OK - you folks who know me, and those of you who've taken the trouble to read my profile, and even, maybe, visit my tennis website, www.aceyou.com , know that I play a lot of tennis.
I moved to Bakersfield from Ventura over 11 years ago. (Got transferred - you can still see my fingernail marks on the Grapevine!). Before I left, my coastal friends said, "There's a great tennis club in Bakersfield, it's called The Laurel Glen Tennis Club. All the best players play there, it's nice, etc. etc."
So, I joined Laurel Glen - it was great! Lots of tennis activities, friendly players, staff. Had a great restaurant, tennis pro shop, swimming pool, hot tub, separate facility for babysitting kids, and even a separate, well equipped gym for working out. And all for a reasonable price.
Well, last year the club got sold. To a GYM! A gym that apparently had no intent of ever running this place anywhere except into the ground so they can dump it, and maybe build condos or apartments or something. They've just instituted the process to get the whole area rezoned so that housing can be built there.
I don't know if y'all have any experience with "gyms," but a LOT of 'em aren't exactly the epitome of well run businesses. A lot of them (and I have first hand experience with this) lock the joint up and disappear from site the next day.
Anyway, from day one, this "gym" started doing everything it could to piss off the members and screw up the club. It became obvious they had no intentions of trying to make it as a tennis club. The things they did, and are doing, are too numerous to mention, but, good ol' Ace will mention a few:
1. The first thing they did was get rid of the tennis pro shop. Now, gee, I don't know about you, but, someone who belongs to a TENNIS club shouldn't have to go to Big Five or Sport Chalet to buy tennis shoes, clothing, AND GET THEIR RACKETS STRUNG!!!!! Give me a frigging break! As soon as I saw this, I knew Laurel Glen's days were numbered.
2. They initially refused to get a new liquor license for the restaraunt. Now, hard as it may be for some of my dear readers to understand, when some of us, particularly us old farts, get done playing tennis in the 100 degreee summer Bakersfield heat, we want to kick back and have 1 or 2 brews! Well, it looked like those days had ended, but, there was a hue and cry from the members and they went ahead and got the license. But, if we buy a bottle of beer, we have to open it ourselves!!! Can you believe such nonsense?!?!?
3. The next thing they do, is stuff they don't do - like facility maintenance. Court lights were burned out - none got repaired until days and days, sometimes weeks of complaints. Some of them still aren't fixed (hello court #9). Nets needed repaired, courts are filthy, etc.
4. After they gutted the pro shop, they installed some circuit exercise equipment in the space behind the front desk. Now, geez, gimme a break. There's a complete, fully equipped gym in a separate building on the club grounds. If I want to go work out, I'll go there! I don't want to work out in what used to be the pro shop. (I want to buy tennis shoes or a new racket there!) Ever since they installed this stupid circuit equipment, I have never seen anyone use it.
5. There's this great little restaurant in the club. Problem is, hardly anyone uses it. So, it looks like it will be shut down too. Too bad no one in the new ownership realizes that, if you want the restaurant to succeed, YOU HAVE TO KEEP IT OPEN WHEN THE PLAYERS ARE THERE AND WANT TO EAT!!!!! We play tennis in the morning and at night, especially in the summer heat, but the restaurant closes down. It's hardly ever open when we are there playing. No wonder they don't make any money!!!
6. Finally, and this is really the last straw, they fired all the tennis pros!!!! WTF!!!??? A tennis club without tennis pros??? Give me another frigging break.
This latter event happened right after the gym ownership claimed in The Californian that they weren't intending to shut down the club. They gave some lame ass excuse and just tried to blow off the criticism.
Geez - what a joke!
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