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Commercial Rec-Canopy Club-elgabri1
The Canopy Club in general serves as a great example of commercial rec in the Champaign-Urbana area. The major pros of the Canopy Club are that they are the only official venue for bands to play in this area.
This naturally leads to profit via ticket sales along with the price for admission on non-concert days and especially the selling of alcohol. Weakness of the Canopy Club could include that it's location in Urbana does not necessarily draw as many patrons as the location of some bars in Champaign. Overall however, I would argue that the Canopy Club does serve its purpose as that is to provide a venue for concerts and being that it is the only venue of its kind in the area, it does a great job of this.
Once can compare the Canopy Club to a different leisure service provider such as Muvico. They are similar in that they are both unique in the leisure that they provide.
Canopy Club is the only concert venue in the area and the Muvico is the only theater of its kind in the state. It is different from typical movie theaters because it has a restaurant, game room, and even the theater chairs are spacious and recline. They are different however because Muvico is an attraction for all ages while the Canopy Club is only for those 18 or older. This is a pro for Muvico and a con for the Canopy Club, although the Canopy Club is fairly cheap, even when considering the concert tickets while Muvico is more expensive because of all the "extras" it has.Another leisure service delivery system that can be compared to the Canopy Club is the Krannert Art Museum. In fact, the Krannert Art Museum and the Canopy Club are even located on the same street. Although they are in the same general location, not much else is similar between the museum and the club. They types of leisure that they intend to provide are also different. The Krannert Art Museum serves as a place to display University art and to culturally enrich those that visit it. Contrary to this, the Canopy Club is intended as a concert venue and more so a place for its patrons to socialize. Although their intentions vary, they both tend to serve those in the University of Illinois-UC community. One major pro that the Krannert Art Museum has in comparison to the Canopy Club is the fact that it is free to the public, this could potentially attract visitors that would not otherwise go. However, the museum seems to not be as popular as a lot of other leisure services while the Canopy Club thrives and is very popular.
*Sports Management - Quad City River Bandits - dye2*
I visited the Quad City River Bandits and Modern Woodmen Park for to find out what they thought about leisure. I am comparing the Bandits views on leisure to Peoria Glen Oak Zoo and the Canopy Club. They have some similarities, and some differences.
First I will focus on the leisure of the Canopy Club in Champaign, IL. The goals of the Canopy Club are to serve as a venue for concerts and entertainment which is comparable to the Bandits mission statement. The Bandits try to satisfy customers with affordable pricing and new attractions. The Canopy Club gets the majority of their funding through ticket sales which is very similar to the Bandits, they both need attendance to flourish. The Canopy Club targets UIUC students more than the average person whereas the Bandits target everyone, the cool thing that the Bandits do is they let kids under 12 in free. Both of the agencies put on special events for their visitors. And both think of innovative ways to kept the patrons on their toes. They both provide multiple jobs and bring kids and people of all ages to a family oriented night of fun. The weakness of the Canopy Club is that it’s only in the Champaign-Urbana area, and not anywhere else. And the Bandits weakness is that tickets may get pricy after a while, and that’s also true with the Canopy Club. Both organizations fulfill their objectives. Both of them are positive places to go with friends or family.
Next, I will compare the Peoria Glen Oak Zoo also. The PGOZ aims at providing a safe and enjoyable environment for families and tourisms. The Bandits feel the same way, safety of the fan and enjoyment are present in their goals. Memberships, not-for-profit organizations support, donations, and merchandise fund the zoo. Which is similar to the Bandits because tickets sales and merchandise are key to keeping the business going. Both of the PGOZ and River Bandits serve essentially everyone. The PGOZ offers classes and other educational opportunities for visitors to learn more. While the Bandits host more entertainment based programs like concerts and fireworks. The zoo is a more educational experience where the baseball game is more entertainment, both equally offer great forms of leisure. The weaknesses of the PGOZ are that there isn’t much variety in the exhibits and some of the walking could get overwhelming. Both also fulfill their objectives, and are great places to go to relax!
*Public Agency - Krannert Art Museum - jahnke4*
The role of the Krannert Art Museum in leisure service delivery lies in the sector of public agencies. As such, it offers programs and services at no cost to the public and is open to anyone who is interested in the arts. Seasonal exhibitions of contemporary works, music and dance performances, lectures, etc. all add depth to the museum-going experience beyond the daily visual displays. To fully engage students, faculty, and members of the community, it offers so many varying services as a way of expanding the leisure experiences and provide maximum enjoyment. The calm and casual atmosphere of the museum itself helps afford visitors a sense of relaxation. This is very important as the main intended purpose of leisure time for many individuals is often to distract themselves from the stresses of life. However, the goals of KAM include more than simply allowing its patrons to forget about outside stress and anxiety.
One of its primary goals is to provide cultural enrichment and education to the population it serves. In this way, it is very similar to other services such as the Peoria Glen Oak Zoo, a tourism agency. Although it differs from the zoo in that it seeks no profit, the Krannert Art Museum shares with it many similar objectives. Both offer educational aspects to their visitors and target people of all ages and backgrounds. The zoo promotes conservation and protection of animal species, while the museum similarly emphasizes the preservation of traditional arts. Another agency, Muvico, a part of the therapeutic recreation sector, shares the characteristic of escapism with KAM by allowing movie-goers to temporarily forget about stress and immerse themselves in the story. However, unlike Muvico, KAM remains inexpensive and encourages intellectual stimulation rather than passive entertainment.
Despite its many advantages, the Krannert Art Museum still has its weaknesses. In spite of the fact that KAM brings in about 132,000 people annually, museums are generally less popular than many other leisure services such as movie theaters. The museum isn’t very interactive either and must often compete with mass media. Even so, the strengths that KAM possesses as a leisure service provider are hard to ignore. Anyone who wishes to visit the museum may do so with a great amount of freedom. Having this freedom thus allows the visitor to leave stressful situations at home and experience enjoyment and relaxation. By providing free and enriching services to the community, the Krannert Art Museum fulfills its mission, and in doing so represents one small piece in the field of leisure service as a whole.
*Nonprofit Organization - YMCA - mcbride9*
For the leisure service delivery system I chose to research the Champaign YMCA. After visiting the agency and interviewing employees, I was able to gather significant information on how the agency is run, what its goals are, and how it benefits the community. The two agencies that I will be comparing to the YMCA are the Canopy club in Champaign and the Peoria Zoo. All three of these recreation agencies are for the benefit of the public but serve their visitors in different ways and are very different from each other.
I found the YMCA to be one of the most unique agencies, mostly because it is a non-profit organization. This reason alone makes the YMCA stand apart from the others because almost all of the other agencies turn some sort of profit through all of the services that they provide. The Canopy club is for the most part entirely different from the YMCA, with basically the only similarity being that they both serve as recreational facilities. The Canopy club is an entertainment venue and because of this makes money from ticket sales, along with profits that come from the sale of alcohol. It serves the community of Champaign-Urbana, mostly students, but makes money from the events that it hosts, so overall it is very different from the YMCA because of its purpose and objectives. The Peoria Zoo is a little more similar to the YMCA because along with being a tourist attraction, it also has some educational value for its visitors by offering classes and it serves as a place to host events, which is one of the main objectives of the YMCA. It also promotes conservation of the environment so it has a similar attitude as the YMCA because of its interest in improving the community. But other than those similarities there is not much in common between the Zoo and the YMCA because the Peoria Zoo still makes a profit from people going there and buying merchandise.
After taking a closer look at all three of these agencies, I was able to conclude that the YMCA was one of the more unique recreational facilities in the area. Although all of these facilities provide a place for their visitors to come and enjoy their leisure time, the YMCA is different because their main goal above all else is to provide a facility for those who want to improve the Champaign community. Even though the other agencies do benefit the community as well, most of them have other objectives in mind, especially the ones that make a profit from their visitors.
*Tourism - Peoria Glen Oak Zoo - mille144*
My sponsoring agency was Peoria Glen Oak Zoo – Tourism. And I compared it to the Krannert Art Museum – Public Agency – and the Quad City River Bandits –Sports Management.
The Peoria Glen Oak Zoo’s goal is to provide a fun and safe environment for families and tourists. The Krannert Art Museum’s goal is to display art, promote young artists, and provide cultural enrichment for students, faculty, and community are similar in a few ways. But one goal the Zoo and Museum have in common is to be educational. The Quad City River Bandits goal is to satisfy customers with affordable pricing and new attractions. The Zoo is funded by memberships, not-for-profit organizations support, donations, and merchandise and the Bandits are funded by ticket sales, advertising and memorabilia, but the Museum is mostly funded by the University. The Zoo, Bandits, and Museum all provide leisure to everyone whether it be tourists, locals, students, or even crazed fans. They are made to suit people of all ages. All agencies have their own key program elements. The Zoo offers classes, provides a place to host events, and has the new Africa! exhibit. The Bandits obviously offers baseball games as well as fireworks, concerts, and concessions. The Museum has contemporary exhibits, performances, and gallery lectures.
Each agency has its own strengths. The Zoo’s strengths are that it is educational, offers programs, and supports conservation. The Museum’s strengths, which are very similar to the Zoo’s, are that it is educational, offers various programs, and it is free to the public. The Bandits’ are that they bring in fans and provide job opportunities. Though all of these sponsoring agencies are great places for tourists and leisure, they do have their down sides. Some weaknesses the Zoo has that would make it not as inviting as a Quad City River Bandits’ game, for example, is that there isn’t much variety and not much changes from one visit to the next. Also at the Zoo as well as the Museum, you have to walk around everywhere so for some this could be difficult. And at times games can be pricy.
All three agencies fulfill their purpose because of the opportunities they offer and the enjoyment they provide. Though the agencies did differ in many ways, they all came together under the same main issue – leisure.
*Campus Recreation Program - The ARC - rizzo5*
The organization that I focused on was the University of Illinois’ “ARC.” The ARC falls under the campus recreation area of leisure. One of the two agencies that I am going to be comparing the ARC to is the Quad City River Bandits, a minor league baseball team. That would fall under the Sport Management category. The other organization is Muvico, a high end movie theater in Chicago that would fall under the Therapeutic Recreation Service category. There were a number of questions presented to us that would help us to compare these seemingly unrelated companies. “What are the goals/objectives of the agency? How is the agency funded? Who are the individuals/groups served by this agency? What are the key program elements that set this agency apart from others? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this agency? Does the organization actually fulfill its purpose?”
The main goals of the ARC are providing a place that students can go to stay in shape and lead a healthier life. The Quad City River Bandits goal is to satisfy the customer with affordable pricing and new attractions, plus kids get in free! Muvico’s goal is providing an entertainment experience that is not “just about the movie.” The ARC is funded by charges included in student’s tuition. The River Bandits are funded by ticket sales, merchandise and advertising. Muvico is funded by ticket sales, concessions, vip parking, children's playroom, as well as a restaurant and bar located inside the theater. Students are the ones who benefit from having the ARC as well as anyone else who uses it. The River Bandits serve anyone who has an interest in baseball as well as anyone who is looking for a typically not-so-expensive way to spend a day. This is similar to who Muvico caters to, anyone with an interest in film, people of all ages and backgrounds. The ARC provides workout equipment, fitness classes such as yoga, spinning and many others. The River Bandits offer, obviously, baseball games as well as occasional concerts, fireworks after games and concession stands. All three of these agencies have a lot of strengths and weaknesses; the ARC’s strength is that students don’t have to pay for each individual visit since the cost is included in their tuition. The River Bandits bring in fans and tourists to a place that usually wouldn’t normally get a whole lot of tourist flow. Muvico has lots of different services all located in one place. The weakness that the ARC has is that it is often crowded so it might be hard to get to the exact equipment that you want to use. The River Bandits might be loud at bad times if a game is going late, and obviously fireworks aren’t the quietest for of celebration, and Muvico can get expensive depending on what services you want to take advantage of. I came to find that all three of these organizations do fulfill their purpose.
In closing, the ARC, the Quad City River Bandits and Muvico, while from a quick look may seem as unrelated as possible are in a lot of ways similar because they all deal in leisure. They all have similar goals in wanting to create a positive environment for those who utilize their services. They go about fulfilling these objectives in different ways since they are obviously all different organizations, but they are all working toward the same ultimate goal, to provide leisure.
*Therapeutic Recreation Service – Muvico Theater – atomcz2*
When asked to be classified, The Muvico Theaters would probably be thrown into the Commercial Recreation Business field. Although that’s an absolutely great fit, I decided to look at Muvico from the perspective of the Therapeutic Recreation Service field. I do realize that most people associate Therapeutic Recreation Services with hospitals and rehabilitation centers, but I think that labels are only a matter of looking at something from a certain point of view; and, truthfully, there can be a lot of those. To me, therapy is something that people turn to in order to relax and forget about stress; I rarely think of it as only being designated for medical purposes. For those reasons, I believe that Muvico is the perfect therapeutic oasis. The agency offers a wide variety of services and doesn’t discriminate against anyone. It is definitely a great provider of entertainment and a fantastic addition to the field of leisure.
Muvico is not one of your ordinary movie theaters. The agency’s main goal is “to provide an entertainment experience that is not ‘just about the movie,’” and because of the variety of services that it provides, it truly serves its purpose. When you visit the site, you’re not only able to see a movie, but also have dinner, grab a couple of drinks, play a game or two on the new Wii… things that wouldn’t be typical at any other movie theater. While Muvico, like many other agencies, is there to serve the people, it also strives to make profit. Its facilities run on ticket sales, concessions, and sales of other services while agencies like the local YMCA or Champaign’s Krannert Art Museum run on donations and making profit is probably not as important as reaching out to the community. Another of Muvico’s great perks is the overall design and architecture of the building. Due to the murals and “historical” feel of the building, you can almost compare it to the Krannert Art Museum and say that it also serves as an art viewing facility. This, combined with all the other great aspects of the facility, gives Muvico something that many other agencies don’t have, diversity.
Diversity is Muvico’s greatest strength. The endless amounts of services and attractions that the facility offers to its customers, is what keeps it on top. People come back because they know that they won’t be disappointed. The only thing that can be looked at as the company’s fault, that other facilities like the YMCA or Krannert don’t have to worry about, is affordability. Although the price of the tickets is reasonable, it can all add up after a while - especially when you want to take advantage of the VIP area. As a company whose reason for existing is to provide entertainment, I must say that it definitely accomplishes just that - plus more. It creates an environment in which a person can forget about their daily problems and live in the moment. It’s a form of therapy.
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As you can see by each of our paragraphs above, leisure - while being different for everyone - can all be related in one way or another. Whether it be comparing a zoo to an art museum or a minor league baseball team, it can be linked together. Every type of activity can be traced back to the same stem – leisure – the freedom to relax and enjoy life with no stress.
P.S. Congratulations to the Jones family on their new baby.
Good job team! You all to the perspective of strengths/weaknesses .... Pros/cons. I hope that through this assignment you were able to see a different side of the leisure delivery system than you otherwise would.
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