I'm conflicted. I've been a member of the Wheaton Sport Center for several years. The Wheaton Sport Center is conveniently located if you live on the north side of Wheaton, but expensive. I have a positive impression of the tennis staff, in particular, and most of the staff, generally speaking. Additionally, the exercise classes they provide seem to be well regarded. However, I've observed and experienced some strange and inconsistent behavior on behalf of the management staff.
There seems to be a rule that children need to be supervised by an adult in the basketball gym. Two years ago, my child was quietly shooting baskets while I observed from the sideline. Please note, I was the only adult in the gym. At the same time, five or six kids were running rampantly and disruptively throughout the gym - lots of noise, impossible to miss. One of the management staff walked into the gym and directly toward my child. She told him he had to leave because of the rule I previously mentioned. He didn't understand much of what she said other than he had to leave, so he took his ball and starts to pack up. As she's walking out of the gym, I asked if there's some sort of problem. She stated that if he's with me, he could stay. She then walked out of the gym, ignoring the other children who are incredibly noisy and in fact actually unsupervised. Not understanding what just happened, I followed her to ask for an explanation. She explained the rule she was attempting to enforce. At which point, I asked if it didn't make more sense to first approach either the only adult in the gym or the children running disruptively throughout the gym, rather than the only child quietly shooting baskets. Moreover, she didn't seem able to explain why she ignored the children once she acknowledged they were actually unsupervised. She kept repeating that she was only trying to enforce the club policy. It felt surreal.
On another occasion, the manager of the club interrupted a full-court basketball game to force the only people (ten adults) in this same basketball gym to play a half-court game, leaving the other half of the gym completely empty and unused, just in case someone else might enter the gym. This seems analagous to telling a couple of tennis players that they can only play on the left side of a tennis court, just in case someone else may come along to play doubles. It can be done, but it diminishes the experience. Her repeated and strange explanation was, "Unfortunately, perception is reality." Well, here's my perception: it's an inexplicably wasteful and heavy-handed way to treat the ten adults actually using the gym. Adults in this neighborhood, as well as the ten in question, tend to be conscientious and thoughtful people. Naturally, we complied with her instructions, finished the game in a less than satisfying manner. And, of course, no one else entered the gym before we finished.
These are simply a couple of anecdotes, but I've observed and experienced several others. Ultimately, it leaves me with the impression that the management staff is hopefully well intentioned, but not blessed with great powers of perception or discretion. Anytime a mistake is made, they're reluctant to acknowledge it and more likely to claim that they are simply enforcing club policy.
Regarding the power outage mentioned by another reviewer, I guess if a client is paying for a service and that service isn't being rendered for a number of days, then it seems reasonable for the client to recieve a prorated refund. On the other hand, I appreciate that this business has expenses to pay in spite of the power outage. What I found disappointing was the Wheaton Sports Center chose NOT to pay their hourly employees scheduled to work the days that the power outage closed their doors. In effect, they seemed to profit from the power outage to a greater extent than they normally would have. If revenues (membership dues) were collected, why exploit "an act of nature" to gain further profit on the backs of your hourly staff. It feels a little self-serving for the Wheaton Sport Center to describe the outage as something "we" must endure, as if making more money than they normally would have is some sort of hardship.
I'm often surprised to find the Wheaton Sports Center closed or operating on (unreasonably) shortened hours many times during the year. Personally, I wish they would stay open till 11:00 pm during the week. They did recently extend their hours of operations a little by opening at 5 am on weekends.
Child care is pretty well done. In fact, it's probably a big factor for our continued membership.
Overall, I don't see everything, but there seems to be some significant room for improvement.
UPDATE (December 26, 2012)
Spoke to member today with younger kids. He shared with me that apparently the Wheaton Sport Center prohibits pregnant women from using their walking/jogging track. Sounds strange and ridiculous. read more