Lessons from Winchester: Ownership, Debt, and Offerings

Himanshu Patel, former president of Winchester Soccer Club, detailed the private club’s development of a $15 million indoor-outdoor sports complex in 2021 on privately purchased land.

The Winchester Soccer Club, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) entity incorporated in 1980 that owns the facility located at Winchester Community Park (WCP), which includes a 70,000-square-foot indoor field house, an 11v11 outdoor turf field and 6v6 outdoor grass field. Management of the facility is handled by Teamworks of Acton, a private sports facility operator, under a partnership agreement with the Winchester Soccer Club and its affiliated club program, SFC New England.

The land purchase was around $500,000–$600,000 by the Winchester Soccer Club with accrued club funds. Total funding came from club reserves, community fundraising, private loans from high net worth individuals, and a mortgage through Salem Five Bank.

The former tannery site required remediation ($0.5-1 million) with a cap in one corner of the site and has ongoing monitoring. WCP remediated the former Tannery brown field site by removing 35,000 cubic yards of contaminated soils from the past operation of glue factory. They also removed and disposed of asbestos and other hazardous materials in the tear down of the on-site building.

Patel described the complex’s financial operation which has an estimated gross annual revenue of $2 million, a monthly 15 year mortgage of $60,000–$70,000 and a Teamworks management fee of 10–12% on revenue. The rental rates run to $1,000/hour for indoor space during peak winter months, November to March and drop in the off season with $175–$200/hour off-season for use of the outdoor turf fields.
The club’s facility is used primarily by their own teams during the school day (2pm-8pm) and is rented out to other organizations such as Boston Ski and Sports club in the evenings 8pm-12am and on weekends. BSSC is one of the nation’s largest and longest running social sports clubs for adults with a range of recreational activities for over 50,000 active adults in and around Greater Boston and 14 full-time dedicated staffers.

The Winchester Soccer Club serves more than 1,200 players locally on any given Saturday charging each player, depending on the age group anywhere from $150 to $275 dollars per player per season. They also have an additional 700 players in a regional club program, SFC New England, charging $2,700 per year. Patel emphasized that any surplus is reinvested into lowering fees or sponsoring community programs.
WSC offers Winchester Recreation free indoor space for up to half day programming before school lets out. Seasonally dependent, WSC pays WinRec to use their fields for league play on town fields. WinRec also owns their own building, a converted old elementary school where they run after school programs on a turf field and various courts.

Patel reported that they pay a percentage of revenue to coaches, for facilities upkeep, and to Teamworks. They share revenue with Teamworks and as a nonprofit use the money to lower costs for their players and sponsor local town sports. Teamworks will run summer camps with up to 200 kids a week using the indoor space which is popular on 100 degree days.

The SFC New England club program has 48 teams. Of the 1,400 plus kids who registered to try out for SFC, 700 kids were cut. Winchester Rec has 1,200 kids on the town teams.