LIV Golf Kansas City 2028
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I wouldn’t be proud of it, but I’d probably go to that…
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And I find this highly, highly unlikely.
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I’d argue you’d have a better chance of achieving this by keeping the ross routing.
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and @tnord went ahead and said every single thing that I (and a lot of the people that I have talked to about this project) think. I just don’t know how many “I can afford a 100k drop plus 1,200/month dues” people there are in Kansas City and as pointed out most of those people are already at KCCC, MCC (most of the project team on this project), Wolf, Loch Lloyd, and Oakwood. Realistically the local market for this club (I can’t imagine a national one with the history of the course gone, the area the course is in, and the other better nearby options) is second club for really really really rich people. Problem is Wolf is already the second club for most of those people.
At most what KC needs - and what I think could be successful - is a full service, moderately (for private clubs) priced, Donald Ross rehabbed golf course country club. If you spent half or even a third of the money they are dropping on this project fixing up the original portion of the club house (the addition with the pro shop and locker rooms was the part that was completely gone due to water penetration), fixing up the pool house area, rehabbing the course using the information that I have posted, redoing the irrigation and getting a full driving range you would make more money in the short term. Then eventually go after the stay and play national membership/bachelor party stuff after you build a local membership base and word gets out about a super unique early Donald Ross course that has been completely restored.
One of the guys that has been sending me stuff about the project has jokingly said multiple times (even before slide show came out), “I can’t wait to buy the property on the courthouse steps in a decade.”
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Maybe I’m crazy, but would love to see a few public Par 3 courses pop up in KC.
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absolutely not crazy. I think about how well a lit range with a legit par 3 facility would do
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I said this once, but the number of these people that are out there I always seem to underestimate.
Based on 2022 census data there were ~6,000 homes in the KC metro area valued over $1mill (that number is probably even higher now, too). I know not all of those people can even afford the $100k+ initiation or are even interested in joining a country club, but let’s just say 3,000 of them are interested in joining a country club.
Let’s say each of those homes has 1.5 people on average who you could consider “members” so that takes us to 4,500. There were 5 premier clubs you and @tnord listed with a limit we will conservatively place at 500 members since a lot probably don’t spend the majority of their time in KC. So that’s 2,500 spots. That leaves us 2,000 people looking for a country club.
These numbers feel reasonable, but feel free to tell me what I could have fucked up here.
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The Martin City Sports complex is available for you entrepreneurs out there 
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I don’t think you fucked the numbers up, but where those houses are located matters. If you’ve got one of those houses near Mission Hills, you’re already a member at MHCC, KCCC, or maybe Oakwood. I would think most of those people without a club that can afford it are in southern JoCo and not looking to drive to Hillcrest.
I’d also add Shadow and Milburn to the list of clubs some of those folks are already members of. People with $1m are not 100% of the membership there, but there’s a decent number of them.
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Vinny, you are a genius. My home that I bought in 2007 is now worth ~500k more than what I paid. I can sell it or use my equity to afford membership!!!
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Totally agree. I played Tiger’s “The Hay” over by Pebble Beach last year and it was a blast and I’ve wanted to play something like it since. Only a 2 acre piece of land. Only two of the nine holes were over a hundred yards. Two holes were shorter than 60 yards. The tee boxes are field turf to make it easier to maintain. The putting green had a little 9 hole course to play as well. Would love to see more of this. So much more fun than a Top Golf like facility IMO.
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All the HCCC chatter made me think. Join the discord if you haven’t.
Assuming 50% are interested in joining a country club is probably where this breaks down, but if this project is getting funding they must be able to show some level of interest…. Right?
Disclaimer, I know less than nothing about PE funding
Doing a quick zillow search of $1m+ homes resulted in this:
Red X is where Hillcrest is. KCCC, MHCC, IHCC, and Milburn are the crowd they’d be looking to get I’d assume. I think a good portion of them would want to/have the means to join a second club if they thought the golf was better. There was already a large amount of the KCCC group that was interested in purchasing Hillcrest for a reno if I remember right.
I could totally be off on that. But my experience is people in that economic class really want a place where they can spend time with others in the same economic class.
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wait…for real?
I’ve kicked around the idea of buying it, but I’m so fucking busy I can’t get my shit together to actually pursue it.
If I remember right you even know the owner? I’d like to buy that guy lunch and see what he says.
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If you want to join a second club, why wouldn’t you go 200 miles SW for 10% of the cost of this place?
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It’s been sitting vacant for quite some time now nearly a year.
I know the guy that used to run business out of there and leased it from the owner.
Apparently, the owner is quite difficult to work with and chooses not to put any money into it, but won’t sell it
Prior to closing it was the only lit driving range inside the metro area
Could be a phenomenal space if done correctly And with vision…
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I think it’d be a great place to own and has big potential.
Perhaps the owner is thinking about it the same as I am…at worse case it’ll be prime development land in 10-20 years. I’d love to operate it in the meantime.
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I would! But these people aren’t like me and you. Proximity to a major metropolitan area and how long it takes to get out there would be my guess as to why a person with more money than me wouldn’t. I’m just speculating though…