West Edmonton swingers club aims to grow
By Timothy Gerwing
EDMONTON — About 40 men and women mingle under changing neon lights. They are drinking beer and wine, and eating finger food. A dog goes from familiar friend to familiar friend, looking for scraps.
It’s “naughty XXX-Mas wear night” at 4-Play, a swingers club at 10120 156 St. Most club members are in semi-casual dress, while others aren’t wearing much at all. “Newbies” are painfully obvious. They’re often alone, and fidgety. The club’s co-owner, Joe Ancic, says new members are joining all the time.
“The club will hopefully have 5,000 members in five years,” he said. The club has about 500 members now.
The club
“The old Jasper Cinema,” is what Ancic and his wife Cindy allude to, in order to place the club in time and space to prospective members. Jasper Cinema officially closed its doors in 2008, but remnants of the theatre remain — on a mandatory tour, new members see the dual projector slots on the east wall of the club’s top floor.
Group sex clubs like 4-Play on 156th Street and Stony Plain Road in Edmonton were legalized after Canada's Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in 2005 in their favour, deciding that they cause no harm to society. Photograph by Timothy Gerwing
The tour also takes you along a corridor to a room of medieval sex apparatuses that is best described as museum-like, and another that houses “Goliath,” a bed that’s bigger than king-size.
The tour fills you in on etiquette, safe-sex practices and swinger lingo, such as a vanilla (someone not in the lifestyle) or a unicorn (a single woman who enjoys having sex with married couples).
The main level of 4-Play is like any other bar or dance club with tables, chairs and a dance floor — complete with light effects and a DJ. There’s a sitting area with leather sofas, fireplace and magazines ranging from Men’s Health to ultra-niche pornographic magazines to a “lifestyle” information package complete with studies and research findings on swinging.
A place like 4-Play would have been illegal before 2005, when a 7-2 Supreme Court decision legalized group sex clubs in Canada.
Opposition and moving forward
The Ancics did not have very much support when 4-Play opened its doors in 2009. They could only operate under a probationary licence that allowed them to be open two days per week. The Canora Community League criticized them, and they were under pressure to prove their place in the community while pursuing full-time business status from the city.
“What we had to do was be good corporate citizens, follow the law, work our two days, and not have any incidents,” said Cindy Ancic. “We could not have anything like that against us, and it was really easy.”
On May 9, 2011, 4-Play earned a full-time business licence, with a proven reputation and eight letters of recommendation from nearby businesses.
The Ancics have invested heavily into renovations. Now, just like any business in Edmonton, they have to focus on issues like long-term viability and expanding their clientele. The club will play host to a wider range of events, such as Super Bowl and Grey Cup parties, gay and lesbian socials, and ladies nights. Joe Ancic wants to knock down various walls to make rooms bigger to better serve the club’s clientele.
“[The building] was falling apart,” he said. “It was dilapidated. We saved [it], a city landmark.”
The club doesn’t advertise through any traditional channels. But through the Internet and word of mouth, the club is growing, he said.
“Last night we had three new couples,” he said on Dec. 4. “Those couples will go out and talk to their friends, and bring in six new couples.”
The Stony Plain Road Revitalization Project
The Stony Plain Road Revitalization Project seeks to improve the aesthetic and moral state of Stony Plain Road. The district is currently host to a rogue’s gallery of massage parlors, adult shops (including one that showed racy videos in its front window recently), pawnshops and liquor stores.
When 4-play arrived in 2009, the Canora Community League saw it as a direct contradiction to what that project was aiming for. Two years later, it’s a non-issue, said Jamie Post, a former member of the steering committee for the Stony Plain Road Revitalization Project and current member of the Glenwood Community League.
“Perception goes a long way,” said Post. “If nobody told me they were there, I wouldn’t even know. The adult stores — not a good presence at all. Their public appearance just detracts from the area. [4-Play] keeps quiet and to themselves. I joined the community league about a year after they moved in. I came into it with an open mind.”
Money
First-time visitors pay $20 to go to 4-Play. After that, patrons are required to buy a year-long membership at a cost of $60 per person or per couple. Single men are only permitted on Friday nights. Men are welcome as part of a couple on Saturdays.
If Joe Ancic realizes his prediction of 5,000 members, it would mean hundreds of thousands of membership dollars per year. But for the Ancics, it’s not just a business; it’s a lifestyle. They won’t shy away from their critics or the media.
“Just because we are swingers doesn’t mean we break the law, are sexual deviants or drug dealers,” said Cindy Ancic.
Swingers believe in “emotionally monogamous sexually liberated relationships,” as the literature in the reading room says, claiming that “90.4 per cent of previously unhappy couples are happier after joining the lifestyle.”
While they believe in discretion, the Ancics are also proud of what they do. And they aren’t going anywhere. They have signed a new five-year lease on the building.
“We’re not like turtles,” she said. “We will not cower.”