The Strategic Alternatives Committee (SAC) held its fourth meeting on Friday, May 12, at 2:00 in Oakmont Recreation Center, Building B (aka SAC Lab). The Oakmont Recreation Center is located at 10725 W. Oakmont Ave. in Sun City. The meeting topic was dedicated to a review of capacity and utilization of RCSC facilities.
Gary Osier, a former member of the Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC), presented the capacity utilization analysis prepared by the LRPC in 2021 that was based on the pre-Covid test period of 2015 to 2019. Significant long-term downward trends in utilization of tennis, bowling, and lawn-bowling were contrasted with a remarkable upward trend in pickleball. The LRPC intended the results of this analysis to prompt provision of additional capacity for activities with high utilization and rising participation trends or the compression or consolidation of space involving under-utilized activities. For Pickleball, the committee recommended expanding club hours and analyzing the cost and benefit of enclosing and climatizing the pickleball pavilion.
Chris Herring, RCSC Director of Operations, presented several significant inputs:
- An updated record of utilization of the amenities currently housed at Mountain View based on more useful capacity calculations than used in the LRPC analysis.
- A 2022 usage report for the Mountain View auditorium.
- A ten-year monitored activity report.
- A twelve-year club membership comparison.
- And a utilization summary for all 29 reservable, flat-floor spaces in RCSC centers.
While the data requires further examination and analysis, some key points include the following:
- RCSC rec centers were used over 1 million times in 2022.
- Our current social halls and meeting rooms are utilized at just over 30% (meaning they are vacant almost 70% of the time available from 8 a.m. to closing).
- Since 2013, Pickleball has seen a steady increase in yearly usage from approximately 12,000 to approximately 70,000.
The next meeting on Friday, May 19 – held in the SAC Lab will feature a presentation by Director Jeff Darbut with updated facility usage figures and The Players Club use of a proposed Performing Arts Center (PAC).
NOTE: Press releases regarding the work of the RCSC Board of Directors Strategic Alternatives Ad Hoc Committee (SAC) are authored by the ad hoc committee and distributed/posted by RCSC media staff.