Ideas for the Multnomah Athletic Club 2019

1. Ideas for the MAC
Questions for the next GM
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2. Goal. To create one of the most functional and
beautiful athletic spaces in the world to best facilitate
health, community and a life well lived.

3. Short Term. Pursue low hanging fruit that requires
relatively little effort or expense.
Long Term. Announce a contest aimed at the world’s
best architects challenging them to use the MAC
incredible natural assets - location, views, size, and
community - to build one of the most functional and
beautiful athletic spaces in the world.

4. ShortTerm Ideas
James Beard. I recently got a tour of the MAC’s kitchen and told that after the $4.5M remodel it’s
arguably the best commercial kitchen in the state, and one of the best on the West Coast. Why not set a
target then of having two of the best restaurant in the city within 2 years. Some of the kitchen staff have
worked at James Beard winning restaurant in the past. Why not the MAC. We have the facilities and staff
to make it happen.
Joe’s. At the very least Joe’s should compete with the best food trucks in the city in terms of fresh local
ingredients, price, and most importantly tastiness. As food carts have shown it’s possible to make some of
the best food in the city with a kitchen a fraction of the size of Joe’s.
NFL Sunday. It seems a little crazy that a sports pub has such limited hours on the biggest US sports day. NFL is
the most watched sport in the US and most of those games kick off at 10am (the pub doesn’t open until 11am).
Games go until 9pm and the pub closes at 4pm. I would be shocked if any other sport bar in town had hours that
were shorter than 10-9 on Sundays (in the area, Kingston, River Pig, Brix,The Fields, On Deck,The Pharmacy and
Silver Dollar are all open 10-9 with some of the open 7:30am – 2am).
Great Coffee. Coffee seems to be popular. Why not create a little espresso bar or incorporate a great espresso
machine and well-trained barista into Joe’s, the lounge or M-porium.

5. ShortTerm Ideas
Brunch. It would be fantastic if there was a family brunch option on Saturdays and Sundays. Portland is a
brunch town. And the Mac is such a great spot for families. I was at the Sports Pub last Sunday at 11am
and literally everyone who came in asked to see the breakfast/brunch menu and was told there is no
breakfast food available on the weekends. Some immediately got up and left and other stayed but
continued to be angry about it. Ask the servers, I'd bet they get that question dozens of times every
weekend.
Popup Sundays. If the Sports Pub currently closes at 4pm and Sundays and 1891 is closed all day. It seems
a shame not to utilize a world class culinary space. Would there be interest by the MACs kitchen staff or
other aspiring local chefs to use the space for pop-up restaurant concepts on Sunday nights. It would give
junior staff in the kitchen and local young chefs the opportunity to take the next step, try a concept and
run the show for a night. I’m sure members would be excited too.
Thoughtful Pricing. Most things should not be priced to make a profit. Members dues pay for overheads,
etc, and prices should reflect that. Prices should be set to breakeven, not the market price. If there are
products we want to discourage based on solid research (e.g. sugary drinks) we consider pricing them at or
above market prices, but that should be an explicit community decision.

6. ShortTerm Ideas
Showerheads. I’ve overheard at least a half dozen conversation, mostly between members who don’t
know each other, complaining about the new showerheads. In my experience leading innovation projects,
that’s pretty rare. Usually even when people are really unhappy with a change in a product or service they
don’t complain out loud to strangers. A great showerhead nearly everyone will love is an easy, inexpensive
win.
Scent. Making the MAC smell like a luxury spa, especially the locker rooms, sauna, steam room, hot tub,
etc, is easy and inexpensive and would a noticeable impact.
Lighting. Switching to indirect diffuse warm lighting, especially in spots where people are trying to relax
(sauna, steam room, hot tub, sundeck pool, etc) would have a meaningful impact.
Cold Plunge. It would be great to have a small cold plunge pool near the sauna and steam room. In
addition to being relaxing there is good research that it’s good for your health.
Magazines & Newspapers. A few more high-quality magazines and newspapers in the locker room I think
would be a great investment – e.g.The Economist, WSJ, NewYorkTimes, Scientific American, The New
Yorker,The Atlantic, Newsweek.

7. ShortTerm Ideas
LockerTech. It’s possible for lockers to be opened with a membership card, phone or fingerprint. It’s
technology that has been around for 30 years. A minute or two saved each time a member accesses a
locker has a pretty quick ROI.
Day Lockers. There seem to be a lot of members who don’t necessarily need to leave anything in a locker
between visits but would like to have access to a full-sized locker for the duration of their visit.
Nice Soap. Many clubs and hotels partner with luxury soap brands. They get soap, shampoo, and nice
dispensers at cost in exchange for branding on the dispenser. Seems worth exploring.
Better towels. I’m not sure we need to be on par with luxury hotels (although I’m not sure too many
members would complain) but something a bit better than some of the hostels I’ve stayed at in India
would be nice. The bath towels in particular are thin, coarse and often fraying.
Water Carafe with Lemon. The lemon slices seemed to be very popular. Since there was a waste disposal
issue why not have large carafes with water, lemon and ice in a few locations.

8. ShortTerm Ideas
Expanded Cardio. It seems worth considering expanding the cardio area. It’s not uncommon for all the
treadmills to be taken, as well as most of the other equipment. I’d also guess it’s the most utilized space in
the club. If the club is 500,000 sqft, roughly 1%-2% of that is allocated to the cardio and weights room,
whereas it’s probably where 10-20% (or possibly more) or member hours are spent. Other clubs like 24
Hour Fitness with a small fraction of the members have larger cardio and weights space. It would also be
fantastic if more of the space had a view.
Higher Quality Equipment. Most of the nicest hotels I’ve stayed at use Life Fitness. I’m certainly not an expert
but they do seem to be higher quality than what we have at the MAC. Wide, long, stable tracks, controls are easy
to use, and I’ve never had a belt slip. Possibly there is something even better, but getting the nicest cardio
equipment seems like a great investment given the amount of use it receives. Pennies per hour at most.
More Stretching Space. It seems like the hallway and cardio space outside the ballet/karate room is often
overflowing with people stretching, pulling weight carts, and waiting for classes to end. With 500,000 sqft,
surely we can find a better solution.
Loungers. A couple of lounge chairs outside the sauna and steam room I think would be well used.

9. ShortTerm Ideas
Decrease GM salary. If you look at Charity Navigator’s list of the leader compensation at its top charities’
around the world, none is as high as the MAC’s GM, and most are less than half. There is very good
research that beyond a median fair market point there is no correlation between talent and pay. We can
get someone great for less than $500k (probably for $250K) and have an additional $500k+ a year to spend
on making the MAC the best facility on the planet.
Public Sounding Board. Why not make member suggestions visible to all members and give everyone
the opportunity to vote for or against each one.
Initiation Fee Financing. The current option is either pay the fee in full upfront, pay it off in installments
over 2 years at 0% interest, or pay it off over 5 years at 0% interest. We are essentially paying members to
pay in installments (we are eating the inflation cost over the term). We should either offer a discount to
those willing to pay in full upfront or charge at least inflation level interest for the installment plan.

10. LongTermVision
World Class Aesthetic. Invite the best architectural firms in the world to reimagine the exterior and
interior design. The design would need to leave the fundamental structure in place (although could add to
it where possible) and make it possible for the remodel to take place one floor/space at time leaving the
remaining space usable.
Function. The winning design would create a beautiful aesthetical (both exterior and interior) but also
maximized the functionality of the space, views, and location.
Imagine. The following slides contain photos for inspiration. The first question should be “If we could do
absolutely anything we wanted what would the MAC look like?” That’s the hard part. With the talent and
resources available to the MAC community once we’ve decided where we want to go we’ll find a way to
get there.

11. Locker Rooms -> Mini Retreat. Why not make the facilities the best imaginable for thinking,
relaxing and wellness. We have the resources to do it and done well it could have a profound
member’s daily lives, the larger community and even the world (research suggests beautiful,
settings enhance innovation and problem solving).

17. Reimagined Cardio. A large airy space with plenty of best in class machines, a beautiful
aesthetic, views and lots of natural light.

19. Amazing Sundeck Pool. The location makes it possible to have an unbelievably beautiful indoor
and outdoor space with an incredible view

22. The View. The MAC has unbelievable view potential but it’s hugely under utilized. Focus a
redesign on making the most of the views of the city, mountains, west hills and the stadium.

25. Is it possible for a remodel to eliminate the exterior cement walls entirely and make the entire exterior
glass?

27. Is it possible to create multiple outdoor seating venues with a great view of the city, the mountains and the
stadium?
Is it possible to build a restaurant/bar/sundeck on top of the parking structure facing east?

29. Is it possible to move 1891 to a spot constructed on top of the 5th floor at the end of the tennis courts
facing east? At least one of the restaurants should have a 270 view of city and mountain.

31. Why not create great view from the locker room, sauna, steam room, hot tub.

33. Expansion. Does it make sense to open additional MAC locations? If the mission is to promote athletics
and wellness in Multnomah County there are thousand of individuals, families, children that are on a
waiting list. Wouldn’t we as a community be better of if more kids had access to great fitness and
facilities. There are also members who may work out much more if there was an additional location
home or office. It seems at the very least this should be a question the new GM explores with

34. MAC Community Action and Environmentalism. This may seem out of place but it’s important for a new GM,
as well as the members, to think about how community projects and initiatives are determined. The low flow
initiative is a good case study for why. How was the decision made? It did not appear to have broad
While an avalanche of research and hundreds of noble laurates concur that global warming is one of the
our time, we need to be sure the actions we take, individually, locally and globally are the right ones – based
thoughtful understanding of the problem and research/scientifically backed evidence that the course is
goal specific.
Environmentalism should not be a religion. Taking the approach that we should “do everything” we can both
community fatigue and not focusing on the initiatives that will have the biggest impact rather than token
Does using low flow showerheads actually save water or just lead to longer showers and unhappy members?
any solid evidence before we took the initiative?
More importantly, what is the benefit of saving water in the Northwest. We have an abundance of water and
recyclable (no meaningful amount of fresh water on earth has been created or destroyed in the last 100 million
the MAC (or even all of Portland) reduce our water consumption by 50%, what is the benefit for the planet?
any research outlining the benefits before moving ahead? Could that time, energy, and money be better spent
projects in parts of the world where children are dying from a lack of access to potable water, or local
research into unlimited abundant clean energy (e.g. fusion).
In the future I suggest a more formal process for making these decisions (social/environmental/political) that
based as well as systematically soliciting broader MAC community feedback before taking action.

35. Paying for it. It will not be cheap, but much of the cost can be amortized over decades, and
property loans are near historically low rates. Even if you assume a cost of several hundred
(e.g. $400 per sqft for 500,000 sqft) it’s equates to a very small increase in member dues
$20/mo), or a small percentage increase in initiation fees, or a bit of both. Or maybe neither.
how expenses are handled and initiation fees spent. Worst case scenario it almost certainly
one nice family dinner out or one night’s stay in a boutique hotel per year. That seems like very
value.