Golden State Sports Academy is expanding its ongoing collaboration with Shoot 360 with a new training center at City Sports Club at Stonestown Galleria, replacing the public basketball courts with new Shoot 360 technology.
Upon completion of construction in July, the full-court will be stripped down and taken over by four Shoot 360-infused shooting courts and four skills courts. Access to Shoot 360 will not be included in the City Sports Club membership. The standard membership for Shoot 360 starts at $185 monthly and the premium membership starts at $285 monthly. Both feature similar perks, with the premium version including two free private training sessions a month.
The closure of the City Sports Club’s court, starting on Feb. 23, has been met with outrage from gym members, as one of the benefits of their membership is being stripped away.
Mike Chan has been a member at City Sports Club for five years. Playing on the court with his friends was his primary reason for going to the gym, but with that amenity gone, he is now considering other options to get his physical fix.
“Many of my friends at the gym and much of the community members have already left the gym due to the court closure,” Chan said. “The gym feels empty in comparison to what it once was.”
The partnership with Shoot 360 began before the pandemic in an effort to bring together the youth’s obsession with technology and basketball training. The cutting-edge technology offers immersive training with interactive shooting, dribbling and passing drills, while providing real-time feedback for skill enhancement.
“It’s just an efficient way to work on your game and the tagline that Shoot 360 uses is ‘get better faster,’ Addiego said. “We feel like that’s truly the case with the utilization of Shoot 360.”
The GS Sports Academy is the official youth training program for both the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries. For over 25 years, the program has put together camps and clinics across the Bay Area for youth basketball players to elevate their game. They have established 40 summer camps throughout the Bay Area and are the largest camp program in the NBA, according to Jeff Addiego, the vice president of the GS Sports Academy.
Chan acknowledges the benefits Shoot 360 brings to the basketball community, but feels that removing the basketball courts from one of the few gyms in the area could cause the gym to lose members.
“To have the basketball court closing at our local gym, that we pay a monthly membership for, was a big blow to most people living in the city,” Chan said. “Shoot 360 being a paid plan doesn’t boast itself as a good thing for City Sports, and with the closure, City Sports might lose more members as time progresses.”
Kendall Sumpter has played basketball every day at City Sports Club since becoming a member in 2023. Sumpter pleads for the return of the court and the community it brought in.
“They should bring it back, that’s what brought everyone together,” Sumpter said. “It’s only for the people who want to pay for training, but other than that, I feel like it’s not going to do anything.”
Addiego is an SFSU alum, serving as the basketball team’s co-captain in 1995-98. He reminisces about the times walking over to Stonestown as a student. As the director of the Shoot 360 expansion, Addiego sees the technology’s landing at the mall as a way to give back to the university.
“When we realized that this was one of the locations that City Sports had a basketball gym at, it definitely piqued my interest,” Addiego said. “Being so familiar with that area and knowing the interest and demand for some high-level training for aspiring young basketball players, and the limits of gym space within the city of San Francisco. For us to have a facility that’s dedicated to youth basketball development is really cool, and I’m so happy it can happen in San Francisco.”
Addiego aims to launch a physical education credit course at SFSU, with students utilizing the technology with results and attendance tracked.
Men’s basketball assistant coach Alex Gilat was a camper at the Academy when he was 11-12 years old, receiving the opportunity to work for the program while playing for the Gators.
“I was actually very lucky that while I was playing, I was able to work for them and do camps and clinics from time to time whenever I didn’t have basketball or school responsibilities,” Gilat said. “The relationship has been ongoing for 10-12 years now, and they’re the best on this planet at what they do. I think it’s great for the basketball community in San Francisco.”
There is no official partnership between the university’s basketball teams and GS Sports Academy’s extension, according to SFSU director of athletics Brandon Davis.
“I think anytime you can add some new technology that’s maybe out of our grasp, that’s when it becomes beneficial,” Davis said. “I think they’re really trying to hit that target youth market. They’re targeting those kids in high school going into college. If that’s what their target audience is, then it wouldn’t be a fit for us because that’s a recruitable age for us, so we don’t want to get overlapping there and have any NCAA violations.”
While no partnership is in place, men’s basketball head coach Vince Inglima is still excited about the opportunities the technology offers his athletes.
“Hopefully, there’ll be employment opportunities, a great place for our guys to be able to do some part-time work and make some extra money,” Inglima said. “And we have some shooting machines, which are fantastic in increasing the volume of your workload. Shoot 360 delves into a lot more analytics, and we don’t necessarily have that tech built into our facility. We don’t have a formal relationship at this stage, but I do think it’s going to be a big benefit for us in one way or another.”
