An iconic part of Wagga's social scene has shut its doors for good, with the Commercial Club announcing it will not be opening again due to mounting losses.
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RSL chief executive Andrew Bell said the board had pumped millions of dollars into the club, but had not turned a profit in over a decade due to a lack of patrons.
"We've worked very, very, very hard to make it better: we've put in the deck, we renewed the bar, we put an outdoor gardening area in, we painted, we carpeted," Mr Bell said.
"We've spent millions of dollars here but we just couldn't get enough support from our members and their guests. We just couldn't get the numbers through the door."
President Peter Thomas said the RSL had merged with the club nearly 12 nears ago in an effort to revive the struggling venue.
He said the team managed to take the club from "enormous losses" to "almost break-even", but had never quite managed to break into profitable territory.
"They were going to close, so they asked us to merge for them. We took them on and made big inroads into the losses, but not enough," Mr Thomas said.
"We still believe we've done a wonderful job, but we just didn't get the income we needed from that job."
Mr Thomas said the board had been thinking about closing for about three to four years, but that COVID had sped up the process.
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Mr Bell said their priority was now keeping staff who worked at the Commercial Club in a job by moving them to the RSL to keep up their hours.
However, Mr Bell said it would be a major struggle to keep up everyone's hours due to JobKeeper payments drying up at the end of September and COVID restrictions limiting their capacity.
Mr Bell said the RSL club itself was still going "very strong", so much so that they were planning to expand their services in the coming months, hinting at further announcements in October.
"This frees up time and money for us to spend more time on the RSL and get some new projects going," Mr Bell said.
"Once our new caterers are established, get their clientele, and COVID relaxes its grip a little bit they'll be doing a lot more things."
In an email sent to their 26,000 members, the board thanked the patrons for their support and all the good times.
"To those of you who supported the Commercial Club over the last eleven years we sincerely thank you," they said.
"The friendships, the celebrations, the shows, the meals, the drinks, and the good times will remain fond memories for us all."
Kenji Sato
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
