Managing your venue's Sinking Fund

We encourage all venues to take a proactive approach in managing a sinking fund, as this is the only way of guaranteeing long-term sustainability of a quality facility. We provide some guidance below to help you think about the best approach for your venue.

What is a Sinking Fund?

The term ‘sinking fund’ refers to the financial savings that the venue has set aside over a number of years to maintain facilities to a high standard; this covers all aspects from the courts through to the clubhouse. In particular, tennis courts, padel courts and floodlights only have a limited lifespan before requiring renovation or replacement, and these can carry significant costs.

Venues may find themselves in financial difficulties if they have failed to setup a long-term sinking fund plan, and relying on grant funding from external organisations to maintain facilities is not a prudent approach. 

Developing a long-term Sinking Fund plan

Effectively managing your venue’s sinking fund does not need to be particularly onerous if undertaken on a long-term basis. Venues come into difficulties when they have left it to the last minute and not set aside any savings.  

To develop an effective sinking fund plan, the venue should break down the total costs to renovate or replace the courts and floodlights at the end of their lifespan. Each year the venue should ring-fence the allocated annual amount into their sinking fund to put aside for the future facility redevelopment. The venue should resist touching this money for any other scheme or initiative. 

The Sinking Fund calculator

Ideally, venues should refer to the specific Operation & Maintenance manuals provided by the contractor who installed the courts and/or floodlights to determine how best to structure the sinking fund plan.

As a general guide:

• Tennis court surfaces are likely to need replacing after 10 years of usage – this is an estimation only and will vary based on a number of factors such as court usage levels, levels of regular maintenance appropriate to the court surface, and the positioning of the courts relative to trees and other greenery. 
• Floodlights and columns should have a lifespan of 20 years, however, there are many variables based on the specification at your venue – e.g. older metal halide lamps will need much more regular replacement than newer LEDs.
• Padel courts will require replacement of the synthetic turf every 4 years – this is an estimation only and will vary based on court usage levels. 

This simple calculator provides a ball-park figure of what your venue sinking fund is likely to be over 10 years. 

The calculator only takes into account your courts and floodlights. Venues should also consider in their sinking fund other long-term maintenance and development costs such as clubhouses and fencing. Therefore, this calculator should only be used as a guide and not as a definitive figure. 

To use the calculator, enter the details for your venue where requested, and it will provide you with the following: 

• The amount of money your venue should save annually to meet sinking fund requirements based on a 10-year plan.
• A year-by-year forecast of the recommended balance of your sinking fund.