OVER THE EDGE Jimmie Santee, MPD, MG PSA OFFICERS President First Vice President Second Vice President Third Vice President Treasurer Past President
Your Value to the Arena I
’ve written about this subject several times over the years but feel it important to bring up again. Having been an LTS instructor, competitive coach, LTS director, club president, competition director, and rink manager, it does give me a unique perspective to the arena environment. Unfortunately, management in many rinks find it difficult to understand the figure skating market and coaches in general. Too often, figure skating coaches feel they are treated as second class citizens. From a management perspective, figure skating programs take too much effort and reap little rewards… we are considered high maintenance. Rarely do figure skating programs get the ice time required, and the hours we do get are seldom prime-time. Many managers think like this. When hourly rates for ice are $400 an hour, a session would need 20 skaters at $20 to meet the rate. Many coaches don’t want 20 skaters on a session so the cost per skater goes up. Managers think, “Should I deal with figure skaters and live and die by the whims of those parents and coaches or make it simple on myself and sell it to hockey?” A hockey association may buy 80 hours a week of ice. Over the course of a hockey season that can be close to a million dollars. Back when I was an arena manager with a single sheet of ice in the early 2000’s, I sold just over $800,000 a year in hockey ice. That contract was done each summer and I knew the money was in the bank. In all honesty, it wasn’t me selling the ice as much as the hockey association buying it. If they had their way, they would have bought all the ice. All I had to do was write the agreement which, for all intents and purposes, was a copy and paste process from the previous season. The only real issues I ever had with the hockey group were the messes in the locker rooms. For an arena to be truly successful however, diverse programming is important. Hockey associations do fail. When the easy money dries up and without a strong figure skating program, including LTS and public sessions, the arena fails. Specifically, when the rinks have private ownership, a lack of diverse programing is a huge problem. Publicly owned facilities don’t always have this issue as they generally have considerable tax breaks and government subsidies and in many instances are required to accommodate all types of user groups. So how do coaches show their value to a rink manager? Simply, each professional coach contributes to the revenue of a rink at a much greater level than most understand. The convention and visitor’s industry have a formula to measure the economic impact to a community when a group decides to pick their city for an event. The process involves determining what the average person would spend on a trip to their city. Travel, lodging, food, entertainment, and other amenities are considered and, depending on the location, it could add up to hundreds of dollars a day. Using this model, we can determine the impact figure skating coaches have on a facility. As a basis for this exercise, I’ll make some assumptions. A single coach who teaches figure skating as their main source of income will have between 20 to 30 students. Let’s assume that the coach is a competitive coach with skaters ranging from pre-preliminary to novice. At the juvenile, intermediate, or novice level, a qualifying skater will be on the ice approximately 12 to 15 hours a week. At $15 a session, that’s $180 to $225 per week, or based on 48 weeks of skating per year, $8,640 to $10,800. For pre-juvenile and below, 6 to 10 hours a week are average, which comes out to $4,320 to $7,200. Assuming an average of 25 skaters, that is revenue between $108,000 and $270,000 annually in ice time alone. Does your arena have a snack bar or pro shop? Vending machines? Competitions and
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NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 2019
PSA BOARD OF GOVERNORS West Mid-West East Members at Large
Committee on Professional Standards Ratings Chair Seminar/ Webinar Chair ISI Rep to PSA U.S. Figure Skating Rep to PSA PSA Rep to U.S. Figure Skating Conference Chairs Executive Director COMMITTEE CHAIRS Awards Coaches Hall of Fame Education Apprentice Program Area Representatives Hockey Skating Sport Science Endorsements Executive Executive Nominating Finance Nominating Professional Standards PSA Rep to ISI Ratings Adaptive Skating FCC
Alex Chang Rebecca Stump Tim Covington Denise Williamson Carol Murphy Christine Fowler-Binder Phillip Mills Michelle Lauerman Andrea Kunz-Williamson Patrick O'Neil Cheryl Faust Janet Tremer Derrick Delmore Tom Zakrajsek Phillip DiGuglielmo Kelley Morris Adair Cheryl Faust Patrick O'Neil Scott McCoy Kirsten Miller Zisholz Kelley Morris Adair Rebecca Stump Tim Covington Jimmie Santee
Teri Hooper Christine Fowler-Binder Rebecca Stump Phillip Mills Debbie Jones Gloria Leous Jordan Mann Heidi Thibert Jamie Lynn Santee Alex Chang Christine Fowler-Binder Carol Murphy Christine Fowler-Binder Kelley Morris Adair Gerry Lane Cheryl Faust Mary Johanson Janet Tremer
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Martha Harding Kimberlie Wheeland Andrea Kunz-Williamson tbd Angela Roesch-Davis tbd Robyn Petroskey Melanie Bolhuis Lisa Bardonaro-Reibly
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Francesca Supple Charmin Savoy Sharon Brilliantine Liz Egetoe Lisa Mizonick Don Corbiell Russ Scott Karen Preston
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