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That question was asked while I was out there, and they indicated that this WAS the long-term goal, but they had a few plans first...first was completing the ranges as they'd like, then duplicating the entire setup on the opposite side of their property, all while building their dream conference center/hotel/restaurant(s).
A recent email cited a goal of something like 200,000 students a year, and the math about the potential revenue came out to making $1,000 per student, so trying to get some of that money going into Pahrump is pretty high on the list...from there I expect they see how it works then start looking for land on the east coast. I'll be curious to see prices on-site when Pahrump isn't THAT far away, and they'll need to compete.
But the membership change doesn't surprise me...I was looking through their history on the Way Back Machine and this isn't the first time they've changed some of the memberships.
Since we're making predictions in this thread, here's mine...they're boosted membership numbers while shopping for a developer for the hotel/conference hall/restaurants/etc. in order to show them numbers of members who might be expected to visit. Those numbers sound more meaningful to someone who is going to invest money, rather than relying on public attendance numbers (compare selling 'We have 150,000 members!' vs. 'We had 14,000 students last year. This year? Well, we can't really know until they register'). At the moment, they don't have much, if any, debt for the facility as-is, and the next big step is to get the hotel stuff under way.
As for no longer offering Diamond memberships, I'd expect something new but similar (Diamond, after all, is just about the same as the previous 'Gold' memberships). I'm not too concerned about trying to lock members out of classes (but remember that they're classes only at sites developed when the membership was purchased), but there are other ways to get a little more money (boost the 'background check' charge, for example).
As for my wishes...hopefully they'll get some better more modern marketing who didn't cut their teeth on 2am tv sales pitches, and get a better web designer who can convince them to get to the point on their pages.
A recent email cited a goal of something like 200,000 students a year, and the math about the potential revenue came out to making $1,000 per student, so trying to get some of that money going into Pahrump is pretty high on the list...from there I expect they see how it works then start looking for land on the east coast. I'll be curious to see prices on-site when Pahrump isn't THAT far away, and they'll need to compete.
But the membership change doesn't surprise me...I was looking through their history on the Way Back Machine and this isn't the first time they've changed some of the memberships.
Since we're making predictions in this thread, here's mine...they're boosted membership numbers while shopping for a developer for the hotel/conference hall/restaurants/etc. in order to show them numbers of members who might be expected to visit. Those numbers sound more meaningful to someone who is going to invest money, rather than relying on public attendance numbers (compare selling 'We have 150,000 members!' vs. 'We had 14,000 students last year. This year? Well, we can't really know until they register'). At the moment, they don't have much, if any, debt for the facility as-is, and the next big step is to get the hotel stuff under way.
As for no longer offering Diamond memberships, I'd expect something new but similar (Diamond, after all, is just about the same as the previous 'Gold' memberships). I'm not too concerned about trying to lock members out of classes (but remember that they're classes only at sites developed when the membership was purchased), but there are other ways to get a little more money (boost the 'background check' charge, for example).
As for my wishes...hopefully they'll get some better more modern marketing who didn't cut their teeth on 2am tv sales pitches, and get a better web designer who can convince them to get to the point on their pages.
Brad always says we can ask that question later. Always later hehe.
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