What McMahon Group does

McMahon Group is a privately-held, St. Louis-based consulting firm specializing in private club strategy, facility planning, and membership research. Founded in the mid-1900s as an architectural practice by William Patrick McMahon and pivoted to its current consulting focus in the 1980s under Bill McMahon Sr., the firm serves country clubs, golf clubs, city/athletic clubs, yacht clubs, university clubs, military clubs, and HOA/gated residential communities. Over 40+ years, it has served 2,000+ clubs, completed 1,500+ membership surveys representing 1.5M+ members, facilitated $3.5B+ in approved clubhouse and golf course projects, and completed 700+ strategic plans and 1,500+ approved facility plans.

The firm's intellectual property consists of proprietary research methodologies rather than a software platform. Key tools include the Value Boundary™ survey instrument, the McMahon Quality Index® (MQI) five-tier quality rating system, and Clubtopia®, a directory of 600+ club service providers. Supporting programs include the bi-monthly McMahon Report® newsletter (since 1990), Club Trends® quarterly publication (co-published with the National Club Association), Pulse Survey Reports, and the Excellence in Club Management® Award (founded 1996). Revenue is generated through three streams: project-based professional services fees for strategic, facility, and specialty consulting engagements; recurring annual subscriptions for Club Trends ($150/year) and NCA membership distribution; and per-engagement MQI survey fees starting at $3,000 plus Qualtrics tabulation charges.

McMahon Group is family-influenced and operated as McMahon Group, Inc., a Missouri corporation, with no outside institutional investors or parent company. Leadership includes Frank Vain (Chairman), Martha McMahon Acker (President), and Bill McMahon Jr. (Vice President, Research and Planning). Distribution is direct via principal consultants, beginning with a complimentary First Impressions Visit (in-person or virtual) used as the top-of-funnel to develop paid engagements, supplemented by industry conference presence at CMAA and NCA events. The firm is part of the Club Leadership Alliance alongside Kopplin Kuebler & Wallace and Club Benchmarking, and holds a co-publishing partnership with the National Club Association.

Name

McMahon Group

Legal name

McMahon Group, Inc.

Website

https://mcmahongroup.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1900

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

McMahon Group is a privately-held, St. Louis-based consulting firm that provides strategic planning, facility planning, membership surveys, and specialty consulting to private clubs (country, golf, city, athletic, yacht, university, military) and HOAs across North America, serving over 2,000 clubs in 40+ years.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Private Club Management Consulting

NAICS

Golf Courses and Country Clubs (713910), Golf Courses and Country Clubs (71391), Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers (713940), Professional Organizations (81392)

SIC

Services-Membership Sports & Recreation Clubs (7997), Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Golf Clubs & Tournament-Host Clubs (Professional/Elite Golf Clubs) (MPAKABAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Specialty Membership Clubs (Category-Focused) (CRAEADAI)

Keywords

• Private club consulting
• Club strategic planning
• Facility master planning
• Membership surveys
• Club operations consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

St Louis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Club Consulting Services: Professional consulting services for private clubs including strategic planning, facility planning, membership surveys, operations consulting, dining consulting, and golf consulting. Services are project-based and include fixed-fee engagements.
2. Club Trends Subscription: Quarterly reports on important topics affecting private clubs available via annual subscription. Includes digital access and printed hard copies.
3. MQI Survey Program: Special McMahon Quality Index membership survey for clubs wanting to identify their quality score and achievement category. Survey fee plus Qualtrix tabulation charges.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

McMahon Group is a private club consulting firm that helps country clubs, golf clubs, city/athletic clubs, yacht clubs, university and military clubs, and gated residential communities with strategic planning, facility planning, membership surveys, and specialty consulting (operations, dining and golf). Engagements are delivered by principal consultants, beginning with a complimentary First Impressions Visit, and supported by proprietary research tools and a benchmarking database covering more than 1.5 million members.

Product overview

McMahon Group is a full-service private club consulting firm offering an integrated portfolio of consulting services. The core offerings include First Impressions Visits, Membership Surveys, Strategic Planning, Facility Planning, and Specialty Consulting (Operations, Dining, Golf). Supporting these core services are proprietary publications including The McMahon Report® (bi-monthly newsletter), Club Trends® (quarterly reports co-published with NCA), and Pulse Survey Reports. The company also operates the Excellence in Club Management® Award program and the McMahon Quality Index® Rating program for quality assessment. Additionally, Clubtopia® provides an internet directory for the club industry. The firm does not offer a software platform but rather delivers consulting services backed by industry research and benchmarking data.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The McMahon Report®: A bi-monthly newsletter discussing relevant news for private clubs, serving as an essential resource for private clubs and their management since 1990.
• Club Trends®
• McMahon Quality Index® (MQI®)
• Excellence in Club Management® Award
• Clubtopia®

Products and services

• First Impressions Visit A complimentary initial consulting engagement where McMahon Group's club specialist visits a private club in person or virtually to tour facilities, meet with club leadership, assess operations, and provide objective analysis and recommendations on key issues facing the club. Intended for country clubs, golf clubs, city/athletic clubs, yacht clubs and other private clubs.
• Membership Surveys A survey-based consulting service that gathers member data, analyzes results, and benchmarks them against industry data, leveraging the proprietary Value Boundary™ tool to enable consensus building among members. Intended for private clubs undertaking strategic or facility planning.
• Strategic Planning Comprehensive strategic planning consulting that helps private clubs understand where they stand today and where they need to go, drawing on input from members, management and McMahon Group's principal consultants.
• Facility Planning A comprehensive facility planning process for private clubs that combines membership research, master planning, opinion surveys and approval support, refined over 40+ years across 1,500+ approved facility plans and $3.5B+ in approved projects.
• Community Consulting A specialty consulting practice under the McMahon Community Consultants brand that serves residential communities and HOAs with facility planning, renovation project consulting, costing, and funding support for amenities and clubhouses.
• Specialty Consulting A specialty consulting bundle that includes board goal-setting, consultant-for-a-day advisory services, developer club conversions, club mergers, new club formations, and capital funding development for private clubs.
• Operations Consulting Operations consulting for private clubs that performs systematic assessments to identify programming weaknesses, evaluate management systems and procedures, and implement improvements that strengthen club operations.
• Dining Consulting The McMahon Dining Enhancement Process, a dining consulting offering that helps clubs improve dining operations through evaluation, member surveys, and the development and implementation of dining visions and missions.
• Golf Consulting Specialized golf consulting for private clubs covering turf care center and maintenance facility planning, asset reserve studies, irrigation audits, and presentation of golf course projects.
• McMahon Quality Index® (MQI®) Rating A paid research program that assesses private club quality based on members' own perceptions, benchmarking results against industry data across five achievement categories. Sold as a subscription-style engagement with a base fee of $3,000 plus Qualtrics tabulation charges.
• Club Trends® Quarterly Publication A quarterly publication co-published with the National Club Association covering important topics affecting private clubs, available by annual subscription at approximately $150 per year with digital and printed editions (NCA members receive it as part of membership).
• Clubtopia® Internet Directory for Clubs An internet directory for the club industry maintained by McMahon Group that connects club managers with more than 600 listed companies offering consulting, architecture, interior design, locker manufacturing and other services.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over $3.5 billion in approved clubhouse and golf course projects facilitated
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Kopplin Kuebler & WallacecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMcMahon Group joined with Kopplin Kuebler & Wallace (executive search firm) and Club Benchmarking to form the Club Leadership Alliance after more than ten years of working together independently. The alliance provides comprehensive services covering operational, financial, staffing, strategic, and facility aspects for private clubs.
• Club BenchmarkingcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerClub Benchmarking joined McMahon Group and Kopplin Kuebler & Wallace to form the Club Leadership Alliance, providing financial benchmarking and asset reserve study services in conjunction with McMahon's strategic and facility planning.
• National Club Association (NCA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-publishing partner for Club Trends quarterly publication. NCA members receive Club Trends as part of membership. Strategic alliance partner since 2019 as confirmed by National Club Association.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Kopplin Kuebler & Wallace: Executive search firm dedicated to the private club industry and a co-founding partner of the Club Leadership Alliance with McMahon Group. Highly comparable: serves the same club buyer (GMs, boards), in the same industry (private clubs), with an adjacent consulting/service model.
• RSF & Associates: Boutique private club management and operations consulting firm serving clubs, resorts, and HOA communities. Closely comparable in offering (operations, governance, and facility consulting) and customer base (private clubs and residential communities).
• Club Benchmarking: Financial benchmarking and asset reserve study provider for private clubs, and the third partner in the Club Leadership Alliance. Directly comparable because it sells subscription-style data services to the same club buyer base that McMahon targets.

Emerging players

• Clubessential: Cloud-based club management platform (membership, communications, payments, mobile apps) used by private clubs. Comparable as a technology-enabled competitor encroaching on member survey, engagement, and benchmarking workflows that McMahon has historically dominated.
• Northstar Club Advisors: Boutique advisory firm providing strategic planning, financial assessments, and feasibility studies to private clubs and golf courses. Directly comparable as a competing consultancy serving the same customer profile with overlapping service lines.
• Jonas Club Software: Provider of club management software (accounting, POS, tee time, member billing) to private clubs. Comparable because it increasingly bundles data, analytics, and capital planning features that overlap with McMahon's survey and benchmarking work, and sells to the same private club buyer.
• Cemper & Company: Private club and hospitality consulting firm offering strategic planning, member research, dining, and facility consulting. Directly comparable in service mix, target customer (private clubs), and consulting-led delivery model.
• Aileron Management: Club management advisory firm focused on private clubs, HOA communities, and golf facilities. Comparable as a competitor in strategic planning, club operations, and capital campaign consulting, with overlap on the HOA/community segment McMahon also targets.

Broad incumbents

• National Club Association (NCA): Trade association representing private clubs at the federal level and McMahon's co-publishing partner for Club Trends. Comparable as a strategic ally and adjacent service provider to the same private club audience, though it operates as a membership association rather than a consultancy.
• Club Management Association of America (CMAA): National professional association for club managers, offering education, certification (CCM), and chapter programming. Comparable as the dominant industry body that defines private club management standards and a key channel for McMahon's speaking and lead-generation activity.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubevimeo.com/user107501591
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/mcmahon-group-inc
• Xx.com/mcmahongroup

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about McMahon Group