You gotta hand it to the Medicine Hat Skateboard Association. These guys lost their indoor skatepark when the roof caved in about a month ago. They were helping out less than a week later, raising money for charity with a bottle drive.
Well, the MHSA is at it again: they’re still throwing their annual competition, “Cold Hard Cash” on Saturday, March 19th. Check the poster for details:
Looks like the City of Lethbridge will be exploring their need for more skateparks. The LSA has been making some noise for a while now and their city is listening. On Tuesday, March 1 there is a meeting in the Culver Room at Lethbridge City Hall from 7PM -9PM.
Our friends to the North now have their own website. The Edmonton Skateboard Association‘s site went live a few days ago. They’re lucky because they have their choice of around 10 free outdoor concrete parks and a free indoor skatepark.
On January 5th 2011, CASE representatives attended a Standing Policy Committee meeting on Community and Protective Services. This committee is made up of aldermen and the mayor.
The bad news? The “skateboard strategy” that CASE had worked on for a few months with Community and Protective Services was changed from a “strategy” to a “discussion paper”. If you’d like to read the document and CPS’ cover report, click here.
The good news? Many of the alderman present expressed support for CASE and for more skateboarding facilities in Calgary. In fact, Mayor Nenshi asked those responsible for the discussion paper to move their goal of December 2011 up to June, 2011. According to the meeting, CPS will “develop a comprehensive Skateboard Amenities Strategy and report back no later than 2011 December.”
When cities decide to do things like build hockey rinks or recreation centres, they generally produce these formal strategies. The City of Vancouver did it for skateparks and look where they’re at. So it’s great news that the City is going through with this; it means they will look at developing more skateboarding facilities.
Will we have a new skatepark by December 2011? Probably not but we could be looking at plans and a location for one by then.
Skaters for Public Skateparks published a little article giving a nod to CASE and the plight of skaters in Calgary. Click the photo below to read it:
Every Calgary skater has gone through skate withdrawal for 6 or more months every winter when the weather turns to crap, making skateboarding pretty much impossible. Unless you have a basement skatepark or can drive to Red Deer, Sylvan Lake, or Medicine Hat, the only time you can skate is when you brave the cold and shovel snow at mills. Our town has over a million people and in excess of 40 000 skaters, it should be able to support an indoor skatepark.
Calgary has had many indoor skateparks come and go over the years.
You could skate the Plexiglas window at Skatopia in the late 70's
Each of these skateparks had enthusiastic, hard working owners and skaters travelled from all corners of the city to skate there. In the end, none of them were able to make a go of it as a business despite the hard work, energy, enthusiasm and money invested. Truth is, it’s pretty much impossible to pay the high rent and utilities, expensive insurance, staff salaries, maintenance, and other expenses while charging skaters a few bucks to get in. Even sponsorship money from skate bands and shops won’t cover the huge overhead costs. From about October to March lots of skaters will come, but the rent, utilities, and insurance still have to be pad in the summer when Mills and the local skate spots can be skated for free. The only way a for-profit skatepark will stay open is if they have a generous donor willing to lose a bunch of cash, and it will stay open only as long as the generosity continues.
Where indoor skateparks have survived, they have been operated on a not-for-profit basis, which opens opportunities to receiving grants, donations, and even casino funds to cover the costs. In Regina, the city has partnered with the SK8 Regina Association with the city providing the building and insurance while the association applies for grants and fundraises to cover the rest of the costs while managing the park. CASE believes that the Regina approach is the right one for our city too and we are promoting that idea in our discussions with the City (along with the need to change the ramp bylaw and build a network of outdoor skateparks). If you want to see an indoor skatepark in Calgary, an email or letter of support to the Mayor and to your City Councillor will go a long way. Especially if one came from every skateboarders house in the city!
Read More to see some photos of Calgary’s old indoor parks