The State of Illinois goes into the Tier 3 Mitigation Plan, Friday, November 20. The Shannon Pohl Badminton Academy is committed to continuing our services while also adhering to these new safety guidelines.
The good news is most of what we have been doing is already compliant under the new mitigation plan!!!!!
Starting Friday, November 20th, we will adhere to the following additional policies:
• We must now operate at no more than 25% capacity. No changes need to be made for us here as we have been doing that since the beginning of the pandemic and with the restrictions during Tier 3 Mitigation further limiting us we are likely to be operating at 8-15% capacity at the most during this time.
•Face Coverings must be worn at all times throughout the facility, even while exercising on court and playing badminton, regardless of spacing.
• For Students: Individual Training is allowed to continue. We received further clarification from the State that individual training is defined as no more than two people per court. The good news is our badminton training programs including elite teams, classes and private lessons have already been operating under the two people per court policy since the beginning of the pandemic and are compliant. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have taken extra measures to go above and beyond regulations to keep our students as safe as possible and we will continue to do so! We will take an additional measure at this time during classes so that each student will only practice with one other person per lesson.
• Open gym is paused during Tier 3 Mitigation, court reservations are now required to play at the facility. With the new guidance for the state stating that only 2 players per court are allowed, this means that court rentals will be available for singles play only, with only 2 players per reservation. They can be reserved in advance through the website or the Kourts app as before. Additional players beyond 2 will have to rent another court. Our 2020 standard court rental fee for members is $20/hour with up to 7-day advance booking and $25/hour for non-members with up to 3-day advance booking. We value all of our members and recognize that limiting play to two people per court is a greater financial burden than many of you are used to, so we are currently offering discounted court rental fees to our members at half price for $10/hour.
We want to remind everyone, that prior to entering the play area, all participants must wash their hands in the front bathrooms. We will of course be continuing all of our other previously outlined safety measures.
Thank you for your understanding and for continuing to support the SPBA during this time! We will get through this all together! As circumstances continue to change, we will continue to send updates and follow all protocols.
Part of the construction of the Shannon Pohl Badminton Academy this past year included a brand new state of the art $70,000 heating and ventilation system. Per building codes, fitness & sports centers require a greater quantity of fresh air ventilation than warehouses and office buildings. Not only that, but we bring in fresh outdoor air at 127% above the minimum requirements for a fitness center/sports center. Every 2 hours, the entire volume of the sports floor air is exchanged. Our system was designed by engineers to bring in, and heat outside fresh air and circulate it along with our exhaust fan throughout our huge 20,038 square sports floor. Not only that, but it was created to work without creating wind that would affect the flight of the shuttle! This system is even more ideal now, during the pandemic, when fresh air from outside instead of re-circulated air creates a safer environment.
The Spring Session of badminton lessons at the SPBA started the week of 2/15. It’s not too late to sign up! Spaces are still available! We hope you consider joining us today! We can pro-rate classes as long as we have space available in the requested classes.
