"It’s a very sad day", North East Valley Bowling Club finance committee chairman and former president Pete Thomson said.
The club, which was established in 1905, passed a motion at a general meeting on Sunday to put its roughly 7000sq m North Rd property on the market.
The motion was discussed for more than an hour and about one-third of members voted against it.
Membership at the club had declined to the point where its funding model had dried up, apart from capital expenditure, Mr Thomson said.
A club of its size needed more than 100 members.
"We’re down to under 40 members.
"So all our expenses are up there as though we had 100-and-something members, but our annual subscriptions, our bar takes, all that sort of stuff have been getting less and less and less."
Given the size of the land and its location within walking distance of the university, he hoped the site might catch the eye of a developer considering student accommodation or other housing projects, Mr Thomson said.
Since its heyday, the club had been "a nursery for the elite bowlers".
"We’ve had many, many, many New Zealand representatives. Everyone has their day in the sun, but we’d be probably the biggest provider of New Zealand reps in our region."
But it had reached the point where it faced the possibility of running out of cash in the next few months, he said.
The club was yet to decide whether it would continue to operate at different premises, attempt to merge with another club or dissolve itself and put the funds back into the community.
"They’re all different options, but we thought that rather than sit there and wait for it to hit us in the face that whilst we’ve still got some funds left that we would be proactive.
"The reality of it is that we can’t continue to trade when in maybe six months’ time, technically we’re cash-flow insolvent."
He believed other bowling clubs were experiencing similar problems with declining membership and low funds.
Other sports that relied on traditional funding methods were also struggling, he said.
Last year, the club made a "reasonably significant loss" and had known for about a year the day could come where it would need to consider selling the property.
"It’s been a bitter pill to swallow and face up to, but it happens."
