i think he meant north bay gaps... cuz most of these gyms are in south bay and ppl have to travel like 1 hr to get to them sometimes.
yeah. the north bay has a lot of gaps. ideally, any new gyms should be opened in these areas: - Oakland/Berkeley/San Leandro (along northern part of I-880) - south San Jose, Cupertino, Campbell (south I-85/I-280 corridor) - Pleasanton / Livermore / Dublin (along I-680 corridor) i didn't list SF as i don't think it will be cost and space effective there.
Kwun, Thanks for showing the map. At least now we, in this part of Asia, know where San Jose and Santa Clara, where you reside are. Can't help noticing the famous Silicon Valley where Palo Alto is located. Sounds like a lot of Spanish names. Is there any Spanish connection in the history of this area? How long will it take to drive from your place to San Fransico up north? This must be the "Gold Mountain" that attracted lots of Chinese? Do the Chinese still have a sizeable community in SF? Interestingly, San Franscico Bay looks like the map of peninsula Malaysia. If many Malaysians are thus attracted, the badminton prowess around this place must be quite formidable!
Thank you for referring me to much more interesting information on SF. Some of the names of tourist attractions came back to mind. It was many years ago that I last visited around the mid-80's. Then the internet was not available for us to find out more before we visit. Interesting to note that the Chinese first went to SF as railroad workers.
100% agreed. I need to drive more than 1/2 hour just to play badminton in Bintang or Smash City. Hope one of these badminton owners read your post.
Actually, Palo Alto is only a small part of Silicon Valley. SV consists of the South Bay (San Jose, Santa Clara, etc), part of the SF Peninsula (Palo Alto & adjacent communities), and parts of the East Bay (Fremont & adjacent). The center of Silicon Valley is pretty much the northern parts of Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, & Mountain View. Yes, (Alta) California was settled by the Spanish in the 1700s and was part of Mexico for quite a while. Many of the cities with Spanish names were originally towns that grew up around the multitude of church missions set up by Spanish (Catholic) missionaries. Calif was later annexed by the US in the mid-19th century. Chinatown in SF is one of the largest in North America. Cupertino (Apple HQ) and adjacent communities have become predominantly Chinese in the past 2 decades or so. Drive time from Santa Clara to SF is about 45 minutes (or much quicker if you don't get caught speeding on Hwy 280). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley SF Chinatown .
Bintang isn't usually very crowded on Mon nites & I've heard that Tues nights ain't too bad either. On Wed nites, it gets a bit crowed from 7 til 9pm but quite often we can play past 11pm. I've heard that quite a lot of high level players play at Smash City on Thurs nights but, alas, that is one of my tennis nights.
yes. there are quite a few good players on Thursday nights in SmashCity. it looks like Monday is universally a low traffic day on most gyms.
Kwun....time to change the title of this thread to 6 large clubs in the SF area.... By next year, it may be 7.....more news to come.
It sounds like Viper have some information for any new gym, can you please share with all the badminton fans? I am new in bay area, nice to see so many place to play...
6 large clubs in the SF bay area I only been here for a few months, I saw APAC open and only few months later Ben Lee announce that Bay Badminton Center is opening soon and feature 40000 sf, this sound like a mega center. This is a good news to me, in the past few months I've been playing in Chinatown on thursday night, there is not easy to find parking, I hope Burlingame is easier to find parking.
Bay Badminton Center Hello All, Yes, Bay Badminton Center will be open soon and easily accessible from the San Francisco area. I used to play in Chinatown and the Sunset gym myself. Now, we can provide a world class gym to everyone around the Bay Area. With 16 courts and a state of the art cueing system, we hope to cater to everyone's badminton cravings. Remember, keep your eyes and ears open....BBC IS COMING!!!!!! BBC Team
My next prediction. Hahaha, I do hear alot.... Here is my next prediction......next 2 gyms to open near Oakland and Cupertino. Let's hope there are enough badminton members to go around all these wonderful gyms.
wow!!! badminton is rocking in san francisco! i am happy. i want badminton to be the game everybody can and want to play. i hope the US will be future contender in the pro league. start em young people say, and it seems you guys are on the right track.
Hum... I am glad to heard BBC is opening soon cuz i am only few miles away from there. but, i hope this will not be another gym that fill with stuck-up "A" players hugging the courts, stinky "D" players sitting in the court, "spoiled" elite team only trains during busy hours and most of all i am "stupid" enough paid and just watching.
