NSWBA - Chairman's Corner

Table numbers at our regular duplicate sessions and state championship events have been declining steadily for several years. To get an insight into the factors behind this worrying trend, Council decided to survey players who attended sessions in April. In all, 215 responses were received of which 200 were from NSWBA members (this represents about 35% of the current membership) and 15 from non-members. The responses were collated and analysed by Kim Neale and the results are most revealing.

NSWBA membership is approximately two thirds female to one third male. As the graphs illustrate, the membership is heavily skewed towards the older end of the spectrum, with 78% of the women and 47% of the men being over the age of 60. A higher proportion of the men than women play in championship events (38% to 18%). Not unexpectedly the percentage who play championship events drops for both men and women as they get older. More surprisingly though the figures indicate that only 25% of our membership is interested in championship events with the other 75% just looking for a social game. This suggests that even though the NSWBA is the state body, its club is primarily serving the function of a social, city based, club. This view is reinforced by the geographic spread of our membership.

Suburb Category	Respondents	Percent
Inner Sydney	56	26%
Eastern Suburbs	48	22%
Lower North Shore	28	13%
Upper North Shore	16	8%
Northern Beaches	4	2%
Inner West	20	9%
Outer West	4	2%
Outer South West	2	1%
Canterbury-Bankstown	2	1%
St George/Sutherland	21	10%
Gosford/Wyong	3	1%
Unknown Postcode	11	5%
TOTAL	215	100%

As can be seen from the table above, 35% of our players come from inner city and inner west, with a further 35% from the eastern suburbs and the lower north shore. Curiously, we do draw players from as far afield as Sutherland and Gosford, no doubt due to our proximity to Central Station.

Transport does not appear to be much of a deterrent, at least not to those who are still attending our sessions. Nearly 50% of the respondents got to the session they were at that day by car, 25% by bus, 13% by train, 11% on foot and the remainder by ferry or taxi. Access to public transport was generally seen as a plus, particularly by the daytime players, however many of those that came by car found parking a problem.

On the crucial question of likes & dislikes there was, as you’d expect, a broad spectrum of opinion:

Likes
Friendly atmosphere/Good company	103
Good Directors/Well organised/competent staff	73
High Standard Bridge/better competition	53
Comfortable/Pleasant Rooms/Ambience	22
Convenience/central location	21
Catering	17
Like everything about the club	10
Reasonable parking Fees	3
Library	2
Total favourable comments	304

Dislikes
Air-conditioning	73
Parking	26
Sterile atmosphere/décor/ chairs/ tidiness/noise	25
Inadequate Toilet facilities (mainly ladies)	22
Location/ Streets unsafe/no taxis	16
Sessions too long/ Playing 30 boards/long lunch	11
More catering, Canteen, buffet, etc	10
Poor table numbers	8
Bridge standard declining/experts unfair	6
No smoking policy	5
Lifts	5
Slow Play/too much talking/mobile phones answered	5
Playing 2 board rounds – too short	3
Weeks skipped for ABF tournaments	2
Poor value for entry fees	2
No coaching – discussion of hands would be good	2
Not many youth players	1
Total unfavourable comments	222

Overall that’s not too bad a report card, so how does one account for the declining numbers. Well the first thing to note is that this is a survey of people who are still coming along to our sessions rather than those who have abandoned us. A careful reading of the individual responses suggests that while we are making a pretty good fist of running a bridge club (viz. friendly atmosphere, good directors, well organised sessions, competent staff), we are doing so while battling a daunting array of obstacles (poor air-conditioning, inadequate toilets, erratic lifts, scarce parking, and safety concerns at night) any one of which may be sufficient to persuade people to seek their bridge elsewhere. After all with the proliferation of comfortable, friendly, and accessible bridge clubs in the suburbs, Sydneysiders are spoilt for choice.

The survey has also highlighted that the influx of players the NSWBA got when it absorbed Bill Zorn’s Sydney Bridge Club, some twenty years ago, are now fairly advanced in age and inevitably their number is dwindling. While the inner-city population is, if anything, larger today than it was in the 1980’s, its makeup has changed dramatically. Gentrification & high-rise has attracted a very different socio-economic group to the city and one for whom bridge holds little appeal.

The drop-off in the quality of the field at state championship events also came in for mention. While it was generally recognised that this was due to the over abundance of ABF gold-point events and the impact of OzOne, and hence largely beyond the control of the NSWBA, it was nonetheless noted as a worrying trend that needed addressing.

Council now has a clearer picture of what we are up against. Our next task is to formulate a plan to deal with it. You might like to watch this space!

Chairman’s Corner