Members expect loss of SOS Club as Modesto considers Agassi charter school project
Chuck Maietta has been a member of the Sportsmen of Stanislaus Club since 1967, using the gym equipment for his workouts. After 50 years, he’s going to need to find another gym if city officials allow a charter school to replace the west Modesto fitness facility.
“It’s hard for me to see it go, but I guess it was inevitable,” Maietta said Sunday morning before his workout.
The SOS Club is a large facility with some features not available elsewhere in town. Like other club members, Maietta said the gym equipment and other parts of the facility are outdated and in need of renovations. But he recognizes the facility can’t be renovated with declining memberships.
The Modesto Planning Commission will consider Monday recommending the City Council allow a K-12 charter school sponsored by tennis champion Andre Agassi at the site of the SOS Club.
City staff is asking the commission to recommend the council approve the project. The commission meets at 6 p.m. in the basement chambers of Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St.
The project is being spearheaded by the Turner-Agassi Charter School Fund, which builds charter schools and then sells them to what the company calls world-class operators. The fund is a partnership between Agassi and Bobby Turner. The school could open as soon as summer 2018.
Agassi turned to a new passion – charter school education and helping at-risk youths – before his retirement from tennis in 2006.
Jason Sanderson said he didn’t know about the possibility of the SOS Club closing until after he signed up for a membership a few months ago. He signed up at the club because of its two full-size indoor basketball courts, something not found elsewhere in Modesto.
The basketball courts are used by club leagues that members can sign up for, Sanderson said. But the courts are always available for pickup games Sunday mornings. He played some basketball Sunday before heading over to lift weights in the gym.
“It is huge,” Sanderson said about the SOS Club. “It would be a really nice facility if they updated it.”
Like Sanderson, Isaac Kinsey said he will have to find another place to play basketball indoors. He and about 20 others were playing pickup games Sunday morning.
“I’ll just have to go out of of the city,” Kinsey said about searching for another gym with indoor basketball courts. “It always gets crowded here on Sunday mornings.”
Club President Wayne Zipser, operations manager Shanale Phipps and administrative volunteer Ruben Patron told The Modesto Bee on Sept. 7 that the SOS, founded in 1957, would remain open at least another year to celebrate its 60th anniversary.
The SOS Club, which still has more than 500 members – down from around 2,200 during its peak years in the 1980s – has struggled over the past 15 years as competition in the health and fitness business grew. Maintenance costs on the sprawling 55,000-square-foot property increased, and the club was forced to sell its softball fields in 2005.
This story was originally published February 5, 2017 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Members expect loss of SOS Club as Modesto considers Agassi charter school project."