Kids Netball club - pay annually or termly?

Fireflyaway

My daughter has tried quite a few different clubs over the years. Most have been fine but one was really off. They focused only on their club and didn't take into consideration other activities / school finish times etc. I think they were of the opinion that if you didn't drop everything else to attend you were not committed and they didn't want you!
I'd say go somewhere else if you feel a bad atmosphere. Having said that, maybe they need 2 terms money to be able to rent facilities / pay the instructor etc and can't budget if they only get half the money. Sounds like both sides feel put out.
All the clubs we have experienced have either charged monthly or half termly.

Malthusian

Fireflyaway wrote: »

My daughter has tried quite a few different clubs over the years. Most have been fine but one was really off. They focused only on their club and didn't take into consideration other activities / school finish times etc. I think they were of the opinion that if you didn't drop everything else to attend you were not committed and they didn't want you!

In every sport there are some clubs which treat it as serious business and some which are more casual. If you are the casual type it may seem unreasonable to expect you to commit to turning up week in week out and having no other interests. But if you are passionate about netball and want the team to do as well as possible, it seems equally unreasonable that people should expect to turn up for one session in three and get the same playing time as the players who are committed.

If you are competitive then casual players are an annoyance, because if they don't turn up every week they don't improve, they don't learn tactics and they're of little use in competitions. This is why I don't do team sports - too much hassle and too much politics. But I can still empathise with people who do like team sports and take their competitions seriously.

The OP will probably say at this point "it's just kids' netball", which is why he should find another club that caters to players who just want a casual kickabout. It seems pretty clear that this netball club doesn't want casual players and he's wasting his time (and his DD's, and theirs).

michaels

Malthusian wrote: »

In every sport there are some clubs which treat it as serious business and some which are more casual. If you are the casual type it may seem unreasonable to expect you to commit to turning up week in week out and having no other interests. But if you are passionate about netball and want the team to do as well as possible, it seems equally unreasonable that people should expect to turn up for one session in three and get the same playing time as the players who are committed.

If you are competitive then casual players are an annoyance, because if they don't turn up every week they don't improve, they don't learn tactics and they're of little use in competitions. This is why I don't do team sports - too much hassle and too much politics. But I can still empathise with people who do like team sports and take their competitions seriously.

The OP will probably say at this point "it's just kids' netball", which is why he should find another club that caters to players who just want a casual kickabout. It seems pretty clear that this netball club doesn't want casual players and he's wasting his time (and his DD's, and theirs).

She is very happy to make a known commitment (this weekend we had to persuade her not to turn out for her football team because we were worried that playing in the snow might turn her flu into pneumonia), it is the suggestion that she also needs to make an unknown commitment over and above any other activity that is a problem.

Why couldn't the club say please pay us for the year and if we then change the time to one you can't make then we will refund you as happens with any business booking?

Comms69

michaels wrote: »

She is very happy to make a known commitment (this weekend we had to persuade her not to turn out for her football team because we were worried that playing in the snow might turn her flu into pneumonia) - I'd argue that if she's out of bed, she didn't have flu..... , it is the suggestion that she also needs to make an unknown commitment over and above any other activity that is a problem. - yes, your problem though, not the clubs.

Why couldn't the club say please pay us for the year and if we then change the time to one you can't make then we will refund you as happens with any business booking?

Because they don't want to. Why do you think you can make your problems into their problems?


They are free to not do business with you.

gettingtheresometime

michaels wrote: »

She is very happy to make a known commitment (this weekend we had to persuade her not to turn out for her football team because we were worried that playing in the snow might turn her flu into pneumonia), it is the suggestion that she also needs to make an unknown commitment over and above any other activity that is a problem.

Why couldn't the club say please pay us for the year and if we then change the time to one you can't make then we will refund you as happens with any business booking?

No what the club is saying is that they don't want to play second fiddle to your daughter's other commitments.


You've already indicated that if there was a clash then this netball would always be the loser. Now once or twice that's acceptable but if it was a case of either going to netball or one of the other hobbies, then netball would be dropped.


In that light I don't see why you're making such an issue out of it.

silvercar

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

No what the club is saying is that they don't want to play second fiddle to your daughter's other commitments.


You've already indicated that if there was a clash then this netball would always be the loser. Now once or twice that's acceptable but if it was a case of either going to netball or one of the other hobbies, then netball would be dropped.


In that light I don't see why you're making such an issue out of it.

I don't agree with your interpretation. OP is happy for his DD to commit to netball as much as to anything else. If everything else has fixed days, then netball changing would be the problem. It wouldn't be reasonable to say to another club on say Tuesday, "can I only pay for this term in case netball moves to Tuesday" and when they reply negatively ask if they would agree a refund if netball moved to Tuesday as that has to be prioritised.

gingercordial

michaels wrote: »

Why couldn't the club say please pay us for the year and if we then change the time to one you can't make then we will refund you as happens with any business booking?

They are allowed to not do refunds. Many businesses don't do refunds so to say this happens with "any business booking" is not true.

If their terms are that the whole year must be paid for upfront and there are no refunds, well, you know that now. Only you can decide if you want to risk losing the money if she doesn't do term 2 for whatever reason.