The Journal · The Brantford Club

What Does a Private Club Membership Cost in Ontario?

Almost no private club in Ontario publishes its fees, so the honest answer has a shape rather than a number: commonly a one-time entrance fee, recurring dues, and at many clubs a dining minimum. The only reliable way to learn a real figure is to ask the club directly, and at The Brantford Club that question is answered by a person, by email.

Somebody searching this question tonight has usually just priced a Toronto club and sat back from the screen. It is the most searched club question in the province and the least answered, because the clubs themselves stay quiet and the pages that do answer are guessing. This Journal will not print a guess, and it will not print fees, ours included. What it can do, honestly, is explain how club pricing is built, why the numbers hide, and how to get a true answer with one email, which is more than the search results currently offer.

How Ontario Club Pricing Is Commonly Structured

Private club membership in Canada is commonly priced in three parts, though every club sets its own terms and the only binding version is the one a club quotes you itself.

City clubs and golf clubs price differently as species: a course is expensive ground to keep, and golf entrance fees in the province commonly run far beyond what city clubs ask. A house with dining rooms carries a different arithmetic than two hundred acres of turf, which is worth remembering when a Toronto or golf figure is the one that sent you here.

Why the Numbers Are Rarely Published

Three reasons, none of them sinister. Fees are set and reviewed by boards, often annually, so a printed number ages badly. Categories are personal: the figure for a thirty-year-old professional, a corporate seat, and a couple joining together may all differ, so a single published number would mislead more than it informs. And the convention is old: clubs have always preferred to discuss the particulars with the actual person asking, the same way the rest of the relationship will be conducted. The effect on searchers is real, a province of pages with no answers, but the cause is custom, not concealment.

How to Get a Real Answer

Email the club, plainly. Every club on the Ontario register keeps a manager or membership office whose ordinary work is exactly this conversation, and a short note saying who you are and that you are asking about membership will get the true, current figure for your situation, usually quickly. Ask what the entrance fee is for your age and category, what the dues run and how they are billed, and whether a dining minimum applies. Asking commits you to nothing; clubs answer this question every week of the year, and the reply will tell you as much about the house as the number does.

The Brantford Question

The Brantford Club keeps to the same convention for the same reasons, so no fee appears on this page or anywhere on this site. What the Club does promise is the other half of the bargain: a cost question sent to the membership address is read and answered by a person, not a form, as soon as we are able. The house has been answering its mail at 98 George Street since 1898; this particular letter is one it welcomes.

What it costs is a fair question, and the house has always preferred to answer it person to person.

Questions searchers ask about club costs

Related: the Ontario register of clubs · what membership gives