Reply to Shortage of ice rinks in the DMV -- is there anything that we can do?

Forum Index » Sports General Discussion

Reply to "Shortage of ice rinks in the DMV -- is there anything that we can do?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The economics of running an ice rink are pretty daunting.  Its not too bad in the winter, but keeping the ice full (and by full, I mean getting roughly $500 of revenue per hour per rink) in summer is hard.  Every time a new rink or sheet of ice is opened, that means that thousands of dollars of extra ice-time need to be sold.  And that's hard.  Black Bear Sports Group - which owns Piney Orchard and Ice World in Md. and I think is now managing Ft. DuPont - specializes in buying financially distressed rinks, and then renting the ice to hockey teams and tournaments they also control.  It seems like a pretty good system, but its not easy to replicate.[/quote]

But Cabin John and Wheaton are fully scheduled at all times.  Their freestyle and public sessions are packed with people.  I almost think it's unsafe that they allow so many people on the rink at one time during public skate.  I think that, if each Cabin John and Wheaton built even one additional rink, it would be full all the time.[/quote]

With what money? County tax money?  Land close in is really really pricey now. The rec dept doesnt even have $ to staff libraries fully and open more hours on weekends or keep up with maintenance. [/quote]

It's not like people skate for free.  Each skater pays $16 per hour for freestyle skating.  Public skate is $8 per hour.  And the sessions are totally packed with people.  And if the rinks raised the rates, I am guessing that people would pay it.

In contrast, there is no charge to use a library.[/quote]

And in the case of Cabin John and Wheaton, they are both in the middle of huge parks.  There is easily enough land to add a few more rinks.  There are baseball fields there that take up a ton of space and are only used part of the year.  Meanwhile, the rinks are packed year-round.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics