Opening up the weight room to the public is a great way to generate some more revenue and to make up for the cost of the new facilities, which is an extremely hefty $48,025,031.  This will give the school a new revenue stream and give gym users in the community a new and possibly better option.

“[The] weight room will be open to the public. That is something that was stated when the referendum was introduced. The public will have access to the facilities,” athletic director Ricky Michel said.

There are multiple reasons this is a good idea.  First, the more hours the gym is open, the more money the school makes.  Again, the school loves money.

Second, there are security protocals in place.  However, opening the gym during school hours may present some problems.  Gym classes are plentiful throughout the day.  All aspects of the athletic department use the weight room twice a week after school.

“We are working on this schedule, but so far [the] public has access to the facilities early morning hours and late afternoons,” Michel said.

“[It should be open] only during certain hours,” junior Charlie Richman said.

That may present some problems.  Having varying hours could lead to people using other gyms in the area, and the school losing out on money.

The proposal is to open the weight room up to the public during school hours, close it for team practices and after-school lifters (anywhere from 2:10-4:3 p.m. ), and open it back up until 10 p.m.  This way, the public gets their time, and the students get theirs.

Richman also mentioned the weight room hours should be in the favor of students.  It is our weight room.  They did built it for us.  It will be the school’s job to make sure that, if the weight room is open to the public, that it doesn’t put possible profit in front of students.

“Teams and students will have access throughout the school day and after school until about 4:30 p.m.,” Michel added.

This allows for teams to use the weight room to use the weight room to build their strength and conditioning for games and practices.

There might be some opposition to the plan, but it is hard to find.

“Not that I know of,” Richman said of possible opposition to the plan.  “[That] doesn’t mean there aren’t people.”

This is a positive thing for all involved.  The school will not have to deal with any backlash from students and athletes, and public users won’t be too sheltered by student-only hours.

However, these schools have limited the hours to their facilities significantly.  Possibly, these high schools didn’t spend ~$48 million on new facilities.  Vestal has only 1,301 students, so it’s very possible that they want to keep their facilities as school-tight as possible.  Chilton is much, much smaller at ~434 (2009-2010 numbers), so the case is the same there.

Still, and back to Richman’s point:  There should not be much, if any opposition to the proposal of the new weight room being open to the public.  It will give the school a slight revenue boost, give gym users in the community another option, and still provide students and teams the private use it was built for.