Have you ever wanted to go to the gym to shoot around and get some practice in without being on a team or going to a training session?  Some would say we need more houses and apartments but we need more community gyms for basketball. Some reasons are, that not everyone can afford to pay to go to a gym because they charge money for gym time, it would bring communities together as a neighborhood, and as a society, and it provides opportunities for kids and adults to want to improve themselves with physical activity while getting better at the sport they love. 

We need community basketball gyms because not everyone can afford to pay to practice with teams or buy hours to practice in gyms. An example of not being able to afford anything is that if you want to get better and play on a club team to challenge yourself you have to pay around $300 to be on the team. Uniforms could cost up to another $ 200, not to mention all of the other expenses. This could leave you paying $ 700 or more just for 8 weeks on a club team trying to get better. Another reason that supports my topic is that if you can't afford to be on a club team because of the expenses and you just want training with or without a coach it could be up to $100. Plus extra depending on the gym. Just for 1-2 hours of practice. Without a coach you have to rent the gym just to practice. In other words just to go to a church or indoor gyms to practice, mostly charge a lot of money to use them for a certain amount of time. Or you could end up practicing in the cold rain which a lot of people have to endure because they can't afford it.

In addition, to families not being able to afford gym time, if we build more basketball gyms it would bring the community together. For example, kids and adults could go and shoot around and get themselves better on their own time. Instead of having to rent a gym just to talk and play a sport you love with your friends. You could be flexible and go just to hang out for whatever amount of time and have fun and leave knowing you didn't have to waste a ton of money just to play a sport you love with your friends. Another reason is that teams could go and practice there but they could pay a small fee like 5 - 20 dollars to donate to keeping the gym open.  People could even hold events there like basketball parties and practices together but they could only get one court and the other court could be used for walk-ins. Initially, it would bring the community, and neighbors to go to the gym to practice a sport they love and connect and meet with new people that could later become their best friends.

At the same time, adults and kids could go to the gym and train themselves to get better. If adults and kids could go freely to a gym on their own time knowing nothing will happen to it and it'll be there and open at any time. It would provide more motivation for them to go there and work hard to get better. Teens could volunteer to be referees there if they decided to host a tournament to help pay money for utilities at the gym as a way of incoming money. Another reason is since adults have jobs and kids have school sometimes it's hard to rent a gym and go there without being interrupted by important events. If something does come up while you rented the gym you might have to leave and it was a waste of money. In other words, if you just walk into the community gym you could leave whenever knowing you didn't waste a single penny getting interrupted by something equally as important. Likewise, a lot of adults and teens struggle with physical and mental health. An open gym provides another opportunity for them to exercise and get better physically as well as deal with mental emotions being able to use those to push yourself to work hard and get better. Besides, any adult or kid could go and get in shape by shooting, 1v1ing with their friends, or just playing in general because basketball is good for your physical exercise and physical health.

Some might say that it would cost too much to build a gym. First of all, building a basketball gym wouldn't cost any more than it costs to build all those apartments by Albertsons and Dutch Bros. It might even be cheaper. That whole area could've been used for one building to bring the community together instead of building tiny apartments. Where are all those people gonna get jobs and go to school? They're gonna flood in on schools and jobs where there won't be a lot left and adults could be left struggling to pay for those apartments. Others would say it would cost too much to keep it open but if they hosted a tournament around every month teens could help referees to keep a way of incoming money to afford the utilities and expenses. Donations for walk-ins could be up to 20 dollars and teams could hold events and some practices with payments since usually they can afford it but negotiable if they are not.  If everyone was able to go, money wouldn't be a problem and everyone could enjoy a nice indoor gym instead of having to deal with Oregon's rainy weather.  

To sum it up, our community would improve so much with a gym because it would bring the community together, it would provide access to gyms and practice time for people who can't afford to be on a club team trying to get better, and kids and adults could get themselves better on their own time doing the sport they love in a free gym. A basketball gym would help our community bring itself together and help kids who might struggle to make friends meet other kids who like the same things they do. Meanwhile, adults can continue to do the sport they love with other adults even if there isn't a league or a lot of tournaments for them to compete in. They can practice and share the gym doing what they love as a community. That's why we need a community basketball gym.