Our garbage gym Lifetime Centreville is ripping out the indoor basketball courts and replacing it with all pickleball
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Anonymous
| How come old people can never share? They trashed our economy, trashed our planet, voted for Trump and now they can't share a gym with kids? |
Anonymous
The whole vibe is classic Boomer. Totally selfish me me me. |
Anonymous
And they will be the first one to harp about kids sitting home on screens. Well, I guess they can't go play basketball or rock climb. |
Anonymous
Exactly. Permanently taking over half the basketball space wasn't good enough. |
Anonymous
But you want it to be you, you, you. What's the difference? |
Anonymous
Kids CAN and do play pickleball. It's a very social game, and it doesn't matter how old you are. A 9 yr old who knows how to play can play pickleball with a 67 yr old. That's not going to happen with basketball. Pickleball is a great equalizer. It's good for all ages and can be played at a fast, medium, or slow pace. It is more sensitive to outside weather factors, so it is really better to play inside. Plus, if you haven't realized, pickleball is growing like crazy and apparently it's much more popular with people who pay for gym memberships than basketball. I would agree based on my own interests. I have yet to play on a "true" pickleball court (been playing pball for 1 yr.). I can only imagine it being a DREAM to have only the correct lines on the court. Where I play now has about 6 different colored lines (it's mainly a basketball gym). It's annoying. People WILL pay for a gym that has true dedicated pickleball courts. It's not about being "Boomer." You have to face facts -- if you want rock walls and bball courts --- YOU are the one living in the past. The future is pickleball -- for all! |
Anonymous
How is wanting shared space selfish? The basketball people aren't complaining about losing a court to pickleball. They are fine sharing the space with Grandma Sue, one entire court for just pickleball and one court for everything else seems more than fair. Grandma Sue is demanding and apparently getting the entire gym space--two enormous basketball courts plud an entire huge climbing area--- for just pickleball. |
Anonymous
That's great! Why can't you share space with basketball though? Pickleball nets are portable. |
Anonymous
True. Kids who play basketball are playing in leagues or in high school. They aren't playing at Lifetime fitness! Those kids are in school during the day. The people who use the gyms during the day are the retirees, work-from-home folks, and SAHMs. They want pickleball. It's a great game. And frankly, there are probably more adults who also want evening pball open play (after they get off work). Pball is the what bowling leagues were in the 50s and 60s. They are a great way for adults to meet other adults, to be active, and there is little cost/organization required. Adults no longer belong to the Elks or Moose lodges, or the women's "sororities" , and many don't affiliate with a church. We need ways to connect that have low entry barriers. Pickleball is a great way to meet others without the typical barriers you'd have at a country club (i.e. everyone is rich). |
Anonymous
Why can't you play at your local park? It's not like there aren't other basketball courts out there. |
Anonymous
It's not "Grandma Sue" who is demanding anything. It's CEO-Sarah/Sam who has decided that dedicated pickleball courts are what will make the most money. And Grandma Sue and your day, and you, and your kids can ALL use the pball courts. Get with the times. Bball is at all the public parks, and in all the high schools. Bball is out as far as Lifetime is concerned... and you should get a paddle or go home. |
Anonymous
| ... and your DAD... (not day) |
Anonymous
There are many, many kids and teens and young adults playing basketball at Lifetime Centreville all the time. 20 kids make the basketball team, the local high schools are 2800+ kids. Lifetime doesn't want their business and that's their right, but factually: its a very busy, used part of the gym after school and on weekends. |
Anonymous
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The most likely reason that they are making the change is an expected increase in revenue. Pickleball leagues are a big thing. And they have pickleball leagues in other locations. With only one court in use for pickleball, they wouldn't be able to support league play. Basketball courts do not add any revenue besides memberships. And the cost per person is lower when families join. The whole point of getting a family membership is that it is cheaper than getting 4-6 individual memberships. So you get the family membership discount. However, if they replace a family of four with four individual pickleball players, they are going to get more in membership and then if/when they run leagues, they will get the league fee for each participant. For families that come and use their membership to exercise and play basketball, they get no additional revenue.
In general, these are businesses who are doing whatever they can in the new normal to make enough money to break even or run a profit. Running only memberships and leaving lots of prime real estate available for non-revenue generating activity is not a good business decision. But changing your clientele from a number of discounted family memberships to a number of single memberships and then running additional revenue positive activities in the useable space is a good business decision. It's unfortunate for the people who had a good thing going, but the current layout and business model was not generating enough business or income for them. If there were more families getting memberships, enough to support something like a basketball league, then it might stay the same. But frankly when it comes to youth basketball, a business like Lifetime cannot compete with county and school rec programs so they are moving into an area where they have more income generating options and less competition. |
Anonymous
Why can’t you old farts go take your wiffle ball to a tennis court |