Moved recently from Mississauga to Richmond Hill. Visited a few dedicated clubs such as Lees, Mandarin and C2 at different times, but found them geared towards court rental and not very drop in friendly. Used to play at Lees in Mississauga and their weekend morning drop in was $6 vs $12 in Markham and there weren't many players in Markham (probably right after their kids training). I probably need 2hrs of play and $12 is kinda steep also. Just wondering what are some popular drop in times and at which club? Any openings with groups? Intermediate level and ideally weekend play (fri night/sat/sun). Cheers.
I hate to bash you but we need more clarity in your message. What does $12 covers you? just play time with or without birdie, that a big difference. It sounds like you are too flexible with your play time that you didn't want to commit to a group. You complain $12 drop in is too much on a rubber court but you didn't want to commit a specific time frame for the host/owner to protect his cost to rent the court. You can look into people that rent high school gym, but that comes with a fix time slot on specific day of the week. Lee's in Markham has $60 drop in membership per month to play pretty much when they are open. I think is a good starting point for you to meet some new players and eventually found the proper game time that work for your schedule. I don't think you can find a legit club in Markham/Richmond Hill that offers $6 drop in on weekends. The cheapest I can found is $15 per hour for court rental on weekends. Why would they want to entertain drop in people for $6 for two hours, when they can sell it to someone willing to pay $30 for two hours? The badminton demographic in York Region has changed big time for past 10 years.
You clearly have no idea with dedicated badminton clubs...no such club would include birdies in their drop in price, except part time clubs hosted in cc or hs, which would typically provide plastics ONLY. I am flexible and ready to commit if there are existing groups already or folks interested to play in this forum. I know there are drop ins happening in these Rhill/Markham clubs but what time do ppl go? I can tell you for Mississauga Lees but not with Rhill/Markham, hence the inquiry.
LOL....Your first message said $12 is too steep for you, so what cost work for you. Do you play feather or plastic or both? Now your second message complain about time. So my guess your 3rd message you start talking about how far the club is from Markham/Richmond Hill/Scarborough? You didn't mention what time slot works for you. There are probably many whatapp, wechat group existed created by people that block off specific time slots at these dedicated badminton clubs. They don't want to accept people that just come once and drop out. And I haven't seen a group that charge less than $10 (including feather birdie). My previous message suggested you go play drop in at Lees at starting point to meet some people, Lees offer monthly membership which in my opinion works better for your case. Chances is that a lot of these players at Lees do play at other clubs locally. You need to go to a club to play and talk to people instead of whining on the internet forum for people to take you in. You will have to build these connections on your own. I believe Mandarin badminton also offer membership for unlimited usage of their club, but they need a 6 month commitment minimum. By the way, yes you can always drive back to Mississauga and play there too.
Thanks for your advice to go and play and talk to ppl or drive back to sauga to play. Exactly what I'm looking for.
$12 for drop-in is definitely overpriced. Check out Victoria Badminton (right by Mandarins). For Lees and Mandarins the drop-in people usually go at specific times (for example Wednesday nights for Mandarins). Just gotta find the time slots that everyone else is going at.
I would say $12 may be okay if they supply the feather birdies and play window is 2 hours plus. Definitely steep if they don't supply birdie. The benefit of Lees / Mandarin membership is that you are almost guarantee you can stay there and play for 3+ hours. Granted you supply your own birdie at these club unless you have established connections to split birdie cost with the other players there. So there are pros and cons one has to weight out. One decent feather birdie is roughly $2, and most people should be able to use up 2 or more birdies in a 2 hour session.
I guess it depends on the market. Last time I went to Mandarin on Weds night they charged me $9 for unlimited drop-in. Last time I went to Lees in Markham it was $11 for 3 hrs drop-in. The busiest club in Mississauga charges $10 for 3hrs+ of drop-in and they lower the price to $6 during non-peak hours. So yeah, $12 is definitely higher than anything I've encountered.
commander is 8$..same with epic. not gonna lie, depending on time you go is big factor in quality of players. sunday morning/afternoon at commander, the players are so weak its annoying. epic i find always has decent players
@sumoxo, there are 10+ private clubs in the Markham area that you can play as drop ins or court rentals. Plus a great number of clubs at the cc and school gyms. I am sure you can find any of them easily. The question I always have is the expectation of the playing time. The Cost and the place are important, but it is more important if it is worth for the $ and the time you spent. Lees is the best for the court. If you think you are good to challenge the people playing at Lees, I am sure your skill can be improved much faster than you thought. However, you can also be destroyed mentally by the semi professional players (some play 3-4 times a week and had training from the elite coaches over the years). That said, I used to play at Lee's for many years until I realized my age.... If you used to play at the Mississauga location, you may bump into people you know there too. Sunday is a bit odd, as players don't normally come in after 12.... If you play just for fun and/or for getting some excises, it is better to try out different playing groups at the cc or school gym. I found the other private clubs don't have the same cushion on courts as at Lees, my knees got hurt too easily (due to aging)... IMO, sorry to say that for E, Mandarin, OBA, Saruia, Su and others.
