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Are you into sports and fitness?

So big that you’ve burned through two or three health clubs and still can’t get enough?

Is “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” your personal motto? Is “More” your nickname?

Join the club. Now it’s time to get serious.

Thanks to a couple of sports entrepreneurs with a good idea, your pilgrimage is over. Well, almost. You’ll have to move to the Pacific Northwest to complete it, but once there you’ll find that all your sports and fitness needs can be taken care of in the state-of-the-art setting at--where else?--Costco.

Marking a move into the fitness business, the 130,000-square-foot Sports Nation in Tigard, outside Portland, is the newest ancillary business from Costco Cos., the international warehouse merchandising giant.

Applying a time-tested formula--huge building, lots of stuff--Costco has created a health club that is truly everything to everyone. And then some.

It’s so big--the size of three football fields--that you need an atlas to find your way around.

It has nine full-size basketball courts (13 for volleyball), each with its own electronic scoreboard, regulation in-line hockey rink (or indoor soccer field), 43-foot-tall rock climbing wall, 3,000-square-foot aerobics gym, scores of ultra-modern weight machines, exercise bikes and treadmills, 200-seat restaurant, day-care center, plush locker rooms and it serves as the training facility for the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. All under one roof. All at one price.

Sports Nation is the first of what could become a chain of mega-health clubs that Costco is considering for some of its abandoned buildings, those left vacant after its merger with Price Club a few years ago.

Since opening late last year, Sports Nation has attracted 5,000 members, though only 1,316 of them can be in the building at any given time--fire marshal’s orders.

With Americans up in arms over staying in shape, it was really only a matter of time before a club of this magnitude opened.

According to Steve Suttich, one of the club’s founders, Tigard’s abandoned Costco store was the right place at the right time.

“The building was empty and the best fit for the demographics they [Costco] were looking for,” said Suttich, 42. “There are lots of families in this area--lots of kids--and it’s very fitness-oriented.”

It also rains a lot in Oregon, making quality indoor activity a premium commodity.

Among the more notable club members are the Trail Blazers, who will use the club as a practice facility this season until construction of their own building across the street is completed.

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The idea for such a club had been germinating for some time with Suttich, a graduate of UCLA, who had been involved with sports promotions while managing a large volleyball and basketball club in San Jose. Having played on two Bruin national championship volleyball teams in the ‘70s, he wanted to open a large club that would cater to court sports.

At the same time, rock climber Mike Carville of Lake Tahoe also had ideas about opening a large-scale club for climbers. The two met in 1993 at a volleyball tournament in Tahoe and eventually recognized the potential of joining forces.

They exchanged ideas and set their sights on a large building in Sacramento. However, they couldn’t find a bank that shared their vision, and deals collapsed.

Later, through mutual friends, Carville’s developer father, Phil, brought the pair’s ideas to Costco Chairman Jeff Brotman in 1995. He concurred: If we build it, they will come and work out.

Suttich and Mike Carville now help run the club as managers, and Phil Carville is a member of the board of directors.

The concept was a good fit for Costco and Portland, where the company has its highest volume store. With 273 warehouse locations worldwide, 25 million members and $19 billion in sales last year, Costco officials believe the move into the fitness arena is consistent with the corporate goals.

Says Costco’s Paul Latham, Sports Nation president: “It’s very rare when outside concepts are brought to Costco and tested. Out of the hundreds we get solicited, this was one we thought fit the Costco philosophy: to bring real value to the marketplace and real savings to our membership.”

Though its sheer size sets it apart from other clubs, an emphasis on family activity has helped sell Sports Nation. Many members consider it more a community center than a health club.

For $79 a month, after a $249 initiation fee ($39 and $99, respectively, for singles), Sports Nation offers families everything from fitness, weight training and basketball, to cooking classes, arts and crafts, dance and nutrition. There are senior programs and a special Kids Nation.

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Friday night is Family Night with in-line skating, theme meals in the restaurant and kids’ movies.

A typical family outing might find Mom burning calories in the indoor cycling classes, Dad pumping up on the weight machines (color-coded according to the body parts they work out). The kids are groping around on the 13,000-square-foot rock wall or playing in a volleyball or in-line hockey league game. The toddlers and babies are watched over in child care that offers a variety of activities geared for specific ages (two hours free a day).

After Mom’s massage, and Dad’s tune-up in physical therapy, the family meets back in the club’s balcony restaurant overlooking the courts for dinner and watches a replay of the kids’ games on TV monitors.

Candy Newby says she is not an “exercise demon” and had never joined a health club before, but found good reason to join Sports Nation, a 30-minute drive from her home in Hillsboro.

“There’s something for everyone to do there,” says Newby, also speaking for her husband, Joe, daughter Chelsea, 16, and twin sons Matt and Chad, 14, all members.

“There’s not much family time these days,” she adds, “so it’s good to have something we can all do together. And it’s nice to have a place to go where I don’t have to worry about the kids getting in trouble.”

Her husband finds the climbing wall also offers something else.

“We spend a lot of time on the rock wall,” he said. “It can help break down barriers [between family members] when you’ve got someone on the other end of the rope.”

Individual and team instruction is available for all activities--at no extra cost--with an emphasis on kids 9 to 14, the lost generation for most health clubs.

The facility also rents courts to local schools that find gym time for their team sports squeezed.

Looking to the future, Costco’s Latham is encouraged by the results of Sports Nation’s first year, but tight-lipped about company plans to add clubs in other cities, including Los Angeles. He says it will take six more months to a year to evaluate the viability of expansion, but sounds positive about the prospects.

“Our intent was not for it to be a sole property,” Latham says. “We want to expand. We have done studies in a variety of markets, but we won’t seriously look at a second or third site until this is a viable business. But we are very optimistic.”

In the meantime, Sports Nation continues to grow, adding citizens--er, members--and programs.

A new fitness craze from Australia called Body Pump is catching on. It combines aerobic exercise with light barbell lifting.

In the works is an Internet Cafe for the restaurant where computer terminals would link members to the Internet and e-mail. There are plans for an indoor driving range. Maybe a batting cage.

You get the point. The club has it all. Or soon will . . . if it can just find a little more room.