Sun City West reader questions rec center's golf revenues explanation

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OPINION — In this latest example of “let’s hope the residents don’t notice” financial reporting, the unaudited 6/30/26 end of year financial statements indicate glaring deviations from the budget. Residents really should take notice.

Golf fees (a revenue item) for the 12 months came in at $10,931,208, $405,240 less than budgeted. With average revenue per round at roughly $30 each, we somehow missed out on quite a few thousand rounds of golf.

The rec center’s only explanation: Extreme temps in March, April and June negatively impacted non-member golf rounds. I find this odd given June’s golf fees actually beat the budget by $4,742 and were favorable to prior year by $19,012.

A review of each month’s golf fees for the entire fiscal year, one by one, is all over the place, from a one-month deficit of $233,905 to a one-month surplus of $85,824. Are our budgeting efforts that unpredictable?

Let’s look at some simple facts.

For the month of March, the average daily temperature for just one week was above expectations, but for the entire month the average was 78.8 degrees. Average temperature in April was a normal 77.6 degrees and for the month of June 2026, the average temperature was 96.0 degrees, about 5% above normal.

That may be warm for some people but by then the community is populated almost entirely with us Firebirds, to whom 96 degrees means we can finally take off our coats and gloves.

There is certainly nothing extreme about any of those averages. Blaming temperatures is a really poor excuse for budgeting for far more rounds and revenue than should have been expected. Why do they have to blame warm weather? Why not just admit the truth?

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