On January 12, 2013, Newtown Athletic Club (NAC) in Newtown, Pa., celebrated the grand opening of its 41,000-square-foot sports training center. The NAC Sports Training Center boasts 30,000 square feet of indoor athletic turf, available for rent to local sports teams and organizations.
The Sports Training Center is part of NAC’s “Big Build Plan,” and the opening of the center was the end result of the second phase of the plan. In May of 2013, NAC’s members will see the third and final phase come into fruition, with the opening of an outdoor family pool complex. The complex will sport four pools, a 40-foot slide and a lazy river, among other amenities.
Over 700 people attended the Sports Training Center’s grand opening, which Mitchell said expressed how excited NAC’s members are about the addition. “At the grand opening people were in awe of the large size of the space, especially in comparison to our previous Big Leagues and Rock Starz facilities,” said Mitchell. “This type of space is at a premium, and is already largely booked.”
According to Mitchell, the center will allow NAC to host larger sports related, and non-sports related events, and she expects the facility to become a main profit center for the club. “Even with increased operating costs of this larger facility, the potential to be profitable is almost limitless,” said Mitchell.
In order to contribute to the center’s profitability, NAC is developing an events department in order to drive events “to and through NAC,” said Mitchell. The Sports Training Center is expected to have its own director and staff. “This initiative will allow us to not only rent our space, but to plan and execute events for clients as well,” she added. “In this way, we hope to exceed revenue per square foot of similar, and even larger, facilities.”
Since its inception, the Big Build Plan has spanned two years, and NAC has invested almost $12 million into the project.
For the full interview with Linda Mitchell, visit: https://clubsolutionsmagazine.com/2013/01/cs-exclusive-interview-with-linda-mitchell-on-nacs-sports-training-center/
By Rachel Zabonick
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
This new facility is great. It gives us the flexibility to host so many events and sports without having an overwhelming overhead. It has given two of our big programs a beautiful home. I am happy to see the vision we laid out years ago become reality and the feedback from the community has been tremendous.