Fred D wrote:
freemantrailfamily wrote:
LOL, spoken like a real-estate agent.
I'm not quite sure what that means?? I question EVERYTHING ever since my Univ days, where my brain was corrupted with years of environmental education and asking "What If" about almost everything... my poor wife!!
I'm all for R&D for things that are produced en masse, but for a sport that has 4 indoor locations on the continent, is it necessary? And why do the tracks need to be faster? Isn't there a regulation speed, or is the intent to have all world records broken here due to track improvement? like juiced baseballs and LZR swimsuits, are we measuring the athletes, or do we just want to invent stuff to make them faster? (Then what happens when the canadian team that trains here goes internationally to compete, and their times are significantly slower?)
Standing still works just fine for swimming pools, tennis courts, ping pong tables, basketball courts, hockey ice.. sure there are improvements over decades, but aren't we just creating a market for what Dale Hughes has to sell? Of course standing still is not an option for a designer whose livelihood depends on it.
Again, I'm just questioning it for the sake of questioning it... I will absolutely ride there and use the facility when it is built, but if it is going to happen, I would like to see costs controlled to ensure viability long term. Is that "real estatey", or just good business?
If you're trying to become the de-facto training facility for something, it helps to be able to allow the athletes to perform at their very best.
And it wouldn't surprise me to learn that:
-swimming pools are designed differently to minimize wave movement, currents, etc.
-tennis courts having better surfaces and technology to monitor whether or not a ball is in
-ping pong tables using different materials and designs to increase/decrease ball spin and bounce
-basketball courts using new materials to minimize slippage and increase durability
-hockey rinks using new cooling technologies to have "better ice" - ice that doesn't chip, and maintains the perfect surface temperature throughout the entire rink.
So anything can be improved, Fred. You just have to want to.
You said what I was going to be in much less text. Take a look at the competition pool at the sports center next time you're in. The most obvious is the way the filtration system is done along the length of the front and back of the pool. The ice rinks at the sports center have vastly better compressors and heat recovery for efficiency and better ice surface. Were you up in arms about public scrutiny of all these options when they designed the sports center or were you content with trusting town staff to work with the chosen design/build contractors to take care of these. Do you want to have a say in all the building systems and medical equipment choices the hospital makes for it's expansion or do you trust the health care professionals to know their job and equipment needs? Why would we treat the velodrome differently?