Let's face it there is still an elephant wandering around Mountain View that is headed for the court of public opinion in the case of want versus need. The elephant will be discussed in the stakeholder meetings at which each special interest will present their case for why their wants should be considered community needs. A preview of these discussions can be found in the archives of Option 2, the SAC and the Mountain View town halls. In all of these processes the wants of the groups involved was discussed. So, lets a look at the list: Players Club: Everything you would expect to see in a top-of-the-line Broadway theater: Sloped floor, fixed seating, high end light and sound systems, orchestra pit, dressing rooms, rehearsal room(s), green room, large set design and storage room, secure costume storage room, large lobby to meet the actors and socialize in ... Dance Clubs - A multipurpose facility that could be used by them when Sun Dial auditorium is not available. Others - A multi-purpose facility that could be used by them when the Pickleball Club: Many more courts with some number of the courts in an air-conditioned building that would require some significant amount of space to be repurposed. Fitness - Build new or refurbish old facility into more usable facility. Aquatics: Repair existing resort style pool to make it more accessible and redo pool decking. Replace decommissioned indoor spa with outdoor spa. Possibly add a lap/sports pool. Lawn Bowling - Keep existing facility intact. Mini Golf - Keep existing course intact with some minor repairs and rebuild mini golf building, Site - replace asphalt in parking lot. The Board will be faced with the difficult task of determining what features or elements deliver the biggest bang for the buck to the membership. They will be aided in this discussion by members of the Long-Range Planning Committee, Triarc and hopefully, a master plan expert with lots of data. Personally, I would set up a special communication channel (web based) just to inform the membership of the content of the discussions and decisions as they are made. This may help bring the membership so the final product, when revealed, is not a big surprise. Your thoughts?
My thoughts are...lets wait to see how much everything on the "wish list" would cost because we will surely need to start dwindling those wishes away and face reality!
After the flurry of news from yesterday, i'll craft my bigger picture thoughts in a separate thread, but this topic is perhaps first and foremost on the to do list. And the fact a board member resigned and the GM left should have no bearing on moving forward on MV. None. John has highlighted the topics solidly that came from the SAC. I've always been a fan of the architect's (Marlene) efforts to drag out of those in the room the must haves from the want to have. As i read through John's list, i could easily take and red line the frills and still get the thrills out of a rebuilt Mountain View. We know the pool is a given, most of us agree more pickleball courts are a plus (sorry no indoor) with a question mark of some covered (depending on the cost), resurface the two tennis courts (so they have two venues) or resurface Lakeview (so they have two venues and lose MV), the lawn bowling green goes away and Fairway's artificial surface is redone with the MV lawn bowling club moving there, the mini-golf stays, the fitness area/showers for the pool gets a modest rebuild with outdoor spa, and then the biggest question mark is the PAC. I'm tired of fighting over it and after attending the play last Sunday, they need to do something. I've been in the just under 300 seat theater in SCW and a replica of that would be more than adequate (in my opinion). Yes it has slopped floors and tiered comfortable seats. No orchestra pit, no green room but better storage and back stage dressing rooms. Sorry, we will never be Broadway, nor should we expect anything that opulent. The bigger challenge will be the understanding that building/venue doesn't belong to the Players. The only way it makes any sense is if every small group (300 or less) performance/meeting/training is scheduled there. Doing it for the Players 3 plays per year (6 performances per play), would be folly. There need be a logical accounting for real time utilization, which theoretically should open other flat floor spaces. Redo the parking lot, add the horse shoes and cornhole adjacent to the mini-golf to make it more visitor/grandchild friendly. I know this list is just my thoughts and won't be liked/loved by many. My goal was to make it functional and affordable (kind of a stretch because i suspect the price tag for the above would be bumping up and into the 25-30 million dollar range). Not cheap, but an investment into the future which would allow us to start the long game master plan for Lakeview (which we would be lucky to start any construction on sometime in the 2030's).
Makes sense to me depending on cost. Though I think tennis, if needed, should be at lv. I would also like to nominate Steve Oaks for open board position. He knows the issues, has his opinions, but seems open to other constructive ideas.
One of the things that I learned from the SAC is to let the data speak for itself even though you may not like what it says. I know the following will not be popular but needs to be said. In 1984, the Players club had 640 members and had funded $12,000 of improvements to the MountainView Auditorium. "The purpose of the Players remains the same as when the club organized in 1961:"Our only reason for existence is to give high quality entertainment to residents of Sun City and surrounding communities." "The long-range goal of the Players is to upgrade Mountain View auditorium into a theater facility suitable for all stage performances." Jubilee - The 25th anniversary of Sun City page 190. I studied the RCSC records and was amazed at the amount of work that goes into the production of a play. In 1984, there was no such thing as cable TV. Personal computers and the internet were new to the marketplace and folks were not sure whether they would succeed. The Sony Walkman had been introduced five years earlier and ushered in the age of "personal entertainment". In 1983 Motorola introduced "The DynaTAC" portable phone which cost $4,000 and was the size of a brick. CDs had been introduced in 1983. The patent for the DVR was issued in 1985. Fast forward to today. Almost every consumer has a cell phone and internet access. The content available on these devices keeps expanding at exponential rates as consumers have the ability to create their own content. Almost all content is available on demand. "TV Channels" number in the hundreds and satellite radio is available just about everywhere. Live performances around the world (other than musical concerts) continue to decline as a result of cheaper more convenient alternatives and highly contagious diseases. The times they are a changing. The Player's club has about 100 dedicated members. They soldier forward making the best of it. The question for the membership is whether to fund a special purpose theater given the data that is staring us in the face. As I said, there will be difficult discussions ahead of us...
Making the above mentioned facility a multi-purpose space changes the entire equation. Do I hear retractable seating?
That's long been the question argued over repeatedly. I'm a fan of multi-purpose buildings. I'm also a fan of using the available data to help make the decision. In Director McAdam's pitch for the PAC at Lakeview, she was adamant the data supported tiered seating based on other communities utilization numbers. If memory serves me, she touted those other senior communities being in the 60-70% range. I have no idea if that is true. I do believe it is easily researched. Sun City West is the closest to us in both location and as a comparative community (though a third smaller (we have 27,000 plus roof tops, they have 18,000). They have a 300 seat tiered theater and many of the same kinds of clubs and activities. I think the other community Karen used may have been Green Valley (if someone is interested they can watch the November, 2024 sales pitch to take the greens away at Lakeview). I'm a bit more pragmatic about tiered or not. If the utilization is there, and if the cost to build it at Mountain View doesn't break the bank, i am fine with going forward. Like i wrote above, the key is putting butts in chairs way more than the 18 performances the Players will do yearly. Nope, not going to factor their months of preparations and practice, they need to know they will be bumped whenever others need the venue. That may be a hard pill for them to swallow, though they argue now they understand that. All of which brings us full circle to the master plan. We know we have way too many open flat spaces that are way under-utilized. We also know some clubs are clamoring for more space. The easy question that no one ever answers is; how do we better utilize what we have? I written a dozen times about Sun City West developing a space utilization committee for the express purpose of taking better advantage of what they had. Duh. We know the Sundial auditorium is our go-to location for most of the big events. We know clubs get bounced from there and we know (at least for now), having another prime location for bigger events would make sense (at least to me). But, and that's a big BUTT, only if we pare down all of the flat spaces sitting empty 75% of the time. I was one of those who thought a PAC being at Lakeview made sense. Not as a free standing building, but as a multi-purpose large open flat space adjacent to the lake and serving as our second Sun Dial auditorium-like venue. The challenge was working around the Players performances. Being centrally located rather than at the most southern end of the community seemed logical. By keeping the PAC at MV, we end that discussion and that's their home; along with everyone else wanting a stage and seating for 300. It also creates a much more attainable outcome for the Lakeview remodel via a master plan. Which is exactly why i mentioned a second Sundial like venue; by the time we get around to it, we may not need another large flat space? We've for far too long labored under doing everything in this community at the whim of the general manager, or the desires of board members or special interest groups shouting the loudest. I don't pretend to know what our needs will be. I can tell you, there's mountains of research done on the subject by senior community home builders. It's one of the reasons so few of them have community owned golf courses. They don't see them as a reasonable cost for the future as the Gen X start hitting their retirement. If there is a golf course, it's built and owned by a private corporation specializing in golf course ownership and management. And, i would be surprised/shocked if the deed restrictions locked them into it remaining a golf course forever. Funny, the discussions we are having here, are exactly what i was proposing to the board and management do while i was on the board. Nope, never happened. We have always been wary of difficult discussions; way easier to blunder our way along.
I have been in contact with a manufacturer of retractable tiered cushioned seating. For less than one million dollars we can get motorized retractable tiered seating to accommodate 350 seats that, when retracted, can be stored up against the entrance wall at Sun Dial between the entrance doors. They fold up to occupy only 4'-6" of floor space and are motorized to move as close to the stage as desired. That cost also includes 300 matching seats for the flat floor space that comes with their own storage trollys as well as protective floor panels to protect the flooring when opening and closing the retractable seating. Anyone interested in seeing my information can private message me.
I think we almost have to have a multi-use building at MV. If any of you can remember the SCWest Del Webb theater that was built in late 70s. That thing was deemed useless in terms of using for various purposes as time went on. It fastly became a huge 'white elephant' by the mid 1990s. I am hoping we don't build a show theater but really a multi functional building. The retractable seats would have to be in there. I am not trying to be negative here, but people going to shows and theaters is leaving our culture with current technologies. Just look how movie theaters are dying out. I think people want to have events, but events could be so many things. I am more for the multi use building.
I too am a huge proponent of a professionally developed master plan because I know what I do not know. I would take great comfort that my money is being thoughtfully spent and believe our ad hoc capital allocation process will come back to bite us. I believe there are many likeminded people in our community who know our system of volunteer governance was not designed to answer strategic questions. Our governance is and should always be focused on the present tense. Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery.
I agree, John. Not only should the Board hire a private enterprise to help, but I think they should look for an organization for nonprofits, particularly ones for 55+ communities, to become a Member. Those type of organizations have much to offer and are worth the fees. No sense trying to reinvent the wheel by ourselves.
