Was so excited for the grand opening of this place, it was fairly close to the sunset/bensonhurst area with ample parking even late at night. This grand opening and renovation has been showing up on my newsfeed for the past month or two and I finally came for open play today... and while the price was great $10 for 2 hours (during grand opening week) however Velto was not it. We came with a large group of friends (20+ people) and practically booked out the open play several times that they ended up opening up more slots and courts for it, everyone knew everyone.. literally. However the lady working there kept barking orders into the speaker phone every other shot that it was so hard to focus on games itself. First of all this is open play not boot camp, second of all we are all friends. There's no reason to be dictating which courts which person should play on... after nonstop barking into the microphone for the first 15 min straight it just killed the whole vibes. We alI just wanted a moment of peace and silence to focus on our games. Everyone i came with echoed the same thoughts. While i understand that 6 people per court allows for the best rotation, some people rotate courts so that they are not stuck playing the same people the whole time (at least that's how it is in every other locations open play) the lady was like YOU CAN NOT HAVE MORE THAN 2 paddles queueing at once... if we don't mind waiting an extra game and we are fine waiting an extra game or two... does it matter if there's 2 stacks queue? The other courts would have no wait and they can play back to back games.... what's the issue? We are all friends there and she was aware that we knew each other from the beginning.
Cons: #1 the lady and her damn speakerphone telling us not to piss her off (like.... lol?), the court absorbs the bounce, the back two courts have a weird slope that you are practically running up a slope after serving or if you are running backwards to try to hit a lob you need to watch your footing cause of the uneven ground.. one of my friend tripped and ran into the wall cause of the slope. This is kinda surprising cause I was watching videos on my feed of them digging up the floors and laying new flooring etc. The overhead lighting blinds you, the kitchen and the court is the same color and the lighting makes it hard to see if a ball is in or out cause everything is the same color. There is no water fountain.
Pros: although the temperature didn't work for me I appreciate that they had the heat on and was not cheap with the heat, I just wished that it was lower cause on the back court it hits you in the face every time you pass the mid court. there was ample seating around the courts and I can appreciate that they put effort into the aesthetics with the plexi glass and there is a locker area and vending machines incase any one was hungry or thirsty.
note to management- explain the rules in the beginning of open play and then just let everyone have fun. there is no reason for your workers to be interrupting the games and barking orders every 5 min read more
