@movernie
Toronto Sport Club, a members only club to view sports games is now open. The venue space is located inside the historic Exhibition Grounds and it offers a 32,000 square feet of space with LED boards, TV screens and projector screens. Basically, a person will pay for a membership fee to become a member and secure a table that seats 6 people in total. The member has access to bring along their friends/families/clients to watch the sports games at the Toronto Sport Club while purchase and enjoy food and drinks and hanging out.
Special shoutout to Toronto Sport Club and Conceptual Event Society PR team for having me and my crew for an Exclusive VIP experience at the venue.
Here are feedback from me and my crew.
Overall, we enjoyed the experience and enjoyed the venue space. So, the feedbacks below are minor but will be a nice touch to elevate the experience even more.
Pros (What We Like):
– Nice venue space (spacious, huge, luv the skylight bringing in natural light at the centre of the venue space
– Nice decor, it looks glam and chic. It on a high-end side with a combination of a supper club and clubbing feel. Instead of clubbing or dancing, it’s sitting comfy with a good vibe while watching sports games. It’s a cool experience and we enjoyed the atmosphere.
– Nice niche. With Leafs & Raptors games don’t allow fans in person, corporate companies or people who is looking for a high-end venue space to watch sports games with their friends or clients will find this place attractive and enjoyable. Imagine a corporate company who normally invite their cleints to a box suite to watch the Leafs/Raptors games at the Scotiabank Theatre can no longer do so due to COVID-19 pandemic. So Toronto Sport Club is a great alternative for the time being (at least for the shortened sports season) and I think the key is the playoffs games and NBA Finals and NHL Stanley Cup that people wants to find a good place to watch
– 6 people per table is a good size, but I also like the membership package allows members to book more additional tables (first come first served basis)
– Good Safety Measures: We received a warm welcome at the entrance. From the front of the street where the 2 gentlemen welcomed us and to the inside reception, they asked to scan my bag, scan via the machine, temperature check, asked for my name and asked me to provide my phone number to them for safety and the smiling ladies greeting us, that was a nice touch
– Our server was professional, courteous, attentive, she will know when to pick her spot to ask if we need anything while allowing us to chat among friends, she was NEVER pushy which we like, her professionalism added the overall excellent experience
– nice social distancing signage and graphics on the ground, clean washroom, nice entrance and exit separate doors for the washrooms
– nice comfy chairs and booth seats, tables are big as I assume you want each individual to maintain physical distancing, so it’s comfy and nice to have our own space and not cramp
– Nice coat check area in preparation for the winter cold conditions (by the way, will coat check be a complementary part of the membership or extra)?
– nice transparent face shields for the staff, they have nice PPE visually where we can see their beautiful faces while they don’t have to breathe crazy hard via the normal tight mask 24/7 others establishments are using
– Food Menu Selections: Good price range among different food varieties for everyone. From ceviche to tacos to steak, so that’s good. If people want to spend crazy on steaks, by all means and people wants to eat tacos, that’s great as well
– currently, they will broadcast the Leafs/Raptors games, but there is possibility they will broadcast UFC games and Jays games in the near future
Cons (Improvesments/Suggestions):
– We all find the DJ music too loud, it was hard to talk to our friends, if the concept is to allow people to eat and drink, it should create an environment for us to talk to each other, but we have a hard time, the audio feels like we are in a clubbing EDM scene but it’s not a dancing floor. We don’t mind in between commercials to talk but the DJ plays loud music in between so there are no chatting breaks, that maybe a problem if lawyers want to chat with their clients in between to build working relationships if they can’t chat. Also, some clients maybe older crowd, so they may not necessary want loud music non-stop
– They have covered most of the area with TV Screens, especially the big screen near the DJ area, but it would be nice to have more TVs on the opposite ends as some of my friends who are facing the opposite walls can’t find enough TVs to watch so they were forced to tilt their seats to watch the bigger screens.
– Although the venue space has a nice supper club and higher end lounge feel, if the focus is sports, perhaps some memorabilia, sports theme artwork or exhibit to make it more sporty feel
– Our friends felt that if there are different packages in memberships, there isn’t much distinction. They feel it can be more prestigious. Perhaps offer some other higher end packages where some have more privacy in their tables? Have some with semi-privacy barriers where they are not out in the wide open but perhaps have some fake grass/leaves backdrop barrier where they can have their own booth and privacy walls area, and some tables with no privacy walls but some red carpet and barricades to block out the table to make them feel more special, VIP, feel more private. For those with their own private area, give them their own individual 60″ TV screen so the table of 6 can watch the game with the TV near their table vs watching a far off the TV screens.
– It would be cool to have some special booth with sports theme to it, make it like a man cave where the booth feels like home or a sports booth
– We ordered the taco platter (that serves 6 people at $60), and the lovely platter presentation looks good when the long wooden plate is on it. Good variety of pulled pork, chicken and mushrooms (veggies). However, menu said “serves 6”, but there are only 10 tacos, so….if you serve 6 people, I would think it makes more sense the platter have 12 tacos (charge more $ but make it 12 tacos), so that everyone has 2 tacos, you don’t want to create an awkward situation where some have 2 and some have 1 taco. 6 x 2 =,12 avoid awkwardness. Our taco took quite a long while before it arrived, so if they can speed up the process from ordering to serving, that would be good.
– We do feel that since this is a Toronto Sport Club, food favorites such as cheeseburgers, poutine, chicken wings and nachos should be offered. I know you have beef sliders but that’s more of a snack bite. It’s not really the same if sports food like those aren’t offered.
– Have photogenic spots for people to take selfies with. Perhaps have 1 back drop with sports themed so people can take selfies with and one that is glam themed for ladies to take selfies with. It’s nice the Instagrammers are taken care of and people will appreciate you thought of them and when they take photos and post them on social media, it only helps promote the sport club. I think the coat check area would be nice to have such theme, as it’s where you want to welcome and wow your customers and right now that spot is underutilized and it’s a big empty space
These are just our opinions and minor ideas that can improve or make the experience better. Overall, we enjoyed the experience here at the Toronto Sport Club. During this pandemic, this is definitely a niche and there will be a demand from potential customers who wants to host their clients and watch sports games. I would say that there aren’t many places right now in Toronto that offer such a big venue space while creating this type of vibe and atmosphere. I think Toronto Sport Club reminds me of Real Sports, with Toronto Sport Club being at a higher end clientele with membership status, and Toronto Sport Club offer bottle service which Real Sports don’t.
For more INFO about how you can become a member at the Toronto Sport Club, check out the details below.
Toronto Sports Club
Website: www.torontosportclub.com
Address: 15 Saskatchewan Rd., Toronto, ON
Phone: 416-595-5554
Instagram: @TorontoSportClub
The grand opening Exclusive VIP experience was hosted by the Toronto Sport Club and Conceptual Event Society PR Team. However, as always, the opinions expressed in this post is entirely my own.
