Facility Planning & Operations

Extension of Racquetball Court Provides Contrasting Appeal
Sometimes, a subtle aesthetic decision can make all the difference, turning an otherwise-overlooked space into an elegant, eye-catching design element.

New Projects: George S. Eccles Student Life Center; HackensackUMC Fitness & Wellness; Fargo-Moorhead Curling Club
After more than 10 years of planning, the University of Utah has broken ground on the George S. Eccles Student Life Center

Design Details: Notched Concrete Deters Skateboarders
When the University of Colorado added a basketball/volleyball practice facility to the downhill side of the 40-year-old Coors Events Center, jaws in the Boulder skateboarding community ...

NCAA Institutes Indexing System for 2012-13 Indoor Track and Field
While the idea of building an outdoor competition track in any length other than 400 meters is preposterous, no one bats an eye at the variation in indoor track lengths.

Exacting Design Standards Spur Quality Track Construction
It starts with a dotted line. Not the kind that stretches a short distance across the bottom of a contract, but one drawn to represent a closed circuit covering 400 meters.

Facility Operators Benefit from National Move Toward Uniform Building, Life-Safety Codes
Owners of new and renovated facilities are benefitting from a national move toward uniform building and life-safety codes.

Turf Vandalism Presents Short- and Long-Term Challenges
There's something about a home sports field that brings out feelings of pride and protectionism — defending one's own turf, if you will — and not just during games.

ABC 2012 Preconference Tours Feature Rebuilt New Orleans Facilities
oug Thornton still has the agenda from a meeting he attended seven years ago — Oct. 11, 2005, to be exact. That was the date the senior vice president of SMG, which operates the state-owned, now-named Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans,

Drought-Ridden Field Owners Reconsider Maintenance Practices, Synthetic Turf
Robert Lee, Texas, population 1,106, got three inches of rain in the first 11 months of 2011.

Stadium Security Professionals Urged to Remain Diligent
It hasn't happened. By due diligence or pure luck, no major outdoor spectator venue in the United States has experienced a significant security breach — much less an act of premeditated, catastrophic terrorism — in the decade since the Sept. 11 attacks.

How to Weed Out Trouble-Making High School Sports Fans
In a brief but volatile confrontation with a referee officiating his daughter's basketball game at Albuquerque, N.M.'s Volcano Vista High School in January, Paul Alfaro flung a vulgarity the official's way.

Petty Thefts Renew Club's Focus on Security
Nobody likes to think about it much, but how secure is your fitness facility? Are you prepared for emergencies?

Pool Operators Still Confused by Latest ADA Standards
When the Department of Justice enacted the ADA 2010 Standards for Accessible Design, one of the major differences from the previous version was the inclusion of regulations for swimming pools and spas.

Rec Agencies Face New ADA Requirements
Nothing says "celebration" like the unveiling of new design standards and revisions to existing federal regulations. But that's how President Barack Obama and the U.S. Department of Justice framed the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act in a ceremony last July.

By Siding with Wheelchair-Using Spectators, Court May Influence future ADA Litigation
By siding with wheelchair-using spectators, a court may well influence future ADA litigation.

How Step Into Swim Can Help Aquatics Facilities
During the final months of 2012, bad news for community pools hit residents like a crashing belly flop:

Collaboration is Vital to Regional and Community Pool Projects
For about three years, the 50-meter stainless steel competition pool used at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Swim Trials sat disassembled in an Omaha, Neb., storage facility, not far from where 16,000 swimming fans had jammed the Qwest Center and witnessed the setting of nine world and 21 American records.

Time to Rethink How Pool Operators Protect Swimmers?
The pool of excuses for not knowing how to swim shrinks every year. Last month, the third annual World’s Largest Swimming Lesson™, held at more than 100 aquatic facilities across the United States, attempted to teach an estimated 20,000 people to swim — for free.

SITES Program Promotes Sustainable Landscape Design
In the shadow of a large TV tower on the south campus of Grand Valley State University, ducks, geese and cranes gather in ponds ringed by native grasses and plant life.

Shock Pads Make Bigger Impact in the Synthetic Turf Industry
One of the more popular seminars attended by industry professionals at the Synthetic Turf Council’s March Spring Membership Meeting in Las Vegas didn’t boast a sexy name or even a call to action.

Slow-Pitch Softball's Participation Decline Challenges Rec Professionals
The end didn’t come all that suddenly. In its glory years, the Jock’s Nitch Softball Classic drew 140 slow-pitch teams to Pittsburg, Kan., for three days of camaraderie and competition.

Rob & Barry: We Couldn’t Care More About Our Members
Imagine that you've just tested your pool water and found it to be — the actual numbers are irrelevant to the story — just fine.

Social Environments Help Health Clubs with Member Retention
At the dawn of the modern health club era — the mid-1970s — Rick Caro became fascinated by a foursome of elderly women who gathered for a regular tennis match at one of the clubs Caro owned.

How to Prepare Your Fitness Facility for the Post-Holiday Rush
This year, you're going to plan early for the January rush.

School Districts Embrace Monolithic Domes as Gymnasiums
Ninety minutes before tipoff of the first basketball games scheduled in the Archie (Mo.) R-V School District’s new gymnasium on Jan. 20, staff members were still cleaning up from its seven-month construction.

Consistent Enforcement of Open-Gym Behavior Breeds Positive Environment
Before the rules changed at Old Settler's Recreation Center, open-gym basketball at the public facility in McKinney, Texas, was fraught with disorganization, disrespect and disruption.

Facility Owners Diversify Program Offerings Beyond Basketball
Most facility owners who base their business models on basketball end up scrambling to diversify their program offerings.

Worcester, Mass., Looks to Ice to Help Revitalize its Downtown
Worcester Common, then 20 acres of green space, was established in 1669. On July 14, 1776, it hosted the Declaration of Independence's first public reading in New England. And on Nov. 30, 2012, for the first time (as shown above), residents laced up their ice skates there.

Staging Hockey Games in Outdoor Stadiums Remains Delicate Balance of Nature vs. Nurture
As the popularity of stadium ice hockey solidifies, staging events remains a delicate balance of nature versus nurture.

Adding Second Ice Sheet Can Boost a Rink's Fortunes
Assuming demand is there, adding a second ice sheet can boost a rink's fortunes.

Efficient Locker Room Design Maximizes Use of Small Spaces
From high-tech lock technology to plush lounge areas, whirlpools, Internet access and private showers and dressing areas, it's easy to sink a significant amount of money into creating the ultimate locker room.

Ozone Finding Its Place Within the On-Premise Laundry Industry
When finding comparisons to ozone’s place within the on-premise laundry market, look no further than the chemical’s place within the aquatics market, where it has been used as an effective disinfecting alternative to chlorine and other sanitizers for the better part of a century.

Technology Advances Complicate Cell Phone, iPod Usage in Locker Rooms
Technological advancements in handheld personal devices complicate usage policies for the locker room and beyond.

Kroc Center Challenges Will Continue After Construction's Done
The late-February opening of a 104,000-square-foot facility in Memphis, Tenn., meant that the Salvation Army could count 23 Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers in all. ...

Exercise Intervention Policies in Campus Fitness Centers
Today's generation of incoming college freshmen expect a college to deliver the full package — not just a good education, but the latest technology, luxurious dorms, state-of-the art buildings, an elite athletic program and of course, an extensive offering of recreational activities to keep them busy outside of class.

Community-Built Playgrounds Popular Solution to Budget Constraints
In April, the Jefferson Parish Parks and Recreation Department in Metarie, La., set to work removing playground equipment that had sat, damaged and unusable, at Waggaman's Thomas Jefferson Park for years.

Designing Sound Systems to Meet Stadium Audio Challenges
The last time Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., underwent a major renovation, the look of the stadium — whose bared-scaffolding-and-bleacher simplicity often prompted TV color analyst John Madden to proclaim it a shrine to the NFL

How Stadium Construction Costs Reached the Billions
In some circles, outrage accompanied the 2001 opening of Miller Park, the Milwaukee Brewers’ new home.

Texas Rangers' Railing Renovation May Not Impact Codes, Other Teams
One can only imagine the emotional swing of a six-year-old — from the euphoria of tracking the arc of a baseball tossed in his direction by his favorite big-league player to the shock of looking down upon his bloodied father, who had just fallen 20 feet in an attempt to secure the souvenir.