The New American club opened today. 2010 was a year where members really got a chance to say what they thought. There was a sense of transparency that prevailed and the common feeling was- no more baloney. Whether you are a board of governor, a committee member or a general member, you need to be candid, clear, and honest.
We learned a lot about the positives and negatives of the club operation. We will prepare a summary of what we learned for everyone to review on this site.
In the meantime, the new Tokyo American Club is open. Maybe you walked through, used the gym, the pool, or ate at the restaurant. What do think of the new TAC? Leave comments on below and we’ll make sure that the items of common interest will be addressed.
-MABT (Making A Better TAC)
PLEASE leave your comments on the new Tokyo American Club facility below.
The new club continues to be a disappointment. Remember the old nice pool with deep end and diving board. People gathered around, spoke with friends, stopped by Splash for a burger and fries, milled about on a Sunny afternoon and gave the club a warm, welcoming weekend-at-the-club feeling.
All of that gone and replaced with very little substance. Sure, if you are a lap swimmer, you are happy and it does have a spectacular view. But, the view soon loses out to the lack of functionality of the pool and no one gathers there anymore. We’ve gone from a great club pool as centerpiece to an average hotel pool.
Or, if you like relaxing, doing nothing in a confusing maze of 3 or 4 different lobbies (split into adults and kids lobbies) taking up tons of otherwise usable space, you are happy. But, most of us repeat users come in through the lobby on the parking lot level. Dark, dreary, uninviting. Not even as nice as the lobby in the temporary facility. All that upper space and ballroom lobbies– nice, but, never really used except by guests and visitors or those being dropped off in taxis.
Food service — ok, and probably a mild improvement but, not good enough to justify the time and expense and not worth losing Splash and Rex’s Diner for.
Traders bar — sterile and not as homey or nice as the other. Plus, no card room, one of the most used, revenue generative features of the old and temporary club.
In the end, if you are sending a postcard or showing visitors, it is impressive. If you are using it daily, you realize how much better it should have been.
Greg
As you correctly point out, Ferraris are RED.
Interesting and contemporary although some of the purple haze upstairs is a bit garish. The themed accommodation rooms are a bit cold and uninviting (manacles on the walls would not be out-of-place). The proposed rates seem to be from a by-gone era.
One half expects to see airbridges attached to some parts of the building.
With the payroll still running at 150% of income from monthly dues, debt service and a limited ability to generate cash from partly-opened outlets; the basic cash gap this year is possibly around Yen 1,000 million. To put it into context, that figure equates to the joining fees of approx 50 new members each month. Not impossible and lets hope this rate of membership continues until the club reaches a sustainable membership of approx 5,000.
Someone better get some gas into that Ferrari and turn the key.
The club has decided to close the recreation area during the day. People are unable to use it until 5PM except for Wednesdays because of the women’s bowling league. Just another restriction added to show that the club has little value for our membership fees. There are hardly any restaurants open during the day and now they have closed the recreation room…and it is only February.
We want our $26,000.00 back.
I am disappointed that the new club does not have an adult-only restaurant open between 3 PM to 6 PM. They do have a child-friendly restaurant open all day though. The Trader’s Bar isn’t an option for asthma sufferers (unless they want to pay the price the next day).
There is no replacement for Vineyards. We do not understand why the more formal restaurant is not opening until October.
My husband and I agree with a previous poster: the new club has an atmosphere of a hospital (albeit a very nice one), an Institutional feel. For anyone who has visited the Hiro-o Red Cross, I am sure that you can see the similarities.
Finally, why did we have to pay full dues for the month of January when the club was closed for the majority of the month? This seems highly unreasonable.
The new TAC is veery disappointing – most of the restaurants plan to turn away families, even those with only teenage children, the bar is very smoky and has only two beers on tap, and the restaurants that are open and admit kids have very limited menus. Definitely not up to the standard of the old Mixed Grill.
I grade it D – needs substantial improvement.
Casino Royale — Faites vos jeux (place your bets)
New TAC has opened to overwhelmingly favorable comment by members and guests. That’s a good start. The 20,000+ sq.m. edifice is contemporary and very bright. It is not just differentiated from the marketplace, it is the only full-service club in Tokyo. This should help attract the attention of prospective members who will be needed to make the Club a going concern.
New TAC is like a bright, seductive, red Ferrari replacing a reliable, Honda Odyssey. Everyone loves a Ferrari but few can afford this luxury. A look under the hood (bonnet) reveals the crushing Y11billion ($140 million) debt at 4%. The total investment looks to be more than Y300 oku ($400 million). The roulette wheel is now in motion and over the next 12 to 24 months we will watch to see if the big bet pays off.
For those blinded by the light, easliy forgotten is old TAC with its “rus in urbe” (country in the city) attractiveness — expansive ground-level greenery and lawns and a ground-level pool as the focal point. Looking down on the Russian Embassy from new TAC, the 50 year old neighbor has a ground-level tennis count, pool and basketball court, surrounded by greenery — maybe for some, a sentimental reminder of old TAC.
Greg
The following is what I sent to the gmoffice at tac:
Would like to express my satisfaction with the new club. It truly is fantastic and, after using the gym this morning, I find the facilities to be much better than the old club (Old Azabu and Takanawa). I am looking forward to using the rest of the facilities and restaurants as they become available.
I do have one comment so far that I would like to state. Having first joined the club in 1993 I have always enjoyed the use of the card room off the traders bar. It was always great to pull together a few close friends every few months and enjoy a good game of cards. I must say that I truly did not expect this to disappear as I have always felt that this was part of the original culture of the club. Hopefully you will find some way to bring this back in the near future.
Thank You and once again a great job to the management, the staff, the architects and planner for putting this all together. It was worth the wait.
The new facility is nice. New is always nice and I bet it will draw a lot of new members. However, from what I have seen so far, the place reminds me a bit of a university, hospital-type facility and a modern office. Nice though.