Libertyville Sports Complex Failing

LIBERTYVILLE WANTS FITNESS CENTER BULK BACK
By Mick Zawislak
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006

The commitment to flatten stomachs and lose girth usually comes after the turkey
and trimmings. But Libertyville officials say the village's fitness center is
already too slim and want to start padding its bottom line right away.

Over the past 12 months, membership at the health club portion of the $25
million Libertyville Sports Complex has fallen 25 percent. Nonresident use is
down even more.

With the indoor fitness season approaching, staffers are scrambling to grab a
bigger share of a shrinking pie. New carpeting is being installed in locker
rooms, bigger discounts are offered, and membership fees for nonresidents and
village employees likely will be cut.

The lack of activity is bad news for village leaders, who are concerned with the
overall performance of the four-year-old Sports Complex on the far northwest
side of town.

Part of the operation, 27 holes of miniature golf on about six acres known as the Family Entertainment Center, has been for sale as a potential commercial
area since the summer. Determining how best to use the massive facility at
Peterson Road and Route 45 is on the village board's list of 2007 goals.

"It's time to step back and find out what's working and what's not,"
Village Trustee Luke Lukens said during a recent discussion of those goals.

"This could evolve into something large and major, but it's time. Otherwise,
we may just keep pouring money into something that's not working," he said.

During the same discussion, Trustee Bob Peron said the novelty of the Sports
Center appears to have worn off.

"It's not exciting anybody," he said.

Designed to address recreational needs identified by residents, the centerpiece
of the 48-acre campus is a 170,000-square-foot indoor recreation center. It
houses nine basketball/volleyball courts, two full-size indoor soccer fields, a
28-foot-high rock climbing wall, a fitness center with 100 cardiovascular and
resistance machines, and other amenities, including meeting rooms.

Increasing rental income from basketball tournaments, lacrosse teams and other
non-recreational uses is a bright spot looking forward.

But the health club portion of the operation is the focus at the moment.

While village officials initially expected 1,000 health club members within six
months, the reality has fallen far short of the projection.

A report prepared by James Zych, parks and recreation director, shows resident
membership fell to 347 in October from 427 a year ago. Overall memberships
dipped to 593 from 785 a year ago.

Zych stressed the village is not the only casualty.

About a half dozen or more competitors have opened since the Sports Complex
debuted in 2002, including strip mall-type fitness centers. Some established
facilities also have lost ground.

"We're not just the only ones hurting," Zych emphasized. "People will
jump to the new kids on the block."

Those include X-Sport Fitness, the new $6 million anchor of the Greentree Plaza
shopping center. The village board at first voted against the required special
use permit for the project but reversed itself, saying the investment would
upgrade the sagging center and attract new business.

In a few months, X-Sport has 468 individual memberships, according to Zych's
research.

"It's good that they're here, but we have to fight back to get our
memberships," he said. "You have to weather the storm, so to speak, and hope
we level off."

Steve Wild, owner of Libertyville Tennis & Fitness, in business here for 20
years and in other locations in Wisconsin, says the growth of health clubs is
cyclical.

"I think fitness is going to be where tennis was in the 1970s. It's so
overbuilt, it's a joke," he said. "There are too many clubs for a finite
number of customers."

An annual survey for the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub
Association, a Boston-based trade association representing 6,500 members, ranked
Illinois 16th among states in rate of health club memberships.

Nearly 17 percent of Illinois residents belong to a health club, and no Illinois
cities were in the top 25 nationally. Colorado led in state membership with
about 22 percent, and Denver was the top city at 25 percent in the 2005 survey.

"We have this oversupply of public golf in Lake County, and people are paying
the price. I think we'll have a similar situation with fitness and other
recreational facilities," Wild said.

He had the same observation when the Sports Complex opened, saying there were
many more facilities than people to use them.

A member of the Lake Forest Park and Recreation Board, Wild said the city has
been considering a recreational facility for a decade. The concept is for a
50,000-square-foot field house, less than a third of the size of the
Libertyville Sports Complex.

"We realize there are a lot of pitfalls," Wild said. The district envisions
a basic open box of a building that will be adaptable to change rather than one
filled with special offerings, he said.

To the north, the Gurnee Park District about a month ago opened the Hunt Club
Park Community Center, a nearly $7 million facility. Though it includes a
fitness center, staff describe it as 'basic' and not meant to compete with
the private sector.

"Everybody's doing it. The market is getting smaller and smaller," Zych
said.