The Club Website Question: Do You Even Need One?

This might be the most controversial thing I write this year.

Most sports clubs don't need a website.

Let me be more precise. Most sports clubs don't need the website they currently have — a five-page WordPress site built by a committee member in 2017, last updated eight months ago, showing last season's results and a photo of the 2019 presentation night.

That website is doing nothing for your club. It's not bringing in members. It's not communicating with existing ones. It exists because someone once said "we should have a website" and nobody has questioned it since.

Where members actually get information

Before you build or rebuild a website, answer this honestly: where do your members actually go for information about the club?

For most clubs under 300 members, the answer is some combination of:

• A Facebook group (checked daily)
• A WhatsApp or Messenger group (checked hourly)
• Direct email from the secretary or coach
• Word of mouth at training

Your website is not on that list. It might be where a prospective member goes when they Google your club name. But for your existing 180 members? They haven't visited in months.

This isn't a criticism. It's physics. People go where the information is fresh and where their attention already lives. Facebook and WhatsApp are habitual — people are already there. A club website requires a deliberate visit to a separate destination. That's friction, and friction kills engagement.

When you genuinely need a website

There are real situations where a club website earns its keep.

You're a public-facing club actively recruiting. If prospective members are Googling "tennis club near me" or "kids soccer Melbourne," you need to appear in that search. A Facebook page can do some of this work, but a proper website with clear information — what you offer, how much it costs, how to join — converts browsers into members far more effectively.

You run public events. If your club hosts tournaments, community days, or events open to non-members, you need a public presence that looks credible. A Facebook event works for small things. A proper event page with registration works for serious ones.

Your governing body requires it. Some state bodies require affiliated clubs to maintain a public web presence with specific information — contact details, child safety policies, complaints procedures. If that's you, you need a website. But it can be a simple one.

You have sponsors who expect visibility. Sponsors paying for logo placement on your website need that website to actually exist and have traffic. Though honestly, if your website gets 30 visits a month, your sponsors are getting terrible value and you should have that conversation.

When you don't

Your club has fewer than 80 members and everyone knows each other. A private Facebook group and email does everything a website would do, faster and with less maintenance.

Nobody is willing to maintain it. An outdated website is worse than no website. If the person who built it has left the committee and nobody else knows how to update it, take it down. A Google Business Profile with your address, phone number, and hours is more useful than a website showing 2021 fixtures.

You're using it as a communication tool for existing members. A website is a terrible communication tool. It's passive — people have to choose to visit. Use email, SMS, or messaging apps for communication. Use a website for public-facing information only.

If you do build one, build it right

If your club genuinely needs a website, here's what matters.

Make it self-updating where possible. If your membership system can generate a public membership form, embed it. If your events system can publish upcoming events, connect it. Every piece of content that updates automatically is one less thing for a volunteer to maintain manually.

Keep the page count low. You need: Home, About (with how to join), Events/Fixtures, Contact. Maybe a Sponsors page. That's five pages. Not fifteen.

Mobile first. 70% of your visitors are on their phone. If your website doesn't work on a phone, it doesn't work.

Put the join button everywhere. The single purpose of a club website is to convert a prospective member into an actual member. Every page should have a clear path to joining. Not buried in a menu. On the page. Visible.

Accept that content will go stale. Don't put news on your website unless you have a plan to update it weekly. Stale news — "Great turnout at our March BBQ!" posted in March, now it's November — makes your club look dead. If you can't commit to regular updates, don't have a news section.

The social media reality

Here's the uncomfortable truth: your Facebook group has more engagement than your website ever will. Members check it daily. They comment. They share photos. They ask questions. It's alive in a way that a static website can never be.

The downsides of Facebook are real — you don't own the platform, the algorithm controls reach, and it's not great for formal communication. But for community building and day-to-day engagement, it wins.

The smart play isn't website versus social media. It's using each for what it's good at:

• Website: public-facing information for prospective members and sponsors. The shop window.
• Facebook/Instagram: community engagement, photos, informal updates. The clubhouse.
• Email: formal communication, invoices, notices. The letterbox.
• SMS: urgent, time-sensitive messages. The phone call.

Each channel has a job. When you use a channel for the wrong job — like using your website for member communication or Facebook for formal governance notices — it fails.

The maintenance question

Every website needs maintenance. Hosting costs money. Domain names need renewing. WordPress needs updating or it gets hacked. Content goes stale. Links break.

Someone on your committee needs to own this. Not "the committee" — a specific person. If you can't name that person, you can't maintain a website.

The total cost of a basic club website: $200-500/year for hosting and domain, plus 2-4 hours per month of someone's time for updates. That's 24-48 volunteer hours per year. On a website that might get 100 visits a month.

Is that the best use of those hours? For some clubs, absolutely. For others, those hours would be better spent on member engagement, event planning, or just giving a tired volunteer their weekends back.

Ask the question. Answer it honestly. And if the answer is "we don't really need this," it's okay to let it go.