Dear Editor,
Re: “Oval moves to private enterprise for yoga services,” News, Dec. 10.
The Richmond Olympic Oval was always envisioned as a blending of public and private services, a common practice among municipal facilities.
Where the Oval is focused on delivering an Olympic standard of fitness, community and high performance services and facilities, we continue to purposefully seek out industry leaders to efficiently offer best of class services to our members and the Richmond Community.
Our partnership with YYoga is new, but not the first private sector operator at the Oval.
LifeMark Sport Medicine at the Oval, for example, is a Canadian owned and operated health care services company — a leader in their industry — consisting of more than 120 clinics from coast to coast.
And the clinic at the Oval is the largest and most comprehensive personal rehabilitation, family medicine and sports medicine clinic in British Columbia.
Additionally, our youth basketball instruction is delivered by DRIVE Basketball, a Richmond-based organization that has grown into Metro Vancouver’s premier basketball development program.
These are just two examples and each an accomplishment that the Oval could not have achieved on its own.
Other examples include Urban Rec, Planet Ice, Panther Cheer and the O Cafe.
YYoga — like LifeMark and DRIVE Basketball — is a leader in their field, a Vancouver-based company currently offering over 800 classes per week across 11 studios in Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby, North Vancouver, Whistler and Toronto.
To meet the growing demand for yoga at the Oval, YYoga was the logical choice to maintain our Olympic standard of services.
It is also important to note that current Oval members who regularly practice yoga will continue to access yoga classes as part of their Oval membership. No additional charges or fees will be applied.
John P. Mills
Chief operating officer
Richmond Olympic Oval
