Chess players in the Park Royal Mall in West Vancouver, got the boot earlier this month.
The corporation running the mall decided that the handful of players who in recent years had been gathering in the food court, weren’t buying enough snacks while taking up a few tables. The management said it did a cost/benefit analysis, and they could make more money by getting rid of the small informal gathering.
But chess players had been coming to the mall since it first opened more than 50 years ago.
Indeed in the beginning, the mall actually had a giant chess board on the floor to encourage chess players.
The move to kick out the low-key group of players, many of whom who had been coming to play chess at the mall for decades, was deemed as a typically insensitive corporate move. Public reaction was quick and strongly opposed. Even the mayor expressed concern. Indeed a local church planned a peaceful sit-in protest over the management’s attitude which was to take place at the food court on May 1st after Sunday services.
The original letter offered to help the group move to a city library, community centre, or seniors activity centre away from the mall, but it seemed rather clear and explicit that the management wanted the chess players out and that if they didn’t stop, the letter threatened to call in the police.
Original letter to players from Karen Donald, general manager Park Royal
“Our intent is to be respectful and reasonable as we had discussed when we met. If your group fails to comply it will give us no alternative but to reach out to the West Vancouver Police department”.
Now the management is claiming it was never about kicking them out of the mall, and now is inviting them back.
Park Royal’s vice president of community partnerships and development, Rick Amantea, told CBC the brouhaha was about “trying to manage both our business and the needs of the chess players”
After the bad press, the mall began talking to members of the group, and a new location in the mall has been found in a an area near to the food court.
Amantea now says, “”I think if there were any errors on anybody’s part, it’s that we didn’t give deep enough consideration to alternatives within the shopping centre for the chess players,”
Quoted by Global News, Park Royal General-Manager, Karen Donald, who sent the original letter now says, “We are glad we have been able to keep a long-standing tradition going”.
additional information-sources
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.