The Private Club Journal

Industry News & Trends

The Harvest Dinner Playbook: How Clubs Turn Crush Season Into Their Best Wine-Club Quarter

Crush season is a six-week window most clubs waste on a single generic wine dinner. Here’s the four-event playbook — kickoff, harvest dinner, allocation nig

September 30, 2026

Industry News & Trends

The Club Without Members: What Austin Sports Club Borrowed From Private Clubs

Kevin Durant, Rich Kleiman and Joe Gebbia open a 4,723-square-foot room on East Third Street on September 10 and call it a club. The word is doing real work —

September 28, 2026

Industry News & Trends

Laver Cup Rules: The Team-Format Mixer That Closes Your Fall League With a Waitlist

The Laver Cup’s escalating-points scoring solves the exact problem that kills most fall tennis leagues: matches that stop mattering by week six. Here’s how

September 25, 2026

Industry News & Trends

What Gstaad Told Us: The Longevity Investment Trends Heading for Your Club Spa

The Longevity Investors Conference in Gstaad puts real capital behind the trends your members already chase at hotel spas and standalone clinics. Here’s what

September 24, 2026

Industry News & Trends

Who Actually Runs America’s Private Clubs: A 2,272-Club Analysis of Board Filings

Private club membership rosters are secret, but board filings are not. We read the Form 990 of every club that files one — 2,272 clubs, 30,996 names — to fi

September 22, 2026

Industry News & Trends

Rolling Stone: Private Clubs Are Turning Live Music Into a Membership Perk

Rolling Stone looks at how private clubs are booking arena-level artists into rooms of a few hundred people. PCM founder Zack Bates weighs in. Here’s what it

September 22, 2026

Industry News & Trends

The Presidents Cup at Medinah: What It Takes to Host a Team Championship Without Losing Your Members

September 22, 2026

Industry News & Trends

What the September Fed Decision Means for Club Capital Plans, Assessments and Dues Financing

The FOMC’s September 15–16 decision lands in the middle of club budget season, right as CMAA’s Leadership/Legislative Conference convenes in Detroit. Here

September 21, 2026

Industry News & Trends

Keeneland September: What the World’s Largest Yearling Sale Says About Your Bloodstock Members

The Keeneland September sale draws 4,635 yearlings and the industry’s biggest names to Lexington every fall — and most clubs let the moment pass their blood

September 18, 2026

Industry News & Trends

Revival Weekend: Why Driving Clubs Are Adding Heritage Programming (and What Goodwood Gets Right)

The Goodwood Revival turns nostalgia into six-figure waitlists — and it’s not the only club proving heritage programming pays. From Charlotte’s Ten Tenths

September 18, 2026

Industry News & Trends

Top 10 Private Clubs by Revenue in California

Ranked from their own IRS Form 990 filings: the ten highest-revenue member-owned clubs in California, who leads by assets, what changed year over year, and who

September 16, 2026

Industry News & Trends

Beyond the Berth: The Membership Economics of Private Yacht and Sailing Clubs

How private yacht and sailing clubs turn scarce berths, social members, and a $230B boating economy into durable membership growth.

September 16, 2026

Industry News & Trends

Travis Kelce Golf Handicap: Inside the Tight End’s Course Life

On the par-3 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale — the stadium hole, surrounded by thousands of fans, beer cans stacked to the sky — Travis Kelce stepped to the tee

September 16, 2026

Industry News & Trends

The Dues Increase Retention Math: What a 6% Increase Actually Costs You in Members

Before your board approves this year’s number, run the breakeven math: how many members can a dues increase lose before it pays for nothing? Four real clubs s

September 15, 2026

Industry News & Trends

Where the Forbes 400 Belong: The Private Clubs of America’s Richest (2026)

The Forbes 400 could join any club in the country, yet the same short list keeps appearing. Here’s where America’s billionaires hold membership, checked aga

September 14, 2026

Industry News & Trends

The Fall Reset: Programming the September Wellness Cohort That Renews in January

September is when the smartest clubs launch a structured wellness cohort that carries members straight through to January renewal. Here’s the four-phase bluep

September 11, 2026

Industry News & Trends

Napa Harvest 2026: The Cab Pre-Release, the Sotheby’s Auction and the Member Trip Your Club Should Be Selling

Sotheby’s auction, Cab Pre-Release weekend, and crush season all land in the same ten-day window this September — the moment to sell a Napa harvest wine clu

September 10, 2026

Industry News & Trends

Josh Allen Golf Handicap & Game: The Complete 2026 Guide

At 7 a.m. on a February morning at Sea Island, Georgia, a figure was already on the range, driver in hand, muttering that his ball flight was too spinny. He had

September 9, 2026