My supervisor once told me that he wouldn’t buy extra equipment for the boxing gym. Low attendance numbers were the reason. However, there were other reasons involved as well, which I will explain.
1) The neighborhood. I grew up in the Austin neighborhood on the far west side of Chicago. That is where the field house where I coached is located. Haven't lived over there since 1977, and trust me, not much has changed. Not many want to hang around the area after certain times of the day. Please, the rotating security staff didn't want to be up there after dark, and security often wasn’t.
2) Lack of awareness of the program. The Chicago Park District heavily promotes the football, basketball, baseball and swimming programs. Boxing, along with many other sports programs, do not get the same attention as far as advertising and marketing are concerned. There are many people who are not aware that there is a boxing program within the park district. There was only so much promotion I could have done based on the limited resources I had, as well as the fact I was a part-time employee.
When the gym’s volunteer and I attempted to do a fundraiser for boxing, the supervisor stopped us right before the event would have taken place. However, the football, basketball, and baseball coach at the field house where I worked was allowed to have a fundraiser event every year.
3) Lack of interest in the program. The team sports programs provide a social aspect, particularly where the youths are concerned, that boxing as an individual sport does not. Boxing has fallen out of favor over the years in general. Most under 40 years of age find the sport too slow. They prefer to watch MMA. There are also plenty of professional wrestling fans under the age of thirty, and boxing doesn't offer interest to them. The thinking that goes into boxing matches is not noticed nor appreciated by younger audiences.
4) Equipment issues. One of the students in the gym I ran had a dad who was constantly grumbling about the lack of equipment at the boxing gym. Some of the people who came through the gym were splitting their time between a private gym and the field house. Private gyms are charging money to everybody and charging more than the park district. They can afford to upgrade when necessary. The dad voiced his opinion, but I'm sure others have thought the same way and changed their minds about registering for the program when they saw what wasn't available.
5) Time issues. The park district gyms are only open on average three to four hours a day. Many of the gyms are open five days a week, but some are only open for two or three days. People complain due to wanting to work out more often, especially if people are competing. Some of the grumbling was coming from those who have trained in private gyms where the hours are longer. People who are looking to be professional boxers complain about the time schedules, too. But the boxing program is mainly an after-school program for youths and an amateur program for all and that's it.
6) Lack of support for the program within and without. Other boxing coaches had complained about supervisors not caring about their programs. It was known that some supervisors liked some programs in their field houses better than others. I knew from dealing with some of the youths' parents there was often little to zero interest in helping me make the program successful for the youths involved.
7) The boxing program wasn’t wanted. From day one, myself and the program were set up for failure. The supervisor was a huge supporter of the football, baseball, and basketball teams at the field house. However, every time I was spoken to about my program, the supervisor claimed there were problems. Outside of equipment, the very next major item the program needed was support, not only from the park district, but from parents, guardians, and the neighborhood in general.
The room that the gym occupied was not respected, nor kept safe. Other activities, most notably summer day camp and football, were regularly allowed to vandalize the area as well as the equipment. Often, the equipment.went missing. I would walk into work to find the gym and equipment room open, and many times, unauthorized persons on the premises.
I was confronted with being resented for being in a so-called “man’s job” by some field house employees and various people in the neighborhood.
Some parts of these issues could have been fixed, but most could not and were not resolved. Currently, there is no boxing program at the field house where I was.