Facility Planning Factors To Consider For Ice Skating Facilities
Ice skating facilities are becoming more and more common across the United States, offering people an alternative recreational activity in their community. For many towns across the country, the options for recreational activity are few and far between. There are a few parks, maybe a community center with a gymnasium, and a mini-golf course or two.
An ice skating facility gives a community another option. However, they are often expensive to run and come with their own set of unique challenges and obstacles. In today’s blog post, Sports Facilities Advisory will look at some facility planning factors to consider when looking at an ice skating rink.
Indoor or Outdoor?
The first question you have to answer when building an ice park is whether it will be an indoor park or an outdoor park. Generally speaking, outdoor ice rinks are cheaper to maintain. However, the biggest facility planning concern that comes with an outdoor ice rink is your dependence on the weather. Similar to a pool, outdoor rinks won’t typically operate outside of the winter months and provide little revenue outside of a few months of the year.
What Is The Purpose?
Many ice parks are developed for the general public, but given the facility planning headache that can come from an ice park, they are most commonly built to house a hockey team or a competitive sport. Among the earliest steps in the facility planning of an ice rink is establishing the purpose of the facility. Is there an interest in ice skating in your town or city? If there is, will it drive enough revenue to keep the facility operating? And lastly, if not, are there competitive sports that can be hosted by the rink that will drive that necessary revenue?
Can The Equipment Be Afforded?
Compared to a gymnasium or multi-purpose area, an ice rink will generally be more expensive, not only to build, but also to maintain. Keeping the ice in good condition requires the proper and necessary means, as well as equipment like Zambonis to keep skaters safe. Can your community or the organization building this rink afford that equipment? As far as facility planning goes, the cost will typically be the biggest factor.
Contact SFA For Facility Planning Help
An ice rink can be very beneficial for your community, but it also presents some unique facility planning problems. For more information on how SFA can help with these problems or any other problems that arise with facility planning, get in touch with us today at (727) 474-3845 or contact us online.