N.S.W. faces big social change

Press, 23 November 1983, Page 47

N.S.W. faces big social change

By

LOUISE WILLIAMS

NZPA-AAP correspondent Sydney New South Wales is undergoing dramatic social change. Mr and Mrs Average, it seems, no longer consider a few drinks and a game on the pokies at the local club the ideal night out. According to the Registered Clubs’ Association many club managers have just sat back complacently since the introduction of poker machines in 1956. “All they had to do was open the doors and people piled in — in the past things came too easily/’ said the association’s information officer, Colonel Davis. Now, a year after the introduction of random breath testing, New South Wales clubs are working on “cleansing” their image. They must abandon their “beer and poker machine image or die,” warns a comprehensive industry report released by the association. The last year has been particularly harsh. The drop in patronage

forced New South Wales clubs to shed 2000 permanent staff and offer one million fewer casual employment hours. New South Wales’ two million club members want community centres and “people gardens” not cavernous, gaudy poker machine halls. Colonel Davis said that clubs had been “too commercialised,” ignoring competition from improved hotel facilities, failing to cater for families, or plan for the introduction of random breath testing. “Even poker machines hold little attraction for the next generation of club goers — young people brought up on video games,” said Colonel Davis. “Just standing there in rows pulling a handle is boring — poker machines will have to become more sophisticated. The older members even have to be enticed by gift tokens and bonus payments.” Parramatta Leagues Club, west of Sydney, has recovered from the first shock of random breath testing and is expecting to

make a sAust.3oo,ooo profit this financial year. The Parramatta entertainment manager, Mr Robin Hunt, said that the club was thriving because it had recognised the move away from “beer gardens” and planned for the inevitable introduction of random breath testing.

Five years ago, Parramatta Leagues was restructured to incorporate a first class a la carte restaurant, a medium priced Chinese restaurant, a bistro, and a charcoal grill to attract a cross-section of restaurant goers. Young people were targeted with the introduction of regular discos and an internal security service was introduced in the mammoth complex to convince parent’s Parramatta Leagues was the type of place “they would let their daughters go to.” The secretary manager of Dubbo R.S.L., Mr John Whittle, who was part of the “think tank” which compiled the R.C.A. report, said many clubs were responding to random breath testing with

the introduction of nonalcoholic bars. He said that Dubbo R.S.L. now provided free coffee at any time and sold increasing quantities of nonalcoholic wine, beer, spirits and “exotic” alcohol-free cocktails mixed from these bases. Liquor sales have fallen, but the club is continuing to attract its 7000 members to use their two heated pools, squash courts, spa, gymnasium, child care centre and attend a range of classes in their auditorium. The 30,000-member Central Coast Leagues Club is recognised as one of the industry’s big successes. The secretary manager, Mr Ken Knock, said, “When people started talking about putting on buses to get people to clubs, we decided to make the place so attractive they would make their own way here. “We humanised the club by creating small intimate dining areas, introducing audience participation shows and dances, and locating live bands around the club.” Central Coast Leagues

also opened a “zero bar” with a competition between staff members to mix the most attractive nonalcoholic cocktails. Mr Knock, another member of the R.C.A. “think tank,” said that poker machines would not be enough to attract people to clubs if they were set in huge smoke-filled rooms, smelling of stale beer. “Clubs are coming under a lot of pressure from hotels which want the right to install poker machines — unless clubs make some very definite moves to serve their members they won’t survive,” he said. “Some clubs are their own worst enemy, they sell beer for 50c a midi and wonder why they have not got any money for facilities. “We sell midis for 83c and people might have one drink less, but they still come because of the atmosphere.” At the Revesby Workers Club, in south-west Sydney, there are drama, dancing and fitness classes, junior discos, free concerts for pensioners, rock groups, and a welfare officer available for its 29,000 members. The club has set aside an entire bar for “sophisticated non-alcoholic drinks and cocktails.” “People do not have to get embarrassed any more by standing round with their friends sipping lemonade or orange juice,” said the club secretary-manager, Mr Brian Higgs. The R.C.A. believes even small clubs have the capacity to change and provide facilities within their means to attract local people and it will conduct a big market research campaign to determine what the public want from their clubs. The R.C.A. report was also strongly critical of the over-all standard of club management. “Perhaps the largest

problem the industry has is 15,000 directors with no demonstrable skills in club administration,” it said. The success of Central Coast Leagues, according to Mr Knock, is staff education in working hours, regular staff and management meetings and the appointment of the state’s first professional club management trainees in co-opera-tion with the Management Institute. The report suggests an accreditation and qualification system for club managers and a grading system to match managers with the size of the club to prevent the disasters caused by the appointment of unqualified people. Last Christmas people were staying away from clubs in droves and predicting the slow death of this once immortal institution. This Christmas the Registered Clubs’ Association is determined New South Wales clubs will survive as a way of life unique to Australia and the world.