List of skate clubs by population?

Arwen17 · Jun 22, 2017

Is there a list somewhere of USFS clubs by population and/or level of skaters? It's easy to find a list of clubs in each state, but it would be a lot of work to go thru every single one and try to figure how many members they have and what levels their skaters are.
It would be fascinating to see a "hierarchy" of clubs across the country. This goes back to an old topic of What percentage of skaters do triple jumps? where people agreed only certain training centers or clubs regularly taught triple jumps, whereas most clubs would be only doing double jumps at most.

I'm the type of person who likes to read lists like "Countries by population", "Countries by education level", etc. I like statistics. It would be cool to have lists like "Clubs by membership number", "Clubs by skill level achieved", Clubs with the most males, clubs with the most adult skaters, etc.

gkelly · Jun 22, 2017

Arwen17 said:
Is there a list somewhere of USFS clubs by population and/or level of skaters?

As far as I know, no.

USFS probably has the data to generate such a list as of any given date, but the data would change from day to day, especially around this time of year (the membership year runs July 1 to June 30) as new members join and existing members finally get around to renewing, so if they ran a list on any given day it would be partially inaccurate the next day.

Plus it's not the kind of question that people ask that often.

They're more likely to ask What clubs are closest to where I live? For that question, they do have a way for members of the public to query the database directly: http://usfigureskating.org/clubsearch?id=84044

If you want answers to questions about other kinds of data, e.g., for a news article or an analysis you're planning to publish, you could probably get someone at headquarters to ask the questions you're interested in and generate results. I doubt they'd take the time out of their day to write queries just because someone is curious.

Arwen17 · Jun 22, 2017

Nope, definitely not planning on publishing anything. I was just curious about the nationwide stats.

sandraskates · Jun 22, 2017

Arrgh - I'm going to drive myself crazy!
I think i just tossed the last issue of Skating magazine where once or twice a year they list the clubs that "registered x-amount of new members" or "retained x-amount of members."

It's not exactly what you're seeking but it might give you some insight. I don't know if it's available online but you could check the US Figure Skating website.

Arwen17 · Jun 22, 2017

sandraskates said:
Arrgh - I'm going to drive myself crazy!
I think i just tossed the last issue of Skating magazine where once or twice a year they list the clubs that "registered x-amount of new members" or "retained x-amount of members."

It's not exactly what you're seeking but it might give you some insight. I don't know if it's available online but you could check the US Figure Skating website.

I get that magazine in the mail too since I'm a member of USFS.

But yeah that's not quite what I'm after.

Vanshilar · Jun 23, 2017

If you have the patience and/or if you write a computer script for it, you can tabulate the clubs being represented at the Regional/Sectional/National competition level. It will at least tell you which clubs are sending members to competitions.

Without getting into the details, in terms of size, my estimate is:

1. Washington FSC
2. The SC of New York
3. DuPage FSC
4. Skokie Valley SC
5. All Year FSC
6. Peninsula SC
7. Onyx-Suburban Skating Academy
8. Detroit SC
9. Northern Ice SC
10. The SC of Boston
11. St. Moritz ISC
12. Los Angeles FSC
13. Dallas FSC
14. Chicago FSC
15. Colonial FSC
16. San Diego FSC
17. Stars FSC of Texas
18. Essex SC of NJ
19. Hayden Recreation Centre FSC
20. Glacier Falls FSC

Again without getting into details, my estimate of clubs with the most number of advanced skaters is:

1. The SC of New York
2. All Year FSC
3. DuPage FSC
4. The SC of Boston
5. Washington FSC
6. Los Angeles FSC
7. Broadmoor SC
8. Colonial FSC
9. Detroit SC
10. Skokie Valley SC
11. St. Moritz ISC
12. Peninsula SC
13. Coyotes SC of Arizona
14. Onyx-Suburban Skating Academy
15. Dallas FSC
16. St Paul FSC
17. North Jersey FSC
18. University of Delaware FSC
19. Rocky Mountain FSC
20. Amherst SC

concorde · Jun 23, 2017

At the Washington FSC annual meeting last month, they told the membership that we are the largest in terms of numbers.

WFSC has members at about 7 different rinks. Some of those rinks field top skaters in different areas. For instance, Wheaton is known for their strong ice dance teams. But other rinks within WFSC may only have 1 ice dance team.

Arwen17 · Jun 23, 2017

Vanshilar said:
If you have the patience and/or if you write a computer script for it, you can tabulate the clubs being represented at the Regional/Sectional/National competition level. It will at least tell you which clubs are sending members to competitions.

Without getting into the details, in terms of size, my estimate is:

1. Washington FSC
2. The SC of New York
3. DuPage FSC
4. Skokie Valley SC
5. All Year FSC
6. Peninsula SC
7. Onyx-Suburban Skating Academy
8. Detroit SC
9. Northern Ice SC
10. The SC of Boston
11. St. Moritz ISC
12. Los Angeles FSC
13. Dallas FSC
14. Chicago FSC
15. Colonial FSC
16. San Diego FSC
17. Stars FSC of Texas
18. Essex SC of NJ
19. Hayden Recreation Centre FSC
20. Glacier Falls FSC

Again without getting into details, my estimate of clubs with the most number of advanced skaters is:

1. The SC of New York
2. All Year FSC
3. DuPage FSC
4. The SC of Boston
5. Washington FSC
6. Los Angeles FSC
7. Broadmoor SC
8. Colonial FSC
9. Detroit SC
10. Skokie Valley SC
11. St. Moritz ISC
12. Peninsula SC
13. Coyotes SC of Arizona
14. Onyx-Suburban Skating Academy
15. Dallas FSC
16. St Paul FSC
17. North Jersey FSC
18. University of Delaware FSC
19. Rocky Mountain FSC
20. Amherst SC

awesome sauce! thanks so much for this!

theoreticalgirl · Jun 23, 2017

If you are a member of USFS, you can log into the membership portal, navigate to General Info > Governing Council, and read the "Report of the Membership Development Group 2017" document. At the end of the report, there is a list of clubs and their enrollment numbers. This won't give you a breakdown of what levels skaters are at, but it will give you a sense of club size.

Vanshilar · Jun 23, 2017

theoreticalgirl said:
If you are a member of USFS, you can log into the membership portal, navigate to General Info > Governing Council, and read the "Report of the Membership Development Group 2017" document. At the end of the report, there is a list of clubs and their enrollment numbers. This won't give you a breakdown of what levels skaters are at, but it will give you a sense of club size.

That's a good idea. Looking at the data and sorting by size, the top 20 clubs by member size for the 2015-2016 year are:

Washington FSC 1130
SC of New York, Inc 857
The Skating Club of Boston 676
Dallas FSC, Inc 635
Northern Ice SC 610
All Year FSC 600
DuPage FSC 588
Skokie Valley SC 561
Onyx-Suburban Skating Academy 542
St. Moritz ISC 501
Colonial FSC 458
Georgia FSC 451
Los Angeles FSC 445
Detroit SC, Inc 428
Hayden Recreation Centre FSC, Inc 425
Essex SC of New Jersey, Inc 411
Atlanta FSC 390
Denver FSC 366
Peninsula SC 360
SC of San Francisco, Inc 356

Guess my estimate was a bit off on some of them but hopefully not too bad.

Vanshilar · Jul 24, 2017

So if there's some history here that's not appropriate for public discussion, let me know.

But I was looking up the clubs, and it looks like both Dallas FSC and Lone Star FSC "share" the same set of rinks in the Dallas area. Is there a reason why a rink would have multiple clubs? I mean, I can understand if a club spans multiple rinks, but why would a single rink have multiple clubs operating in it?

theoreticalgirl · Jul 24, 2017

Vanshilar said:
So if there's some history here that's not appropriate for public discussion, let me know.

But I was looking up the clubs, and it looks like both Dallas FSC and Lone Star FSC "share" the same set of rinks in the Dallas area. Is there a reason why a rink would have multiple clubs? I mean, I can understand if a club spans multiple rinks, but why would a single rink have multiple clubs operating in it?

Short answer: $$$$$

Long answer: While they may overlap on ice time now, that may not have always been the case. I can't speak to the history of these particular clubs, but it's very likely that as rinks opened and closed, they served very different populations in the past.

List of skate clubs by population?

Arwen17

gkelly

Arwen17

sandraskates

Arwen17

Vanshilar

concorde

Arwen17

theoreticalgirl

Vanshilar

Vanshilar

theoreticalgirl

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