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Major Capital Project Information
Project #1
Addition of a 4 th Court
Rationale:
Aside from the reasons contained within the Tennis BC Letter (front page, Appendix A), on more of a local level, our club had been limited to 3 courts for many years, we have continually attempted to find a way to squeeze a fourth court into the space available to us, and over the years, for one reason or another, we have always been thwarted. It has been a continuous goal of our membership to gain a fourth court since I first joined in 1978. With the current configuration of only 3 courts, inter-league play is hampered, as league play always requires four courts to play all four matches. Currently, we have a B1 Division Men's League team, a C1 Division Men's League Team, as well as a C1 Division Women's Team, and two Summer Beach League Teams. To the best of my knowledge, we are the only club in any of these leagues that must send one team to play on the only other available courts, which are owned by the city, about a block away, and not always available for use, as we have no priority on these courts.
We often encounter the same setbacks when it comes to our Junior Programs, Tournaments, Clinics, as well as the Public lessons our club provides on behalf of the City of White Rock (as per our lease agreement with the city, see tab “Lease Agreement”, sections 4.04, 5.02, and 5.03). With over 350 adult members, and over 60 junior members (including #1 ranked [in BC] Mathew Martin!) finding court time to increase our community's involvement in the sport through lessons, tournaments and clinics can often be an exercise in frustration. Our membership has slowly, but continuously grown over the past years, and we seem to be at a point where further growth is hampered by our lack of facilities.
How Does this Project Enhance Your Organization's Programs?
With the Addition of a fourth court, we would be able to host, local, and regional events. Tennis BC has already expressed an interest in holding a Summer Series ™ Event in White Rock if we can gain our upgraded facilities. This is an excellent opportunity to bring even more of the local community into the sport of tennis. As well, with a fourth court, we create 25% more playing time for our membership, lessons, and league play. This also allows us to accept more memberships into our club, which falls in line with the province of BC 's own ActNow! Fitness program and the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee's announced goal of increasing fitness in the province by 20% by the year 2010.
By allowing more of our community to come out and enjoy tennis we help attain these goals. As well, White Rock has a large base of older adults, as a result our membership also has a skew towards older members (we have more than a handful that are in their 80's and they still come out regularly!). I think it's great that we can provide an opportunity for our senior community to get out and enjoy some exercise at a pace that they can set themselves. A healthier community also helps ease the pressures on our ever-strained healthcare system. I don't think we have to spend too much time pointing out the advantages of an active senior population compared to one that is more sedate, one without some outdoor activity and exercise. We also have several social events each year, these are a great opportunity for community members to come down and play at the club, our last event had over 100 people turn out! And a fourth court sure would have been nice to have then!
Our public lessons are put on by our coaching staff, consisting of Bruce Webster, who has just been designated as a “Community Champion” by Tennis BC, for his past efforts, and his continuing efforts with schools, and kids of all ages, giving lessons in the schools and at our club and promoting the sport of tennis in the region. He is assisted by Terry Hubbard, both of whom have been involved in the sport for over 25 years each, and have excellent coaching credentials. Aside from their technical certifications, Terry is also the practice coach for one of our other members, Nick Brummelcamp, who is currently ranked 18 th in the province. With such a mix of high performance members, older members, all of our social members, as well as our highly regarded junior programs and league teams, it is easy to see why more courts can only be an asset to our community. I feel strongly that the lack of court space is one of the major obstacles holding our club back from being a very powerful force for the sport of tennis in our community. As limited as we are, tennis is so popular in our area, that next year we are going to have 3 full men's league teams! (Juggling that with 3 courts could be interesting!).
March 19, 2005
Today was proclaimed the first annual ActNow! BC day as Premier Gordon Campbell launched the Act Now! BC program, with the goal of making the province the healthiest jurisdiction ever to host an Olympic and Paralympic Games.” Source: http://www.bcliberals.com/EN/309/2782
Major Capital Project Information
Project #2
Alter And Enlarge Clubhouse
Rationale:
With the current continuous growth of the club, we have, unfortunately, outgrown our cozy little clubhouse. With the major project of the 4 th court addition, and the necessitated reduction/removal of the current clubhouse, it is an excellent opportunity to upgrade the club's indoor facilities as well. The DVD contains several views of the proposed new clubhouse , and hopefully this new clubhouse will last us at least the next 20 years as well, serving as not only a centralized location for running tournaments, lessons, and leagues, but also giving us expanded facilities with the entirely new upper floor, and the enhanced viewing area this allows, particularly over the new court 4 (Tennis BC's staff were quite excited by the upper viewing deck that allows spectators to watch action on all 4 courts!). The new clubhouse would also include the new addition of men's and women's showers, this is a long overdue upgrade to our club! Our current facility consists only of a small kitchen area and common room, and small men's and women's bathrooms.
How Does this Project Enhance Your Organization's Programs?
The clubhouse itself is always one of the central features of any tennis club, it is a place to meet, and a place to find out about the activities that are going on, as well, it is also the place where activities are hosted from. Our fun tournaments are drawing many local tennis players out, and it is quite a task to keep everyone out of the kitchen/common room, when club members are trying to make food dishes for everyone at the club. With more space, and a viewing area to keep people occupied, the new clubhouse makes the running of club events much easier to deal with. Future tournaments, such as an event on the Tennis BC's Summer Series ™ tour would almost necessitate the installation of showers, and the new clubhouse would have that capacity as well. Essentially, the clubhouse is a core component of any club. Walk through any tennis club and you will find that the clubhouse is an integral part of how the club is run, and unfortunately our current facility is just too small. We do not even currently have room to display the trophy's we've won from local events and league play, or the annual New West Invitational event. A new clubhouse would allow us room to put some of these things up, enhancing our reputation as part of the community, and showing off some of the history of the club, and the area's residents. It would also provide for more storage area than we currently have. Our current groundskeeper keeps much of his equipment at his home as we have nowhere to store it on our grounds.
If you wish to watch a 3D rendering, please view our 3D renderings online by clicking on below links http://www.bem.com/wrtc1.avi and http://www.bem.com/wrtc2.avi