New American Dream - Court of Dream "If you build it, they will come." It work for baseball, why not badminton
Judging from the tone of all the post ive read so far concerning this topic... highschool students should be a target for these clubs to maintain a steady number of people. However, there are many community colleges that has a pretty decent number of people aching to play badminton that can be reached as well. Lets face it , although there are 4 big mainstream badminton places to play , there are ALOT of little tiny places where badminton is free or even extremely cheap to play as well. I for one do thing , the price is a very important factor in all this , considering actully driving to bba,ubc etc etc... is quite a drive... (gas prices -_- ) and its rather discourging..... i for one have limited myself to going to these places to play down to once a week. Im sure if the prices were a lil cheaper , i would be there more often. Take for a exmaple UBC, if it wasnt for the $7 thing but if it was just $5 offpeak and peak... i would probably be going there alot more ... "just because" . $2 might seem really little difference, but in our minds .... sometimes $1 can be the deciding factor if we are going to do it again. And most likely people will deem the $5 a more attractiin price that might in turn make them come twice a week or something. So instead of $7 a week for one perseon, if the person comes twice at a $5 price... its $10.
No offense, but I think ur guys in west coast are well spoiled with a great facility for just $5-7 a day. On east coast (i.e. new york), us players paying $10+ - $20 per session, using just regular HS gym, with no A/C or even no heating system. Did I ever metion some clubs, we even need to tape the court in order to play? :crying: Think about this, $2 extra, I am sure we can figure out a way to save it. Just go out for dinner 1 less time, we can easily save $15-20 at least. And this 1 dinner can just make up the difference for 7-10 sessions.
Agreed, i find it easier to just... buy a membership at one place. Instead of $7 per day.... its like $45~ for 28 days of open gym a month
I don't think we are spoiled? It's just too bad that you have to live in a city where the cost of living is way through the roof. That's like saying that paying $3.50 US dollars for drop in play (they provide you with shuttlecocks too.. unlimited use) is dirt cheap when that's about the standard drop-in fee in Taiwan. WE'RE NOT SPOILED. We're just good bargainers.
I think the answer depends on the living expenses. The number differs from city to city. Therefore, it might be not fair to use Taiwan as an example. How much could a salary person make for a month in Taipei or other cities? I worked with the government in Taiwan back to '96 and my compensation was about NT$40K a month. $100/$40000=1/400. Then I think that people in CA should pay $12.5 for the drop-in play (with birdies provided) if they make US$5k a month. The drop-in fee is in a way like the shuttlecocks: you get what you pay. In So Cal, you can either pay $20 to play at OCBC or $7 for SGVBC. For Nor Cal, you can spend $5 for Bintang, $7 (later would be $10) for UBC. Anyhow, the facilities are not the same and I believe it is hard to say which one is a bargain. However, the prices are set by the owner and the market mechanism; we, the customers, barely go the chance to bargain or haggle that. BTW, if I spend $20 to play OCBC and got a chance to have one game with Tony Gunawan or Halim Haryanto, then I would say it is a darn bargain. -SC
Don't forget all these fed/state/social security tax, health/dental insurance premium - 5K/month ends up 2K/month net pay. So $5 is about right. But one thing I like to add is that all these gym owners are not building gym for making profit. They are trying to promote the sport. If we can pay 1 or 2 dollars more, it's not much to us, but it help the gym owners a lot to continue.
true, i concur with these comments.. actually i was one of the first few posters on this thread that mentioned price as one of the key factor. however, the free price should act solely as a "promotional tool", esp. for those beginners or for those who are not familiar with the sport at all or students who are not earning incomes...plus imagine other people choosing other popular activities that can be played for a lesser cost and/or for free... don't get me wrong, i totally agree with charging some fees to play(in regards to the maintenance and operational costs), especially to us working folks/an intermediate or advance players, but how are they going to promote the sport if not thru using "reasonable" pricing.. reality is, it's already "tough" to promote the sport here in the U.S. so the badminton clubs should do everything possible to make it popular, which i'm sure they are doing so..and i remember, there's a saying also "you have to give/sacrifice some, in order for you to get some".. just my 2 cents..
Be happy The pricing is very reasonable ranges from $5-$10 depending on the location of the gym and how well the gym is equipped. Golden Gate Badminton Club will be the most expensive among all with $10 entrance fee(after the pomotional period) but it's close to SF with higher rental cost and the least would be Bintang(Sunnyvale) and Smash City(Milpitas) each with $5 while United hanging in between at $7. For those who play only once every week or less, how's the $5 vs $10 be any different and for the regulars just join the member of the club and pay for monthly fee to compensate the "high price" feeling. Only nomad player like Kwun will feel the pinch as he travel/play around, but then this VIP may be getting free entrance I think the price range is more than reasonable, we're not just spoiled by the weather but also the vast selection of badminton gyms. CA dude, Han
It's not fair to compare US with TW, as we have totally living standard between 2 regions. If a TW gym (not top lvl private club) offers US$10 just for several hrs of drop in, I doubt they can stay in business for long. However, the living standard / salary / tax between NYC and CA is not that much, at least, not like 5:1 or worse ($25 for regular HS gym vs $5 for A/C well equiped gym). Therefore, just enjoy whatever u have here, and I will try my best to move to west coast, if i can.
Be happy again We are talking about the IBF approved mat floor, I think Bay Area is the only place that has it for regular use at $5-$10 entrance fee. I don't think the national players of any nations even have chance to practice on mat floor except in real IBF tournament. What else can we ask for?
i agree. where else can you get a good afternoon of activities and workout in a private and managed facility for only US$5-10 a person? as for being nomadic, yes, the dilemma is there. my regular group of baddy friends tend to move around different gyms on different days of the week. so getting a membership in one place doesn't make a lot of sense. while it may end up with a slightly higher cost, we have the flexibility to visit all different gyms, see different people, get used to different lighting... etc. etc.
Each Gym has different strengths Bintang Advantages Affordable - specially for old time members. Easy pick up games Lots of waiting area Manageable queuing system Lots of waiting area Lots of parking UBC Advantages Excellent Courts Nice waiting area water fountain!!!! Exercise area (to be) Excellent computerized queuing system Relatively empty at lunch, great for drills. Nice shower facilities Free lockers Lots of parking GG Advantages Excellent courts Excellent showers From a completely biased perspective I will simply go to the courts where my friends go. Otherwise going to the nearest court makes the most sense. If one is willing to drive, I like the bustle of Bintang. If money and driving were no object, I would go to UBC - the water fountain and the computerized queuing tips it for me.
Bintang is still very crowded on week days, which is good for the sport in general, but the quality of players is poor compared to other gyms. Smash city has a lot of good players, and better floor, and also the system is better for now atleast, as most of the times you can play best of 3. No body good plays singles anymore at Bintang, I remember once there used to be lot of clips on singles court. now only 1 or 2 average players play most of the time. The Bintang team players also dont show up for open gym, so the quality really low. i dont go to ubc or ggbc that often, how is the standard there ?
players at gyms When I visited smash city, it was relatively emplty and I did not see that many good playerrs. UBC does seem to have some good players but is not that full either. Bintang seems to be crowded during their competition. Otherwise it does not seem that crowded. Players seem to have dispersed to the different gyms as expected. This great for playing time, but I hope the gyms make it.
Are you a regular at Bintang? When do you usually go? On some days there are some pretty decent players on the singles court, but the good ones are mainly playing doubles. As far as the Bintang team players not showing up for open gym, most of them leave early around 7:30pm.
It's been said, but I really think there should be some sort of inter-club league system with multiple skill levels: A division - best players, B division - good players, C division - intermediates, D division - beginners/for fun/social (give or take a division level). I play in a inter-bar darts league, and I know the dynamic is somewhat different because bars usually host leagues because they can guarantee a certain amount of food/drink sales during matches... this probably won't be the case in a badminton league. What it does provide is a good healthy sense of local competition and club pride. How the clubs would generate additional income from the teams would be up to them... Teams could be structured as teams of 4 - 8 coed members to allow a certain number of singles, doubles and mixed double matches. The clubs could set aside one or two courts per division per night. Divisions could be played over different nights... A/B divisions on Tuesdays, C/D divisions on Wednesdays (or something like that). I don't know if these ideals help at all, but I know I would welcome something like this.
