S
SkateFan4Life
Guest
I also lived and worked in the suburban Washington, DC area a number of years ago, and during that time I sometimes skated at the Fairfax Ice Arena, where Michael Weiss has trained for years, and sometimes I skated in other local rinks, some of which are closed.
IMHO, it's not the easiest thing to own and manage a successful ice skating facility. There definitely has to be an audience - serious figure skaters who want to take lessons and devote a significant amount of time to the sport, a large public segment that enjoys participating in the public sessions and the learn to skate programs, and a large number of children and adults who want to participate in hockey leagues.
All of the rinks that closed that I used to frequent had several common denominators - they were rinky-dink in size, dirty, their staff was blunt to the point of rudeness, and there was absolutely no effort (at least not that I ever saw) to keep a sense of order in the house. These places were "roller derby on ice", as I've written in previous posts.
IMHO, all of them deserved to close. :sheesh:
IMHO, it's not the easiest thing to own and manage a successful ice skating facility. There definitely has to be an audience - serious figure skaters who want to take lessons and devote a significant amount of time to the sport, a large public segment that enjoys participating in the public sessions and the learn to skate programs, and a large number of children and adults who want to participate in hockey leagues.
All of the rinks that closed that I used to frequent had several common denominators - they were rinky-dink in size, dirty, their staff was blunt to the point of rudeness, and there was absolutely no effort (at least not that I ever saw) to keep a sense of order in the house. These places were "roller derby on ice", as I've written in previous posts.
IMHO, all of them deserved to close. :sheesh:
