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Center's allure is sweating with pros

Average folks who exercise at this new fitness center will get a chance to at least see some professional athletes go through workout regimens.

By JAMES THORNER
Published October 26, 2005

	[Times photo: Dan McDuffie]
	Jamie Kruger of Land O'Lakes chose a treadmill for her workout at the new Sports + Field fitness center at Seven Oaks in Wesley Chapel, which offers facilities for both amateur and professional athletes.

WESLEY CHAPEL - Tatsuya Okawa built his Tokyo-based sports training and management business by catering to the whims of professional Japanese baseball players, tennis stars and fashion models.

Okawa is billing his latest venture, a $10.5-million Wesley Chapel fitness center called Sport + Field at Seven Oaks, as a place where the elite meets the street.

"Train with the Pros" is the slogan Okawa hopes will sell the requisite 3,800 memberships to fill his 30,000-square-foot, two-story health club on State Road 56.

Afterwork weight lifters, stationary bicyclists and Stairmaster slaves can pay $100 a month to sweat under the same roof as arena footballers, college stars and aspiring National Basketball Association players.

"We have the pro athletes and the community literally side by side," Sport+

The center is divided between an "Emerald Side" for the public and a "Platinum Side" for serious athletes. The difference in equipment is minimal. But the VIPs get individualized training, a separate computer-coded entrance and a luxury locker room.

One consolation for the segregation: Emerald members can gawk through plate glass at pro athletes working out on a turf courtyard. Okawa has laid out a 50-yard sprint field and bullpen for baseball pitchers.

But for a company that's staking its reputation on the allure of pro athletes, marketing has barely begun. Lutz dropped the name of one of the first pros to sign up. He's Loren Woods, a 7-foot-1-inch center with the NBA's Toronto Raptors.

In January, a group of Cincinnati area NCAA college football players will train in Wesley Chapel. Citing privacy concerns, the club would release few other names. Pro teams such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers finance their own training, so the appeal of Sport + Field for them could be limited.

Okawa, 39, built a name by training many of Japan's top baseball players, golfers, actors and models. Hardballers Hideo Nomo and Norihira Nakamura are among the athletes served by STRONG-S Corp, with offices in Tokyo and New York.

Last year he bought the Harlem Strong Dogs, a team in the startup American Basketball Association. The league serves as a minor-league feeder system for the pros. On Tuesday, Strong Dog star and former New York City street ball champ Obadiah Toppin turned up to plug the new club.

Okawa was represented at Tuesday's tour by "Mr. Moto," otherwise known as Motokuni Hasegawa. The slightly built former professional tennis player majored in business administration and now runs many of Okawa's American operations.

Standing in the pro training center in a black suit, his hands folded in front of him, Hasegawa said the club is likely a first for the United States.

He looked around at the flat-panel TVs flickering over rows of 110-pound dumbbells and pricey Nautilus body conditioning contraptions.

"We don't even have this in Japan," Hasegawa said.

[Last modified October 26, 2005, 00:45:19]