Club (C) and Catering Club (CC) Liquor License "C" and "CC" licensed establishments must operate for the good of the club membership and in a fraternal sense. The sale of alcoholic beverages must be secondary to the actual reason for the club's existence. Incorporated clubs must exist for a minimum of one year prior to applying for a liquor license. Unincorporated clubs must exist for a minimum of ten years prior to a liquor license being granted. The club must possess an original charter and must hold regular meetings open to its members, conduct legitimate business through elected officers, admit members by written application, investigation and ballot, charge and collect dues and maintain required records. A club is not an organization used to accommodate a private bar operation. Additionally, no individual is allowed to own a club. "CC" licensees may allow groups in the establishment for weddings or private affairs with prior arrangement. Private clubs are forbidden to sell alcoholic beverages for take-out purposes. Operational Hours: Sales and giving/furnishing of alcohol may begin at 7:00 AM. Sales and giving/furnishing of alcohol must cease at 3:00 AM. All unfinished alcoholic beverages must be collected and all patrons must depart the premises by 3:30 AM. Clubs (C) and Catering Clubs (CC) may be open 7 days a week. Clubs (C) and Catering Clubs (CC) may be open on Election Day.
Do Guidelines Clearly post suspension notices. Check open liquor stock for contamination (bugs, debris, etc). Maintain all club records in conformity with PLCB rules and regulations. Maintain catering records and a valid Health License (Catering Clubs only). Charge and collect dues from all club members in accordance with club by-laws. Operate the club for the mutual benefit of the entire membership and hold regular meetings. Constantly display your Liquor License / Small Games of Chance License in a conspicuous place under a transparent substance. Clean coils at least once every seven days and maintain coil cleaning records, with method of cleaning indicated, on the premises. Adhere to all of the provisions of the club constitution and by-laws, including conducting business through regularly elected officers. Notify Liquor Control Board of change of officers, directors, managers, or stewards at the time of renewal on forms provided by the Liquor Board. A change of manager or steward is to be filed at the time of validation and renewal. Maintain club membership records, payroll records, financial records, all invoices and receipts, photo static copies of charter (if incorporated), copy of by-laws, copy of club constitution and minute book on the licensed premises. Obtain a County Small Games of Chance License if you have raffles, strip tickets, punchboards, 50/50 drawings, etc. Poker machine payoffs, and sports pools are unlawful even when you posses a Small Games of Chance License. Don't Guidelines Sell alcoholic beverages on credit. Employ anyone under 16 years of age. Supply false information on PLCB forms. Purchase malt or brewed beverages on credit. Sell or furnish any alcoholic beverages after 3:00 AM. Permit illegal drug use or drug sales on the premises. Interfere with an Enforcement Officer conducting an inspection. Sell alcoholic beverages to anyone not voted in as a club member. Permit amplified music or voices to be heard outside the premises. Permit any employee under 18 years of age to handle or serve alcohol. Sell malt or brewed beverages or liquor "to go", or give alcohol as a prize. Admit new club members without a written application, investigation and vote. Open for business without a current health license (Catering Club License only). Cash payroll, Department of Public Assistance/Welfare, or unemployment checks. Sell or furnish alcoholic beverages to persons showing visible signs of intoxication. Sell or furnish alcoholic beverages to persons under 21 years of age to purchase, possess or consume any alcoholic beverages. Advertise, hold or permit a contest or tournament on the premises except those permitted by Liquor Board regulations. Permit any patrons to remain on the premises after 3:30 AM, unless you possess an Extended Hours Food permit (EHF). Pay patrons for amusement or video machine credits, or allow unlawful gambling such as sports pools (possible criminal action). Permit lewd, immoral or improper entertainment, or permit entertainers to be in contact or associate with patrons for a lewd, immoral or unlawful purpose. Permit minors on the premises, unless accompanied by a parent, legal guardian (not spouse), or under proper supervision of an adult over 25 years of age.
Just a few things to bear in mind: I'm not familiar with Chester's zoning code, but in general, I can tell you that no matter how bad the neighborhood, it's going to be a lot easier to get planning permission for a private club in a commercial or industrial area than it is in a residential area. A good first step might be for someone to talk to someone in the Chester city government to sound them out on the idea. Someone should also look and see if there are any zoning designations near the stadium that would allow the siting of a private club without a variance.
Very true... I'm just putting information up as I come to it... Bry guy you know any chester folk? if not I can try to find someone to contact.... I also sent an email off to PLCB to gather more information about the "C" license and possible costs and what not...
I don't mean to be Debby Downer, but I've got a couple questions about the logistics. How will we handle maintenance and upkeep of a private club? Who's the poor slob that's going to be cleaning the bathrooms and maintaining the refridgeration system? Keeping up with electrical, water, and mortgage bills? Stocking the alchohol and amenities? Are we going to have to hire someone for daily / weekly upkeep? If so, how do we keep up with them, and pay their wages? If someone volunteers to do this stuff for free, how are we going to be sure they're keeping up on it? Nothing says, "No fun" like a burnt out refridgeration system and unkempt bathrooms, laying dormant for two weeks while everyone waits for the next home game... Also, how do we enforce that only members are partaking in the consumption?
No problem, Deb. Run it like a frat house. (Not that I've ever lived in one, but they have pretty much the same issues, seems to me). My suggestion would be: clean up your own mess and a little bit more, and if you don't pull your weight, you're out. All excellent questions. It could be run co-op, rota, or some other system. If there are 200 members, $200 a week for an occasional janitor isn't such a big deal, either. Anyone know how the Mummers social clubs work? If the people in the club are mostly the same people that are in the stands every week, I assume party crashers will stand out pretty quickly. Although a secret handshake would be more fun...
It couldn't be a seperate membership, though, you can't get a C or CC license for an organization made to run the club.
No, but if we have a tiered membership, maybe* we could restrict club privileges to the top tier. And I doubt there'd be a problem with us yanking club privileges from certain members if required, rather than expelling them from the SoBs entirely.* Plus, even if the SoBs ran the club, there's no requirement that they own or run the building. You could maybe* set up an SPE to own the building and rent it to the SOBs, who would pay a set rent, with the rest of the mortage covered (and all of the equity held by) the members of the SPE. Ownership and club privileges would be separate, but owners would be building equity; in return, they could be responsible for certain upkeep, as is sometimes seen in other landlord-tenant relationships.* That would reduce the capital demands on the SoBs as an organization as well. *Disclaimer: I'm talking out of my ass, and I don't know if any of this is really legal, so don't take this as legal advice. I'm just brainstorming some areas to explore.
Interesting idea. Perhaps we could even "rent-to-buy" in our lease...? I guess hiring a part-time janitor to swing by the clubhouse to clean up wouldn't be too big of a deal, too. There's plenty of people that'd be willing to do it for $200 every other week, I'm sure.
I've been part of a club for years now up in center valley where i went to school its actually pretty easy to make sure its only members and your allowed like 2 guests in .... i don't wanna type it all out here but its very plausible.... I wouldn't mind running a bar doing the maintenance stuff I mean ... I can't just vouleenteer but its actually pretty easy to keep places like that clean... I do work at the ho and even though it looks dirty its actually one of the cleanest places around.... you can even bring in cleaning crews once a week for a thorough clean thats what we did at red robin.... I have tons of ideas been thinken about this for years and opening my own bar and I have plans written out... would have to modify for club license but all in all pretty simple... besides legal side
i think membership fees should help with the maintenance and janitorial staff. I believe some jobs shall be volunteer and some should be paying. We should hire within the SOBs first. I mean having a large membership like ours should have its networking advantages. Such as I can help with installing and running AV gear and televisions. Fitz probably can help with running lines and what not. It matters how we want to handle all of this and how much we use the club house and the amount of tiered membership. If we have weekly events such as poker games or EPL viewing parties then it may get used a lot. I think we should have a membership fee then a cover charge or per pitcher charge to offset a lot of the costs. Possibly just charge guest a cover charge and only allow guest during off peak events.... Just some thoughts....
I think membership fees would be a good idea, if this ever comes to fruition. But I also think... -'clubhouse' fees/membership should be somehow separate from SOB game day membership, in whatever form that takes. Or at least an upper echelon of paid membership for people who choose to participate. Perhaps an SOB+ member level... -membership in a clubhouse should have guidelines and involve some type of invitation or app process as I want to hang out with guys who have been around since the start or at least participate in SoB activities. -This is not to say guests shouldn't be welcome, but they should always be accompanied. I think most social clubs operate in this way... e.g. UGH, Ukranians etc...
Well, couldn't alchohol sales go to offset costs? If we're selling beers at $2 a pop, we'd still be pulling in a very decent amount of money. We could use the money and dues to offset all expenses, and take the remainder of the proceedes and put it towards a charity (Like the Bernedine Center, which I'm sure could use the money more than we could)
eric was that a short joke? haha anyway... The alcohol / food sales can pretty much cover everything to pay for... the running of the bar is pretty much like any bar... tips is where the bartenders make most of their money and honestly when I went to other bar liquor sales were 3 dollars a big mixed drink and beer was 2.50 and covered everything I believe with the annual membership fees... Some nights would obviously be dead but you can also have people coming in for flyers games and various other sports events.... you have to have meetings there to call it a "club" so the use could be varying
Belonging to a few private clubs myself, thought I add something I didn't see here... Along with ownership comes responsibility/liabilities.. Serious FINANCIAL responsibilities. someone gets in a car wreck and you didn't take his keys? serving an underage 19-20 because they are longtime GREAT members. (This happens all the time in PRIVATE Clubs)? slip and falls on your property? My thoughts are you should use your existing friendship with the team ownership to have them open a BAR/Restureaunt in the stadium or on the grounds dedicated to SOB..
SoB Clubhouse The last thread seems to have petered out. But if anyone has an extra $185,000 sitting around in this economy, this: is available, on a third of an acre about a mile's march from the stadium near Chester's City Hall. It's a hundred-year-old house; looks like someone started rehabbing it (including putting new roofs on) and ran out of money. All we need to do is fix it up a little...until it's, you know, not falling down. Link (requires free registration) Or there's a bare industrial parcel for sale for $225,000 at Second and Ward, literally across the street from the stadium site. Link
Re: SoB Clubhouse If we do end up with a club house, would it be a Union hall? I know, that was poor. It was probably not even worth taking the time to post it.
And to put on that empty industrial lot...a couple of prefab buildings: "Archer" ($10,000) "Bali Tea House" ($25,000) "Creemore" ($50,000) And a list of shipping container homes (about $1,000 per container). We could just take over the Union League building. I'm sure they aren't really using it.
it is risky in this sue happy society we live in. BUT...there are ways around certain issues. bartenders should be people well known and trusted, so you don't have drinks being served to people under 21. slipping liabilities, well, if it is a membership only pub, then by signing up you agree that if you fall and hurt yourself, the pub nor the SOBs are liable. if that is stated in the contract or sign up form, then you should be covered. in fact, could you not just include a disclaimer on he actual membership form not holding SOBs liable for things that happen to you that is your own fault. I'm just looking at things logically, but I'm sure the laws are completely different. just a thought though. where there is a law, there is a way to get out of it!!!
Thread necromancy... I was just running a Google real estate search (select "Show Search Options" and select "Real Estate" from the pull-down). It looks like right now, in the neighborhood just on the other side of 2nd Street, a block from the stadium, you can pick up a rowhouse ("as is") for about $20,000, or an empty lot for around $10,000. Anyone looking for an investment property?