Faced with financial hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with an aging membership, the Copper Cliff Italian Club announced its sudden closure in a seemingly-out-of-nowhere Facebook post at the end of May.
The closure announced May 27 was offered without explanation to the general public, prompting surprised messages from several members of the club's Facebook page, all wondering if the closure was permanent.
Several also expressed their sadness about the situation, and said their relatives were among the club’s founders.
Earlier in May, the club said on the Facebook page that someone had organized an “illegal” members’ meeting (defined as illegal because not all members had been notified), and a full meeting would be held May 26 (with the closure being announced the next day).
To try to understand what happened, we spoke to Ward 2 Coun. Michael Vagnini, who’s one of the club’s past presidents.
He said the Copper Cliff Italian Club is $100,000 in debt, the general manager has resigned and future events booked at the club have all been cancelled.
Vagnini said the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on the Copper Cliff Italian Club. The pandemic forced the cancellation of the Thursday evening dinners and Friday lunches, activities which brought in “a lot of the extra cash that we needed to survive,” said Vagnini.
He also said the club’s aging membership has also made it hard to get volunteers.
Vagnini, who recently rejoined the club’s board, said he sees three possible options: borrowing money (he’s already had a preliminary meeting with lenders); turning the building over to another organization in the Italian community, or; selling the building.
While the club itself is 87 years old, the club building, located in Copper Cliff’s Little Italy neighbourhood, with the Superstack looming nearby, was only built in 1952. It was valued at around $600,000 in a preliminary walk-through.
“We are trying to figure out which direction to take related to one of the three options that we have,” Vagnini said.
“We are going to get together for the first time as a new board in order to either dismantle the club or continue to have it thrive in the community, and possibly building relationships with other Italian clubs in the community.”
Vagnini, who is of Italian heritage, said the Copper Cliff Italian Club played a big part of his childhood, including the kids’ Christmas parties.
“So, you know, yes, it does hurt,” he said. “Every time we take away a memory, it certainly hurts. My grandparents, when they came over from Italy, moved to Little Italy, where they had a store, and then they moved out to Creighton.
“But their heart was always in Little Italy because that's where all their friends and cousins were.”
The sudden closure, though, left some patrons scrambling. Sudbury.com spoke to one woman who had a surprise party booked at the Copper Cliff Italian Club for next week, only to find out the club had closed when she saw the May 27 Facebook post.
The woman, who did not want us to use her name because she’s trying to preserve the surprise nature of the event she’s planning, said she was lucky enough to be able to book another venue for the same day.
“I'm not gonna lie, I was not happy,” she said.
Despite the frustration of having to find a new venue at the last minute, the woman had nothing but praise for the club, the events it has hosted and, of course, the quality of the food.
“By far they have my most favourite meatballs ever, and their sauce was delicious,” she said.
Heidi Ulrichsen is the associate content editor at Sudbury.com. She also covers education and the arts scene.
