The 30-year-old club in Omaha, Neb. is succeeding because its leaders are taking steps to revamp what a country club could be. An emphasis on fun and entertainment has boosted membership numbers and revenue.
Everything is on the upswing at Champions Run in Omaha, Neb.
Membership numbers are rising, revenue is increasing, events routinely sell out, and the club is regularly upgrading its facilities.
What’s the secret? Creating magic.
By focusing on entertainment and fun, Creative Director Ben Lorenzen says the staff tries to create magical moments for members and their guests.
“Too many times in the club industry I think people have become complacent in what they do,” says Lorenzen. “[They say] ‘These are the same exact events we do every single year.’”
Instead, Lorenzen says Champions employees “keep challenging the status quo and [make] things fun, innovative.”
Andy Reetz, who became GM at Champions in 2017, adds he and his staff create an environment where “we’re not afraid to fail.”
“We give our leaders the bat and say, ‘go swing it,’” he says. “Every so often we swing and miss. We regroup, say ‘hey, let’s not do that one again.’”
More often than not, however, the new ideas pay off. A Fall Fest that started during the early times of the pandemic drew more than 1,000 attendees in October. Each day at the pool includes a unique activity. It could be a treasure hunt, staff members shooting T-shirts from the roof, a mascot race, or a half-court basketball shot challenge where a made shot means every adult wins a margarita and each child gets a popsicle.
“We’re trying to revamp what a country club could be,” Lorenzen says. “…We’re like the Disney World of private clubs…Creating that magic is really what differentiates us from everybody else.”
The approach is working as the number of social memberships increased more than 25% during the last two years. There is a full golf membership, with another 90 on the wait list.
An increase in memberships, along with rises in Food and Beverage sales has translated into fiscal success for Champions Run.
“It’s grown significantly over the last five years,” Reetz says. “Over 30% the last few years.”
Not bad for a place that was initially envisioned as a golf club when it opened in 1992.
HISTORY, OVERVIEW
Champions Run offers an 18-hole golf course with five sets of tees, a junior olympic-sized pool, five Har-Tru lighted tennis courts, a fitness center, banquet space and three dining areas — The Divot’s Grille, The Rough Bar and The Fairway Room.
Champions Run golf course was designed by Jeffrey Brauer.
After the course was built in 1992, the pool and tennis complex were constructed in 1993 and 1994, the clubhouse was built in 1994 and the club became private that same year.
Champions hosted the Cox Classic, a professional golf tournament on a PGA satellite tour, from 1996 through 2013.
The pavilion was constructed in 2006, and a playground next to the pool was built in 2010. A splash park, a rock wall and an expanded fitness center were constructed in 2019. The dining rooms, entrance and banquet rooms on the main level were renovated in 2021.
A member survey was conducted in 2017 and a master plan was developed based on the responses. In 2018, the club decided to eliminate food and beverage minimums. At the same time, a capital dues fund was set up to pay for improvements outlined in the master plan. Golf members pay $60 a month and social members pay $40 per month into the special fund.
APPROACH TO WORK, STAFFING
Reetz says he allows his employees to offer input and feel a sense of ownership in their work.
“What I truly enjoy about this place is my co-workers,” Reetz says. “Our culture here is second-to-none.”
The guiding principles for employees are integrity, effort and attitude.
Integrity, Reetz says, is “paramount for us. It’s the foundation.”
While Reetz expects his employees to work hard, he also wants them to enjoy what they’re doing.
“We’re positive disposition people…let’s go have some fun,” Reetz says.
In his other role as Director of Aquatics and Fitness, Lorenzen says he looks for integrity, effort and attitude when selecting swim team coaches. He has about 25 coaches, but notes about 20 do not have a swimming background.
“I can teach you how to coach swimming,” Lorenzen explains. “I can’t teach you effort, integrity and attitude…we find [coaches] who the little children are going to respond to because they’re energetic [and] they have positive attitudes.”
Around age 14, children tend to leave the swim program, but Lorenzen says Champions has older teens work as coaches in the swim, golf and tennis programs.
“A lot of them go on to be managers, ” Lorenzen says. “They become staff here.”
He notes some clubs don’t hire members because they feel it’s a conflict of interest, but Champions has a different philosophy.
“Why would I send somebody who is very talented to go work at a club down the street?” asks Lorenzen.
GOLF COURSE
Champions started as a golf course, and that venue remains very popular with members, according to Greg Jones, Director of Agronomy.
That’s likely due to the course’s mixture of driveable Par 4 holes, challenging Par 3s and risk/reward Par 5s, says Greg Neujahr, Champions’ PGA Director of Golf.
“The course makes you play a variety of…shots and utilize almost all of the clubs in your bag,” says Neujahr. “It is really difficult to get tired of playing the course.”
The cart paths on holes 15, 16 and 17 will be converted this year from asphalt to concrete, and re-routed, while the other paths will be redone during the next four to five years.
Mitch Klooz, a PGA Assistant Golf Professional at the club, says there are multiple spots where the underbrush was removed to improve the air flow, which in turn, helps keep the grass healthy. Some trees were also removed to boost playability.
A cottonwood tree that stands next to the 18th hole fairway is used as the club’s logo.
Neujahr says they are testing a strain of bent grass called 007 XL on a few fairways and tee boxes.
“This new bent is more tolerant to heat and disease,” Neujahr says. “We are excited to see what these areas look like next spring.”
Participation in the junior program among golf members has remained consistent, but there are more social members who want their children to receive instruction.
“We have provided outside instruction for these kids beyond the scope of our normal junior program,” Neujahr says.
The women’s golf leagues are popular, with more than 200 participants and the course is on track to log about 27,000 rounds played in 2022.
TENNIS, PICKLEBALL
Racquet sports are active at Champions, with the club offering an “extensive” tennis and pickleball program, according to Sue Sloboth, Director of Tennis/Pickleball. There are “Learn to Play” tennis and pickleball clinics that feed into novice league play and tennis clinics for juniors of different abilities and ages.
“Juniors [have] the opportunity to play two to five times [per] week,” Sloboth says. “We have an active Junior Ladder with modified point play out for new players, on up to junior Interclub team competition for the Advanced Excellence group.”
FOOD AND BEVERAGE
Executive Chef John Benton says he enjoys the variety of tasks he handles, and notes the day might start with a breakfast and conclude with grilling food on the golf course.
“I never get bored,” he says.
Each week, the club features a different dry-aged steak cut. ”Everybody knows good steak, but we try and take that a step further by taking a great cut of meat and then aging that in-house in a controlled environment, anywhere from 14 days to three and four months,” Benton says.
Mexican-style dishes are among the most popular choices on the menu, but the most sought-after item is the snake river farms double cheeseburger.
Benton says he’s working on starting a handmade pasta program.
MEMBERSHIP GETTING YOUNGER
An emphasis on fun and entertainment has led to a younger membership base, with the average age of members declining during the last few years to 48.
One youth activity that has skyrocketed in popularity is the swim team, which has 420 members.
“It’s the largest recreational swim team in the country,” Lorenzen says.
Why are there so many swimmers? Simple: An emphasis on fun and entertainment.
“[Swimming’s] not a very social sport and when I started [it], people didn’t want to be there,” Lorenzen says. “It was like pulling teeth to get kids in the water.”
He chose to take a different approach.
“[We decided] we’re going to focus this entire program on fun,” Lorenzen says.
Perhaps 20% of practice time is dedicated to swimming laps and the rest is spent playing games and having fun. The program’s participation level grew from 80 swimmers to 150 to 220 to 350. Lorenzen increased the registration fee to try to slow things down, but he says “more people signed up.”
Recent facility upgrades are also targeted toward younger members.
Last winter, the club increased its pool deck by about 15 feet, built a retaining wall and set up cabanas. The baby pools were replaced by a splash park with three water slides in 2019.
“The kids just absolutely love it,” Lorenzen says.
Also in 2019, a rock wall was added in the diving well to offer an activity for teens. Stationed in the middle of the splash park is the Kraken, an orange squid that serves as Champions’ mascot. Several years ago, Lorenzen asked members to vote in an Instagram poll and the Kraken received the most votes in a competition against three other potential mascots.
Initially, the Kraken was only connected with aquatics, but once Reetz took charge in 2017, he instructed Lorenzen to associate the orange squid with other activities.
“Now everyone’s the Kraken,” Lorenzen says. “That orange squid’s on everything. It’s on our menu. It’s on all of the apparel that we wear.”
Reetz notes Lorenzen is a big fan of the Savannah Bananas, the exhibition baseball team in Savannah, Ga. that ESPN called “the greatest show in sports.”
“Sometimes I feel like we’re the Kraken Bananas,” Reetz says.
Some of the club’s most popular events are family-friendly.
Kayla Ryan, Director of Weddings and Banquets, estimates 500 to 600 children attend the Halloween event, and 600 youngsters go to each of the two Santa brunches. About 1,000 people attended Fall Fest, which included a live band with a beer garden, hay rides, bounce houses, petting zoos, and games.
Ryan notes Fall Fest was started in 2020, and continued the last two years because it was so well-received the first time.
“Now every single country club in Omaha has a big Fall Fest,” Ryan says. “Now Andy [Reetz] puts on the challenge of . . .has [the event] run its course?…. What else can we do?”
Ryan says she works with Lorenzen on creating new events.
“Now, it’s like, ‘what’s next?” Ryan states. “We’re working on it. [We’re] trying to stay ahead of everyone else.”
And it’s this effort to create new experiences that makes each day unique at Champions.
“Every single day is kind of a new adventure,” Reetz says.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.