Coaching fees paid to rink managment

General question to those of you who coach or are in rink management:

Some rinks utilize lesson tickets that the students/parents purchase through rink management and then the student gives the coach a lesson ticket at the conclusion of a lesson and the rink takes a percentage off the cost of the ticket (thru a pre-arranged contract with the coach...and that percentage is negotiated yearly between the rink management and the coach), while other rinks charge a flat fee per month to each coach, regardless of the number of hours on the ice coaching.

Which is the more efficient method of charging fees? If a coach cuts back hours for a few months, and pays a flat fee, that seems unfair to the coach to continue to pay the same amount of money if their hours have been decreased, for whatever reason. Utilizing lesson tickets seem to be a more fair method of charging the coaches fees, but on the other hand if a coach works 12 hour days, 5 days a week, rink management may not make as much $ off of a coach by assessing a flat fee.

Does this vary regionally across the country? or is it just rink to rink? Do rinks negotiate on fees they charge coaches?

It probably varies by rink. At our rink, the way it works (AFAIK) is that the coaches teach group lessons "for free"; 100% of the fee for the lessons goes directly to the rink, and the coaches are essentially volunteering their time. However, the coach keeps 100% of the fees for any private lessons (and they set their own prices). The student still has to pay the rink separately for admission when they're using it for private lessons.

You might think it's weird that coaches are teaching group lessons for free. However, students are not going to just go with any random coach; they'll likely go with a coach they're familiar with (and think did a good job teaching) for private lessons, and the only way to get to know the students is by teaching the group lessons. It's also an incentive for the coaches to do a good job with the group lessons. So from the coach's standpoint, group lessons are the investment and private lessons are the payout, while for the rink, they're getting money from the group lessons as well as admission from students that are taking private lessons.

I'm pretty sure they don't teach learn to skate for free where I am, I'm pretty sure they get paid minimum wage. I do know if they don't teach LTS, then they are charged $50 as a visiting coach per day.

Wow. All of these scenarios seen really bizarre to me. I coach in Ontario, Canada and do not pay anyone anything. The club pays me for LTS and group lessons and parents pay me directly for private lessons.

In my area, various rinks do different things. At one we pay all fees, to the rink and the rink pays the instructors. At another, we pay the instructors directly and the instructors are on their honor to report how much they make and pay the appropriate commission.

At the second, instuctors are expected to teach one group class per session. I doubt they do it for free but I am sure their wage is less than the private lesson rate.

We do have an interesting situation at the commission rink. Apparently one coach is giving some (not all) lessons to at least one student for free. The student(s) are better than average so the coach sees it as a marketing tool to bring in new students. The other coaches do not like it because it is undercutting them. The parents that know about it are not happy either. Not sure how much management is aware of the situation. My concern is if the students are not paying, that is taking away from paying students, which means the rink takes in less money. If the rink is having money problems, that may make my fees (either ice time rates or comission rates of my instructors) go up. Hope that makes sense. I guess is - is this really legit?

I believe this is basically how it works at my U.S. rink.

The full-fledged coaches pay a monthly, flat-rate fee to the arena in order to coach. However, the coaches are paid to teach the group lessons (rink follows US Figure Skating's Basic Skills program and offers classes on various days).
My understanding is the group lesson payment pretty much offsets what the coaches pay to the rink for their coaching privileges - so it's a wash.

In addition, the coaches have to hold various insurance such as liability insurance which I think can be purchased at reasonable rates through the PSA.

The fact that coaches have to pay a fee to the rink was eye-opening to me.

Also, they can set their own hourly rate and can vary it if a student's income is small. However, I know of no coach that teaches a student for free. I could see that causing some big rifts between coaching staff. My rink does not have any high-level competitors at this time.