Let's change the costs of this sport...

[DannyG]

Okay, gang, here we go:

Sometime ago, I alluded to putting together a presentation package that anybody could present to their local Parks & Recreation Department to entice the municipal "powers that be" to operate a quality inline hockey program. Contrary to an earlier expressed fear that a Parks/Rec staff that would know nothing about hockey couldn't produce a quality program, ours is so good (we think) that we have literally put six other YMCA and private rink programs out of business.

The benefits to the player or team are:

1. cost: we charge $20 for a three month, 15-35 game season (up to the player how many divisions you want, all for the same flat-fee price).

2. Open floor, 20-25 hours per week, free of charge.

3. Training camps, tournament team participation, USAHIL membership, all included in a total of $105 that the player could possibly pay in a whole year.

This is the power of what a municipal program can offer that a privately-owned rink cannot.

If all major metro areas (and some smaller ones, too) had such a facility/program, then the way this sport is structured would be dramatically different, and for the betterment everybody.

May I solicit all IHC readers to send me point-of-contact information regarding your local Parks & Recreation department. I will send them a package of information, both challenging them to create the program, and to make it a high quality operation.

I will send you, as the person with the "participant proprietary interest" a step-by-step follow up communication about where the process in your area might be, as we go along.

Please let me know how I can help you.

Hope to see everybody out on the blue floor.

<font color=purple>DannyG</font color=purple>

[RichardGraham]

Hi Danny,

If and when you get enough responses, please post the results on IHC's message boards, or let me know, and I'll post them on the IHC Home Page.

Good luck.

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[MDE3]

While I agree about the growth of the sport benefits from your program, what will that do to all the rink owners who have invested a million to several million dollars in an existing facility?

[DannyG]

municipal turnkey from private ownership to public might be feasible in some cases...however, two things have happened "incorrectly" within our society to allow private ownership to happen in the first place.

1. From the get-go, the providence of inline hockey/skating facilities should have been the job of the public sector. How stupid would it be for a basketball player to go down to "the gym" to play pickup basketball, to have to take a $5.00 bill out of his pocket, just to walk in the door. Fact is, pick-up, or playground ball is free all over the country, 'cause the city governments (parks departments) have spent all of our tax dollars to make basketball gyms for the basketball players.

2. By agreeing to pay hundreds of dollars to play in a private rink, and not, as a group, clamoring for a public place to play, we, as a consumer community, continue to validate the overpriced participation that is necessitated by private rink ownership.

We do not begrudge the private ownership and prices that has provided a legitimate service, and allowed the sport to develop and grow all these years, because we never demanded the public sector do its job, and the public sector never did its job.

-however-

We never should have had private rink ownership become the way it is done, and now we need to move it into the public realm. This will indeed cause a change, but it needs to be done...



<font color=purple>DannyG</font color=purple>

[fromonkey]

Eh, well my local parks & rec just took over a privately run rink that had been up & running for about 10 years because they weren't paying the city their cut of the profits. I assume you're asking for cities that do not currently run their own programs. They didn't drop the price any either, $145 bucks a season for a rink in a public park.

[WCRHL]

fromonkey are you referring to Torrance Skate Association being taken over by the Torrance Parks & Rec Department?

I play there as well. Please email me at [email protected]

Thanks!

Brennan

[gchecker]

id love to know more, down here in central/south florda!
we desperately need more places for inline hockey, the biggest rink went out of business a yr ago and the only rink that has any inline is an hour away.

[sghcky13]

we had a public rink I used to play on in savannah. It was out door and really bad. I don't know of any b-ball facilities that are indoor that just allow kids to play pick up ball anytime. Most of that time you see them in streets or in the parks. I agree that parks and recreation should set up public facilities, but hockey rinks are not cheap. And parks and reacreation councils don't really see hockey as a game that could get big so they will not "waste" any money on it. I personally don't see a rink as a waste, but here in the south east (savannah) we have gone to the city council numerous time about trying to start something up and they always just laughed at us. I respect what is trying to be done, but it is not just the push behind the movement, people will have to accept the movement itself. (if that makes sense) Good luck to all who embark on the quest for a public facility.