Badminton court at the Red Hill Gym. - UPDATE

[Badminton In Irvine]

The city wants to hold-off Bill Barker Gym in favor of purchasing 17300 Red Hill property and convert it into a gym.  They are only willing to allocate 10 dedicated badminton courts to the community.  They are proposing 8 more flex courts on the multi-use area where non-slip mat courts will be laid when badminton is in session and removed when not.

This is what Bill Barber Gym area would look: 

16 dedicated badminton courts on one floor (32K sq ft)

4 basketball court multi-use area on the other floor (32K sq ft). 

This plan was approved by the city council on 9-12-23.

This is what the city is proposing for Red Hill Gym:

10 dedicated badminton courts area (20K sq ft)

10 basketball court multi-use area (80K sq ft) with 8 more flex badminton courts in this multi-use area.

We believe this plan fails to address the badminton community needs and impractical.  We think all sports should get more gym space because this is a larger facility and badminton should get 18 dedicated courts.

What we fought for:

18 dedicated badminton courts (36K sq ft)

8 basketball court size area for multi-use purpose (64K sq ft).  

We believe this is a more equitable design and win-win solution to the city.

The Result: 

The city council voted 1-4 against this plan.  Only Mayor Khan supported this plan for 18 dedicated badminton courts in this Red Hill Gym.  I know this is not the news everyone was hoping for but we tried our best and we have to accept the city council decision.

The volunteer team still have a lot of work ahead.  We will continue to advocate for more play time for badminton with these 8 flex courts and we will work with the city to make sure that these 8 flex courts is designed to the modern badminton court standards.

November election is coming up.  We have a chance to elect who we think will support our community.  Larry Agran and Tammy Kim are both running for mayor and Mike Carrol is running for city council seat in District 4.  The city council will expand from 5 members to 7 members come 2025.

Please follow this link to see the candidates:  https://legacy.cityofirvine.org/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=35505

There are other candidates running for mayor and city council.  Take this chance to tell them your badminton story and see if he/she wants to support us.

Thank you everyone who came to city hall support the volunteer group.  Thank you everyone who wrote e-comments.

regards,

KN Chan