September 8th, 2008. Hollywood, FL: It's Here!!!
by: R. Teller for boutbox.com
 		  
Standing in the entryway to the playing area, the first thing I saw, was Marty Prager, wearing his Newgy Warmup and grinning from ear to ear.  How are you doing? I greeted him extending my hands for a warm handshake. He did not reply, but what he did say answered my question. "Did you ever see anything like this?", he said to me. "Come, let me give you a tour", he added. "it's the best club in the country, I am not BS 'ing!", he melodically cadenced. Of course, we were here before, and filmed here before the build-out, but why not get another tour from one of the game's greats. You know Barack Obama tried to do something like this when he worked for Killer Spin, I said. But, I don't think Marty heard me as he trotted off caught up in the excitement of the moment. As we were walking from court to court and area to area, he kept asking me questions, pointing to the pictures hanging on the walls of some of table tennis legends, like Waldner, Persson, I think even Seemiller  made it. This will be very inspirational, I thought to myself, for the young player, to be in the presence of these greats, albeit frozen in time, in their picture-perfect positions. 

"Did you ever see bathrooms like this?" he asked me. Of course, the bathrooms are very nice.

"Each court is about international court size, did you know that?", he'd pause and point. "Did you get the the two courts with the Newgy robots? Let's go film the bathrooms!", he exclaimed. So, of course we did.

We filmed the man's, women's, even the ADA compliant ones (incidentally, I believe the whole complex is ADA compliant, from entry to the building with a ramp to the bathrooms -- good idea).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The club really does look fantastic. I must admit, it looks much better than my mind's eye was able to project when we did the initial filming prior to the build-out. With 14 tables, each in its own court and seating around them, wood flooring, and two robot tables with transparent white netting suspended from the ceiling surrounding them, the whole thing looks great. You have to see this! My congratulations go to everyone associated with this project, especially Carlos Zeller who did an excellent job directing this effort. Undoubtably, this club shall serve the table tennis community well and will serve as a symbol of life, vibrance and the new generations of great players to come.



 


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