constituency, your people, your customers, is absolutely essential to the success of your enterprise.

Result? Probably nil. When WCI's former CEO, Jerry Starkey, came to SCC two years ago and (with huge arrogance) closed the North Lakes Course and shut up his own people at the table, some of us thought he was an isolated case and when he was fired, we were cheered and hoped there might be a change.

Frankly, I don't think so. We, all of us, can understand a company doing what it can to conserve money or dispose of assets when its financial future is at stake. But Sun City Center developers, including WCI enticed us here, saying for many years this was a golfing community and talking about the SCC "lifestyle." As recently as last year, the WCI billboard on southbound I-75 advertised SCC with a happy couple on the golf course.

They owe us their loyalty in return for our confidence in them in buying the homes they sold us and the lifestyle they promised.

Snowbirds: the question came up this spring/summer as to whether the Community Association should buy the golf courses and either operate them or farm them out. Barnes says, and most (if not all) directors agree with him, that SCC is not going to mortgage its future by buying any golf course, certainly not under the present circumstances. And even if a too-good-to-be-true offer was made, it would still have to go before all the residents in a referendum. So, not to worry.

It's been a busy time and an anxious time because, whether we're golfers or not, the ambiance of SCC depends greatly on those green and verdant golf courses. We do not want them to go away and will work to keep them operable and operating.

Bob Black is a journalist and member of the SCC Community Association board of directors. The opinions expressed in this column do not reflect those of other board members or this paper.

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