Maryland SoccerPlex — Attraction in Germantown

I visited the MD SoccerPlex with my son for drop-in basketball around 6:15 PM. We checked in at the front desk and were told to look at the courts before paying. I found a court that appeared open, returned to the front desk, and clearly let the staff know which court we were looking at and that we wanted to play. They looked, acknowledged it, and took our payment—no one mentioned that the court was reserved.

After just a few minutes of play, a group who had reserved the space asked us to leave. We went back to the front desk and asked if we could return another day without being charged again, since we had barely played. One staff member checked the calendar and said tomorrow would be even busier. When I asked what day might be better, another employee came from the back and abruptly said that no day is a good day for my son’s age group. We immediately felt unwelcome.

When I explained that we had just paid and played for only a few minutes, I was told verbatim: “It doesn’t matter if you played for 5 minutes or 50 minutes, the price is the same.” I was also told that I, as the supervising parent, should have been charged too—though I simply paid the amount shown on the screen without question. It felt like I was being reprimanded for an error made by their own staff.

The website also gives the impression that a court will be assigned or that we’d be notified if space wasn’t available. When I mentioned this, the staff member chuckled and said, “Not for $6,” as if I was responsible for their pricing.

The entire interaction came across as dismissive and condescending. I left feeling like we weren’t welcome—and sadly, it felt like that was the goal. We won’t...

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For what is been charged by the hour for practice, they need to make sure the facilities are in optimal conditions for the players.

Reply: We are practicing in fields 9 and the grass is dried out. One of the player tripped on scraped his knees as a result of the rough terrain. Also the policy of having too many players on the filed is not followed. Sometimes we have our practice and then another team comes and we had been told that we need to keep the numbers to the established limits. If there is a limit why reserving 2 teams that overlap in time. Some of these other team are king of aggressive with their...