Please don't let them do it again!
It's a story heard before in the world of squash.... Real estate costs are considerable in a metropolis. Squash courts take up a relatively large chunk of a club's real estate. Wouldn't it make financial sense to convert this real estate into something where more paying customers can fit into that real estate, thereby improving income? Spinning, maybe, or another room of fitness machines?
We've seen this in Australia and the UK, among other places, where clubs of long standing have shortsightedly killed squash programs, even unarguably successful ones, for the pursuit of greater income. I wonder how many clubs have regretted that decision?
In every squash club where I have been a member over the years, the squash program has attracted squash players who go on to actively use the fitness facilities, attend the social events, and generally speaking enliven the club. Squash players are more fanatical than your average fitness-seeking members, they don't join for a few months and then quit when their fitness craze ebbs, and these ardent players tell their friends, and they tell their friends, and so on, and so on. Squash players help attract members to clubs! They positively affect the club bottom line.
Yet the scuttlebutt is that New York's Printing House, with an active 250 squash players and many years of successful NY/NJ Metro league play, has been purchased by the Equinox chain, which will shutter their 5 courts. I haven't been able to confirm this, but if it is true it will be a real loss for players in lower Manhattan. C'mon, Equinox, reconsider, don't make the same mistake that those other clubs have made.
The Printing House faithful have launched a campaign to get the attention of the management at Equinox. 1) Join and 'like' the campaign's Facebook page: 2) leave a message on Equinox's own Facebook page, begging them to keep the courts open; or
3) write a letter to Equinox corporate headquarters, at 895 Broadway, New York, NY, 10003.
You don't have to be a NY-er to take action. We have got to make an impression on management that this move is a bad one! Write them now, please!
