New UI rec center open for business

IOWA CITY - The membership desk at the University of Iowa's Campus Recreation and Wellness Center did brisk business Monday, the first day the doors were open at the new $70 million facility.

“They're all signing up,” UI Recreational Services Director Harry Ostrander said, nodding to the lines of people. “It's been like that since 6 a.m.”

With membership to the new center open to UI students, faculty and staff, the question remains of how it will affect private and municipal recreation centers.

Membership to UI recreation facilities, including the new Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, are included in tuition and fees for the university's more than 30,000 students.

Faculty and staff and the general public must pay membership fees, but Ostrander predicts the center will draw about 20 percent of the UI's 16,000 faculty and staff, who will get 50 percent of their membership refunded through the UI's benefits plan. The new center offers daily, monthly, four-month and annual membership plans.

It's hard to know what the membership draw among the public will be, Ostrander said. He estimated perhaps 500 non-UI affiliated people would buy memberships, though he predicts the daily pass - $7 for adults and $5 for kids - may be more popular with the public.

Even if the new UI facility doesn't draw huge numbers from the public, private fitness centers still will feel the impact through the loss of faculty, staff and students, said Adam Norland, manager at New Life Fitness World at 2220 Mormon Trek Blvd.

“Our big months are January and August and September, when the students come back. We rely on that,” Norland said. “This is good for the university, but it's going to hurt our business.”

It will probably take a month or two to feel out just how much the new UI facility will affect business, he said.

Photos by Brian Ray

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“Who knows how crowded it will be at first?” he said.

UI seniors Jamie Dupuy, 21, and Erin Edwards, 21, both have gym memberships at private facilities in town. But after working out at the new UI center Monday, they said they won't keep their other memberships, as they originally thought they might. They liked the leisure pool, the more than 200 pieces of exercise equipment and the cafe.

“I think this really adds something to the university that it didn't have before,” said Dupuy, of West Des Moines.

Iowa City's recreation center likely will see a dip in some things but more attendance in others as people check out the new UI facility, said Mike Moran, director of Iowa City Parks and Recreation. The UI's Fieldhouse will now become a “gated access” facility, which could drive more people to the free open gym and pool at the city rec center, Moran said.

“Some of our activities, like swim lessons, will be up and down a bit because of the wow factor of the new UI center,” he said. “But after a while people may come back here because it's cheaper or has better parking or whatever reason.”

The UI membership fee includes access to all five of the university's recreation facilities.

The two main recreation locations are the new center and the Fieldhouse, Ostrander said. Intramural activities, including about 220 basketball teams and more than 100 volleyball teams, will remain at the Fieldhouse, along with academic classes and lesson practices, to keep that facility busy, he said.

Among those in line at the new center Monday was UI Library staffer Patricia Baird, 47, of Swisher. She works across the street and figures she'll use the new center three or four times a week.

“It is going to be so convenient and it is such a spectacular facility,” she said. “All the staff in the library especially are really excited.”

Video by Brian Ray