Two clubhouses. Two very different bets on how retirees want to spend their days. Anthem Center at Sun City Anthem in Henderson, Nevada spans 77,000 square feet. The Athletic Club at Olympia Recreation Center in The Villages, Florida measures 17,000 square feet. On a single-building basis, the Nevada clubhouse is 4.5 times bigger than the newest dedicated athletic facility in the country’s largest active-adult community. The gap is real, but the story behind it is more interesting than the multiple.
One quick note: Sun City Anthem sits in Henderson, Nevada, and is a separate community from the Sun City, Sun City West, and Sun City Grand communities in Arizona, and also distinct from Anthem, a non-age-restricted community near Phoenix. The addresses, HOAs, and amenities do not carry over. This piece focuses strictly on the Henderson, Nevada property at 2450 Hampton Road, Henderson, NV 89052.
Inside Anthem Center’s 77,000 Square Feet
Anthem Center is the largest of Sun City Anthem’s three recreational facilities, functioning as a full multi-purpose clubhouse rather than a gym. Packed inside are a fitness center, an indoor walking track, a computer lab and classroom, a ceramics and porcelain activities room, a sewing and quilting activities room, multiple event and meeting rooms, a gallery with Las Vegas views, a restaurant, and an on-site massage therapy studio operated by Nevada Therapy Solutions.
Outside, residents find indoor and outdoor pools and spas, an outdoor amphitheater, tennis courts, and bocce courts. It is a hub designed to hold a resident’s entire day, from morning swim to ceramics class to dinner.
The Villages’ Athletic Club, by Comparison
The Athletic Club opened as part of the Olympia Recreation Center’s grand opening around December 2025, tucked into the Eastport town center. Its 17,000 square feet are purpose-built for indoor sports: pickleball, badminton, basketball, volleyball, and other programmed and skill-based indoor sports.
A precision point matters here. The Athletic Club is The Villages’ newest dedicated athletic facility. The Villages separately opened the Blanchard Recreation Center in March 2026, which is its newest recreation center overall but is not specifically branded as an athletic facility. The headline compares athletic-branded venues, preserving an apples-to-apples comparison.
But That’s Just Part of the Story
Two facts reshape the picture. First, Anthem Center is only one of three clubhouses at Sun City Anthem. Independence Center adds 31,000 square feet and Liberty Center adds 22,000 square feet, bringing the community’s combined clubhouse footprint to over 130,000 square feet. Combined total runs roughly 7.6 times bigger, an even wider gap than the headline figure.
Second, The Villages counters with sheer number and spread. The Olympia Recreation complex housing The Athletic Club also contains The Fit Club, arts and crafts studios, gathering rooms, and a rock climbing wall known as The Summit. The Villages operates a far larger network of regional, neighborhood, and village recreation centers across a much bigger footprint. The Villages is the largest active-adult community in the country. Total square footage across the community is not remotely close.
There is also a function mismatch. Anthem Center is a multi-purpose clubhouse handling fitness, pools, hobby rooms, dining, and administrative space. The Athletic Club is purpose-built for sports only. Part of the size gap reflects different jobs, not just different ambition.
Two Philosophies of Recreation
Sun City Anthem concentrates amenities into a few large hubs. The Villages distributes them across many smaller, specialized venues scattered throughout the community. Both work; they demand different daily habits.
At Sun City Anthem, a resident often drives to Anthem Center and does everything under one roof: workout, swim, class, lunch, meeting. At The Villages, a resident is more likely to walk or take a golf cart to a nearby neighborhood pool, then head to Eastport for pickleball at The Athletic Club, then to another village center for a class. All-in-one convenience versus specialized facilities close to home is a real lifestyle choice.
Readers weighing the trade-offs of a Florida move can also review our earlier reporting on the hidden costs of The Villages nobody mentions until you move in.
The Real Takeaway
The 4.5 times figure is real and attention-grabbing, but incomplete. Biggest single building is a different measure from most total recreation space, and both differ from best amenities for a given household. One community bets on concentrated mega-clubhouses. The other bets on a sprawling network of smaller, purpose-built venues. Buyers comparing the two should look well past the headline number and think about how they actually want to spend a Tuesday morning.
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