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While speaking about the atmosphere at the revitalized Rideau Sports Centre, chief executive Nicki Bridgland keeps coming back to the word “community.”
As an only child who’d constantly look for new friends to play with, she said bringing people together is what drives her. It’s also the concept behind the reimagined facility, formerly the Rideau Tennis Club.
“The thing about an athletic centre like this, it really is about the glue of the social connection. I say the sports side is 50 per cent and the social side is 50 per cent,” said Bridgland, who is also CEO of the Ottawa Sport and Social Club, which is not affiliated with the facility.
The Rideau Tennis Club, founded in 1912, was struggling to remain relevant under RA Centre management when Bridgland bought the lease, with 17 years left on it, from the National Capital Commission in August 2017.
In a span of just a few months, Phase 1 of her revitalization plan has been completed, with $3 million in renovations to the building and its amenities, including an improved restaurant, new change rooms and two new inflated multi-use domes.
A second phase is to begin in the next 18 to 24 months, pending permit approvals, and will be headed by Ottawa architect Barry Padolsky. Phase 2 will revamp the west facade of the building to include a view of the Rideau River.
The new tennis and multi-sport domes opened to the public in November. More features such as the restaurant, yoga studio and massage clinic became available in January. A grand opening is scheduled for May 1.
“It used to be a private members’ club, not open to the public,” Bridgland said inside the club’s new tennis dome, often called a bubble by players. She’s done away with memberships and instead opened it to the public. Anyone can book the facilities and pay by the hour, although a summer pass is also available. Individuals can also join the centre’s varied sports leagues, and parents can sign their kids up for summer and March break camps.
“Private members’ clubs do not appeal to the young demographic,” she said, because younger people typically don’t want to chain themselves to just one facility, particularly this club, which previously only offered tennis. New sports such as soccer, basketball and dek hockey are aimed at appealing to a wider audience. Bridgland is most excited about dek hockey, which puts a twist on a familiar sport.
The Rideau Sports Centre still offers tennis — and a whole lot more.
“Dek hockey is a special version of ball hockey that models ice hockey in the sense that it’s played with boards that wrap around the surface,” she said. “The workout is excellent and the same as ice hockey in that way, however you don’t need to pay for expensive ice time rental or expensive gear.”
The strategy appears to have worked, with Bridgland saying more people than ever are using the facility.
“It’s sort of Field of Dreams” in that we had a vision for this property that was all-inclusive … that dream is being realized.”
Graham Charette, 83, had been a member of the tennis club for 57 years and said the new ownership is bringing the storied facility back to a former glory he said had been missing for more than a decade.
“We were in dire straits,” he said. “The RA Centre did what they could … but in truth we were trying to maintain a club with a limited number of tennis players and there just weren’t enough people that were joining.”
He remembered the club in the 1960s when, he said, hundreds of members would turn out for parties on the terrace.
“We had guys that were from England,” he said. “And they knew every dirty rugby song in the world … those days ended about 10 years ago when people would show up for those same events, maybe 20.”
After seeing the new restaurant fill up for its grand opening on March 22, he declared the club “revitalized.”
The new restaurant and bar at the Rideau Sports Centre.
The exterior of the historic facility, which began as the Rideau Tennis Club in 1912.
The Rideau Sports Centre includes massage rooms.
查看原文...
As an only child who’d constantly look for new friends to play with, she said bringing people together is what drives her. It’s also the concept behind the reimagined facility, formerly the Rideau Tennis Club.
“The thing about an athletic centre like this, it really is about the glue of the social connection. I say the sports side is 50 per cent and the social side is 50 per cent,” said Bridgland, who is also CEO of the Ottawa Sport and Social Club, which is not affiliated with the facility.
The Rideau Tennis Club, founded in 1912, was struggling to remain relevant under RA Centre management when Bridgland bought the lease, with 17 years left on it, from the National Capital Commission in August 2017.
In a span of just a few months, Phase 1 of her revitalization plan has been completed, with $3 million in renovations to the building and its amenities, including an improved restaurant, new change rooms and two new inflated multi-use domes.
A second phase is to begin in the next 18 to 24 months, pending permit approvals, and will be headed by Ottawa architect Barry Padolsky. Phase 2 will revamp the west facade of the building to include a view of the Rideau River.
The new tennis and multi-sport domes opened to the public in November. More features such as the restaurant, yoga studio and massage clinic became available in January. A grand opening is scheduled for May 1.
“It used to be a private members’ club, not open to the public,” Bridgland said inside the club’s new tennis dome, often called a bubble by players. She’s done away with memberships and instead opened it to the public. Anyone can book the facilities and pay by the hour, although a summer pass is also available. Individuals can also join the centre’s varied sports leagues, and parents can sign their kids up for summer and March break camps.
“Private members’ clubs do not appeal to the young demographic,” she said, because younger people typically don’t want to chain themselves to just one facility, particularly this club, which previously only offered tennis. New sports such as soccer, basketball and dek hockey are aimed at appealing to a wider audience. Bridgland is most excited about dek hockey, which puts a twist on a familiar sport.
The Rideau Sports Centre still offers tennis — and a whole lot more.
“Dek hockey is a special version of ball hockey that models ice hockey in the sense that it’s played with boards that wrap around the surface,” she said. “The workout is excellent and the same as ice hockey in that way, however you don’t need to pay for expensive ice time rental or expensive gear.”
The strategy appears to have worked, with Bridgland saying more people than ever are using the facility.
“It’s sort of Field of Dreams” in that we had a vision for this property that was all-inclusive … that dream is being realized.”
Graham Charette, 83, had been a member of the tennis club for 57 years and said the new ownership is bringing the storied facility back to a former glory he said had been missing for more than a decade.
“We were in dire straits,” he said. “The RA Centre did what they could … but in truth we were trying to maintain a club with a limited number of tennis players and there just weren’t enough people that were joining.”
He remembered the club in the 1960s when, he said, hundreds of members would turn out for parties on the terrace.
“We had guys that were from England,” he said. “And they knew every dirty rugby song in the world … those days ended about 10 years ago when people would show up for those same events, maybe 20.”
After seeing the new restaurant fill up for its grand opening on March 22, he declared the club “revitalized.”
The new restaurant and bar at the Rideau Sports Centre.
The exterior of the historic facility, which began as the Rideau Tennis Club in 1912.
The Rideau Sports Centre includes massage rooms.
查看原文...
