Splashing out at the local sports club

The days grow longer and hotter, and school is out for the summer. Finding a refreshing answer to the heat and boredom becomes an urgent need. Most swimming pools long ago ceased to provide simply a place to swim; in recent years, more pools have been transformed into "sports clubs" - dazzling complexes that offer the whole gamut of leisure time pursuits.

Shimshon Chen, chairman of the Israel Association of Swimming Pools and Sports and Leisure Centers, who is also the managing director of the Yamit 2000 water sports center, says that aside from swimming pools, these facilities offer classes in yoga and Tai Chi, fitness rooms, gyms, spas, Jacuzzis and water parks.

"Increasingly more Israelis are making country clubs their regular family amusement site," says Chen. "The leisure centers are becoming the same sort of cultural focal point that community centers used to be." With only one major difference: They cost money, lots of money.

But the proliferation of these new community centers cannot only be attributed to family experiences. Chen suggests that the events of the past year caused many Israelis to look for protected leisure spots close to home: "Not only are some of the beaches polluted - while the water in pools in Israel is considered especially clean - the sports centers also provide better protection in terms of the security angle."

More glitter costs more, as well, and buying an annual membership for the whole family may become a tough financial decision. Prices can range from a few hundred shekels for a single annual membership at a simple swimming pool to NIS 5,000 per person at one of the more prestigious clubs. The prices vary in accordance with location, number of members of the sports center, and variety of services offered.

Nevertheless, the ranks of families joining the sports centers have increased in recent years. "People make their financial calculations, and realize that for the price of a week's holiday in Eilat, they can have access to an attractive leisure center for an entire year," says Chen.

The cost is also a factor of the complex - not to mention convoluted - assortment of procedures forced on the operators of the pools by government ministries. Yosef Amar, the national swimming supervisor at the Interior Ministry, says that swimming facilities operate in the framework of various laws, under the aegis of different ministries: "The Interior Ministry enforces business-permit laws and the law regulating swimming facilities, which covers safety of the facilities, rescue equipment and first-aid equipment; the Rescue Law is enforced by the Labor Ministry, and the Hazardous Materials Law is under the jurisdiction of the Environment Ministry."

To this list Chen adds the IDF Home Command, the Education Ministry, the Israel Police, the Standards Institute, electrical engineers, etc. - all of whom have a say in the operation of a sports center. "It would be better for consumers if a single government ministry was responsible for the whole thing, because then there would be uniform requirements in different areas of the country," Chen comments.

Ha'aretz carried out an inspection of 15 pools all around Israel. With the help of inspectors employed by CI, the Customer Intelligence research institute that is headed by Meirav Shapira and Noam Raz, we wanted to see if the high prices were justified, and learn what factors should be weighed before deciding on joining a pool.

The inspectors arrived at the pools unannounced and incognito. Their examination surveyed the level of service and guidance given to would-be clients at the sports centers. The inspection covered a large number of parameters (see box) in categories like parking, services at the front desk, pool area, toilets, changing rooms and snack bars. The various factors were then averaged into a final score, which was assigned to each pool.

The results indicate that two pools (the Hebrew University pool at the Cosell Center in Givat Ram and the Dizengoff Center pool in Tel Aviv) are not accessible to the disabled, as one must climb a flight of stairs that lead to the edge of the pool. These two pools, incidentally, received the lowest overall scores.

Seven of the 15 pools did not carry out a security inspection of persons entering the facility: Jerusalem Pool, Maccabi Pool in Haifa, Omer Village pool near Be'er Sheva, Breeza Pool in Holon, Gordon Pool in Tel Aviv, the Gil-Ron Club in Ramat Efal, and the Goldstein-Goren Country Club in Tel Aviv. Incidentally, security inspections were not carried out at the entrance to the Hebrew University and Dizengoff Center pools, either, although they were carried at the main entrance to the complexes.

It was found that many sites lacked appropriate signs, either for directing individuals to the first-aid station or for publicizing prices or opening hours. Several pools lacked notices of the water quality of the pool, as required by the Health Ministry.

The CI inspectors were surprised to find that they did not consistently receive courteous and pleasant service, as one might have expected from businesses charging high membership fees. It should be noted that the receptionist at the Dizengoff Center pool, treated the inspector brusquely and would not give her - a potential member - any information about the facility. Unlike other pools, he did not take her for an introductory tour, and when she wanted to know, for example, if there was a first-aid station on site, she was answered with: "What happened? Do you need treatment?" When she said she considered this information important in making her decision, she was told: "There's a box of first-aid stuff over there. Go have a look." Dizengoff Center, incidentally, charges a princely NIS 3,465 in annual membership fees per individual.

The response of pool management: "The management of Dizengoff Center thanks Ha'aretz for drawing its attention to faults that became apparent in the course of the covert inspection, and intends to correct that which needs to be improved. As far as the quality of service described - the hundreds of contented members of the pool are sufficient proof that the instance described is atypical and does not conform with any of the service criteria routinely provided at the pool. We will look into the details of the matter, and ensure that this does not happen again."

Membership fees were surveyed for each pool, including additional services, which vary from pool to pool. The prices range from NIS 850 for an individual membership at Gil-Ron Club to NIS 5,132 at Kfar Hamaccabiah Club. Due to numerous variables included in the price and the type of examination, we chose not to factor the prices into the final average score. Nevertheless, the final score does include a category that examines if single-entry tickets are available. It is worth ascertaining the cost of such tickets in advance, since there is a wide disparity in prices, ranging from NIS 30 to NIS 70.

Three of the four top-ranked pools are especially costly: Galei Hadar Country Club in Rishon Letzion (NIS 3,880), Country Gimmel in Ramat Aviv (NIS 4,400 for an annual membership) and the most expensive of all - Kfar Hamaccabiah. Conversely, Be'er Sheva Country Club deserves special mention, as it shares the top score with Galei Hadar Country Club, but at NIS 1,644, has much lower membership fees.

Substantial differences were found in the prices for goodies at the snack bar. For instance, the most expensive can of Coca Cola can be had at Country Gimmel for NIS 7, whereas the Coke machine at Dizengoff Center dispenses the same can for NIS 4.

It is also important to note that at three of the 15 pools - Gordon, Tel Aviv University and Dizengoff Center - members must pay extra for parking. For anyone not living within walking distance of the pool, this translates into a significant extra cost on top of already high membership fees.

In response to Ha'aretz inquiries, all of the pools that failed to conduct a security inspection reported that this was atypical, since security inspectors are stationed at the entrance. The Maccabi Pool in Haifa said it would soon be installing a special walk-through device through which members would enter with a magnetic-stripe ID card, such as is found at railway stations. Gil-Ron Pool responded that the Ha'aretz inspection took place exactly during the guard's lunch hour.

All of the pools at which our inspectors did not see signs directing them to the first-aid station responded that the signs were, in fact, there, although they were perhaps not conspicuous enough, and therefore the management would be adding additional signs.

Regarding accessibility to the disabled, management of the Dizengoff Center Pool stated that in light of the request, it would look into what could be done to ease access for the handicapped. Administrators of the Cosell Center Pool at Hebrew University stated that the pool was built 36 years ago in accordance with construction standards at the time. However, a new sports center would be opening in a few months at the university's Mount Scopus campus, and it would provide full access for the handicapped public. As for reports that they did not set aside parking spots for the handicapped, the Gil-Ron and Jerusalem Pools replied that parking for the handicapped was in fact available on site.

	Country Club, Be'er Sheva (above) shared the top rating with Galei Hadar, but its membership fees were less than half those charged by the Rishon Letzion facility.
	Photo by: Alberto Denkberg