I wish the people interested in investing in the Jones Center would take a few minutes and go observe the basketball courts on any evening (but especially weekends). For some reason all of the basketball goals except two were removed and often just one goal is available. There could be six goals. The result is that all these (mostly) teenagers just sit around, all over the court, waiting for a chance to play. I counted 30 waiting one day. If there’s going to be troublemaking or misbehaving all that waiting is the best breeding ground for it. I personally would never wait because I'm not going to get in a game against people that can dunk the ball. If there were 6 goals set up there could be games with little kids, middle aged adults etc instead of just the top level. I asked a staff member why the goals were removed and they said something about someone had spit some tobacco behind a goal once or something to that effect. To me there's meanness or laziness (or both) involved in this very inefficient use of likely the most or 2nd most used space in the Jones Center. I would hope companies considering contributing, like the Tysons and the Waltons, might send someone to directly observe if it couldn’t be made a center that more in the community could actually use.

Posted by: mhoople

April 24, 2011 at 6:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )