East Bank Club, Chicago’s Premier Tennis Facility, Goes Green

Tom was gracious enough to sit down with us in the break room and give us an update on how East Bank Club has been utilizing the GTM400.  The transcript of his video is below:

My name is Tom Wangelin, and I am the Tennis Director at East Bank Club located in downtown Chicago. East Bank club has been using the Green Machine since 2011. Our 10,000 plus club members have a real appreciation for recycling and all things green.

But in addition to this PR value, we’ve also had great success reducing our tennis ball costs, with no disruptions to the quality of our tennis lessons and programs. 5.0 players and high level junior players have no objection to using the recycle balls when they practice. Many cannot tell the difference, unless they are told.

The East Bank Club is recycling tennis balls for their tennis lessons, private tennis lessons, grouped tennis clinics as well as tennis balls that go into our ball machines, and our QuickStart tennis balls. And for all types of tennis balls and all types of play that we are using the recycle balls for, our members are happy, and the club is recognizing cost savings, and the members are extremely happy with quality of the tennis ball.

Using the Green Machine has allowed East Bank Club to upgrade its tennis balls. We’ve used the savings, the substantial savings from recycling the tennis balls, to upgrade from a practice tennis ball to a first line tennis ball. So, the actual tennis balls that our members are using is much higher quality than it was before, and we are recognizing cost savings at the same time. The Green Machine has been a great program for us.

Using the Green Machine is very simple. We have tennis professionals on our staff, as well employees from our tennis desk, who help operate the machine and no matter who is using it, the balls come out pretty much the same way every time. The quality of the tennis balls after the recycle is always good, and it is a great program for us.