Keith HooperReview of2011 Halifax Canada Games
This review it's not directed to specific individu...
This review it's not directed to specific individuals that work so hard everyday at the centre checking you in or setting up activities Etc.
During Covid I am very appreciative of the front line staff and Management at CGC that have ensued so many changes and are doing their best to enable us to try to get some badly needed excercise.
The purpose of my review here is however directed primarily at management. As a member looking to book a Badminton court on weekends, they rarely have courts to book for both days and at best just a part of one day. The booking allows members and non members the same 1 week lead time to book and that starts at 6:00 AM the week before. If you don't get up at 6 and try to book you will get nothing because there are far too few courts available. Even when you can book you don't have full use of that court for you and your playing partner because the court can be booked by anyone until all 2 or 4 spots are reserved for that time. Totally unrealistic to expect to share a court with a stranger esp. during Covid given the fact you think you reserved a private booking.
They have made a great attempt to separate badminton from pickleball (1/2 of the court space for each on either side of the divider) so that one sport does not hog up the space for the other sport. This is as fair as it probably can be on the weekends. The demands are not equal on the weekdays so they allow more openings for pickleball especially in the mornings due to the demand for that sport and availability of the clients using the facility at that time. In the evenings there is precious little availability for badminton at all on any day.
The present booking system allows anyone to book and all must book in order to get in the facility. The same court can be booked out to a possibility of four different people. When you get there they are unable to resolve who gets the court and strongly encourage you to play together which was never anyone's attention and certainly not welcomed during these Covid times.
In the past at least you could reserve a court (all of it) 1st come 1st served. Once you had it booked you could attatch your own expected players to that court (as members too) and that way you determined who you played with. That way you knew you had a reservation without having to face double booking tensions in person when you showed up.
As a member if they also allow non-members to book these precious few courts with the same 7 day lead time and priority it basically defeats the purpose of paying for a membership esp. if that is all you use of the facility for. It also doesn't help that you can reserve as many times as you want on that day or any day. At the very least the system should only allow you to book a single one hour interval in a day for a badminton or pickleball court.
The last number of Saturdays or Sundays I've gotten up at 6 ( earliest you can reserve) to try to book for the following week and all courts within 1 -3 minutes are booked for that following Sat or Sun. If I was lucky enough to book 2 spots on a court for myself and my son (or my wife), I could almost immediately see that 2 more people have now also reverved the same court for the same time. Who wins? How does that enable you to play your game at your own level with who you intended and enable you to be "Covidly" comfortable / responsible.
Far too few courts are available for so many wanting them. As an example this coming Saturday April 10th the facility is booked out to some private bookings all of Saturday morning until 2:15 PM and all day Sunday so nothing is available on Sunday to even attempt a booking. So there is basically 4 of the 1 hour time slots available between 2:15 and 6. So in the case of badminton that is two courts for 4 one hour timeslots for a whole weekend! This past weekend the facility was closed for Good Friday and Easter.
I guess if this continues I might as well resign my membership and pay to sign up as a non member with same booking rights. At least I would only pay for when I can actually book and play.

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