Though we had heard rumblings over the past year, and even sent the League Coordinator to meet with Community Center Leadership, the official announcement came on 24 Nov 2021: Midland is building a new Community Center without racquetball courts.
The reasoning for a new building is that the current building would cost on the order of $40MM to renovate plumbing, electrical and HVAC, whereas a new building (albeit smaller and with fewer accommodations) would cost upwards of $50MM to build in two phases. The reasoning for not including at least one racquetball court is that they want every square foot to be used at least twice per day, and racquetball courts (which are penalized at twice their square footage due to their 2-story height) are not used enough.
With pre-COVID racquetball ladders consistently hosting 25-30 players, we think it is premature to snuff out this sport. And tearing down these racquetball courts without replacing them will surely dissolve the sport in our community. Alternatively, building just one court would barely suffice for the groups of league players who still come together regularly to play. Two courts would accommodate them, but would hardly leave room for new players to come try out the sport unless they came at off times.
The local players, many of whom play during their lunch break, would have to drive 20 minutes to Bay City or 35 minutes to Mt Pleasant to play. Indeed, the Midland racquetball community is vibrant enough to attract players who do make those drives to come play in Midland. Yet we have already had one player (who had spent the past year just getting back into the sport) drop out of the league, stating that they can’t justify investing the time to get better in a sport that will be gone from Midland in 3 years. There are no doubt others who are not currently playing for similar reasons.
A community center’s value is in hosting a broad variety of activities that will bring the most people together. We propose that at least one court be built in the new building, and if the sport fades out via attrition (likely no sooner than 10 years hence, if at all), then that space could be converted to other uses. For example, if the correct type of recessed attachment points were built into the new court’s walls, that space could be used for both racquetball and wallyball. Or, two courts could be built with a shared wall that is designed to be removed 10+ years later, and at that point, the wall could be brought down and both courts joined into a shared space for other uses.
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Will anything change their minds given that they do not want to accommodate any racquet sports. The courts can be used for other activities which would maximize use. The Bay City Y has a court that doubles as a squash court. It is a shame that the court sports will be snuffed out given the number of players still present in the Midland area. I can help with lessons if you need someone. Thanks for the info