How many people should be allowed on rink at once?

[Lollum96]

Was at Planet Ice in Altrincham on Monday and it was an absolute disaster. The rink was full! I'm talking at least 200+ people on the rink and that's probably an underestimation.

People constantly slamming into each other and massive queues to get on and off the ice.

I knew better and I stopped skating after 10 minutes. My partner on the other hand decided to carry on skating and she injured her back after a teenager slammed into her not knowing how to stop on his skates.

It got me thinking, how many people should actually be on a rink at once?

After doing some digging into planet ice it appears that they allow up to 400 people to book onto each 3 hour time slot! Surely that's absolutely ridiculous??

[black]

At a guess it will be down to building fire regulations.

See page 4 onwards for a worked example of how it is calculated;

https://www.twfire.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Occupancy-Figures-Calculation-Guidance.pdf

But you use the word "should", not "could".

Jurassic Park (1993) "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

Guessing it was Easter holidays, and the rainy weather that caused the surge?

The maximum number of people on the ice will be subjective, but yeah; it needs to be enjoyable and safe <- which clearly it wasn't.

[transmissionoftheflame]

The more people there are, the slower and more controlled people need to be.  This will happen naturally, to an extent, but there will always be some people who are too thick to understand what is appropriate.  That's where stewarding comes in.  I've been to dozens of rinks and seen hundreds of stewards at work, and they have ranged from simply excellent to utterly useless.  It's a low paid job and they get very little relevant training/guidance/advice, so how well they work depends almost entirely on their own personal work ethic, level of cop-on, etc.  If everyone is slow and controlled enough, it's safe enough but probably not much fun for those of us who would like to skate a bit faster or move around in patterns etc.  If the stewarding is weak, complain to them, complain to the management (politely and constructively), get off the ice (in that order).  Very busy sessions are a fact of skating life and are probably needed for rinks to break even.

[spinZZ]

I'm in the US.  My usual rink is National Hockey League (NHL) size, 200 X 85 feet (~61 X 26 m).  There is still an online reservation system (no longer used) for public sessions.  That shows a maximum of 125 skaters.   Each rink sets its own limits.

Posted by the rink is the fire code maximum occupancy of 200; but I believe that includes non-skaters.  In the US, the fire codes are set by each local municipality.

[transmissionoftheflame]

Chelmsford UK where I mainly skate shows 200 spaces midweek, not sure about weekends/evenings.  125 seems low but if they get decent usage off peak and from hockey or charge a lot maybe they can make money.  It's lovely to skate on empty rinks, not so lovely when the rink closes because it is making a loss.  200 would be spread across whole session of 2 hours so not everyone on the ice all the time, some people arrive late, leave early, take a lot of breaks.  If it's busy enough to maybe present a fire risk, I wouldn't be skating there anyway at that time.  Last time someone crashed into me was a semi drunk oaf at Somerset House DJ night skate before Christmas.  It was pretty crowded but skateable, what you'd expect from a seasonal rink, just went for the setting and the music more than the skating.  I gave the oaf a long hard stare and the stewards kept an eye on him, no more trouble after that.  I am an experienced skater and not intimidated, can usually spot the wild ones and people not looking where they are going, and take evasive action.  I understand if you are not so experienced it can be very unsettling.  I don't think there's an easy answer to that - get more experienced through lessons and on quieter sessions, stewards to rein in the worst excesses - but realistically there will be some risk unless you make people trundle round in a strict oval which doesn't sound much like fun.  400 sounds a lot but over a 3 hour session it's probably just about manageable.

[transmissionoftheflame]

I should also say that along with general overcrowding, wild teens, drunken oafs and inattentive kids, the biggest hazards are
1) Figure skaters practicing.  They like to hold their line, whereas Joe Public is happy to deviate.  I would prefer 40 Joe Public to 20 practicing figure skaters (of which I am one).
2) Figure skaters having lessons.  Coaches expect people to get out of the way, which I think is often unreasonable.
3) Skating "aids" like penguins, polar bears.  They are almost never used correctly - people just lean on them - and they encourage terrible skaters to wander across the ice randomly rather than staying close to the side.  I would love to ban them, though it may affect revenue as people seem to expect it now.
4) People filming themselves or their kids/friends.  Not sure about banning this as it can be done safely.  Comes down to good stewarding where a steward can have a quiet word with people who are clearly unsafe and leave people who know what they are doing alone, by exercising judgement.

[Badass]

If we’re banning trip hazards, number 1 has to be my own feet

[spinZZ]

125 seems low but if they get decent usage off peak and from hockey or charge a lot maybe they can make money.  It's lovely to skate on empty rinks, not so lovely when the rink closes because it is making a loss. 

In the US, the economic viability of most private rinks depends almost entirely on hockey [for this discussion, I'm excluding elite figure skating training facilities and rinks subsidized by tax dollars].  Crowded public sessions (e.g., weekends, holidays) make money. But light public sessions (e.g, weekday mornings) do not.  However, the incremental costs of running a light public session vs not running any session at all are not all that high:  e.g., there is still the high cost of keeping the ice frozen, whether it's used or not.  That is, some rinks here will schedule a public session if there is otherwise no demand for that time slot.

The question then is whether extra staff is needed for a public session.  At my home rink, during anticipated busy sessions, there are:  a person for the skate rental counter and a guard [what you call a steward] on the ice.  But during anticipated light sessions, there aren't:  the person at the front office also handles the rentals if needed, and there is no guard on the ice.  The Zamboni driver is on duty and paid regardless:  if there is a public session, he spends 10 - 15 minutes doing a cut; otherwise he works on other tasks.  At one rink, during light sessions, one person cut the ice, handled payments for admission, and handed out rentals.  At another rink, one of the office workers pauses her clerical tasks and serves as a guard [here it's common for skaters to work part time at a rink, because they get free ice time]. 

Another reason for maintaining public sessions even if they do not make money per se is that they serve as a feeder to programs that do make money.  Typically you first try out skating during public sessions.  Then, if you decide you like it and wish to pursue it further, you sign up for group lessons, private lessons, hockey programs, figure skating programs, ....  And there's a much higher probability that you will like it if you are sharing the ice with 10 or so other skaters than 100 or so other skaters.

[transmissionoftheflame]

Yes that seems like a pretty fair summary and not dissimilar to things in the UK as I understand them, with the difference that hockey is less mainstream here so probably a lesser source of revenue, relatively.


Do US rinks have disco sessions?

[spinZZ]

Do US rinks have disco sessions?

I can speak only for the rinks in my area.  Several, including my home rink, used to on Friday nights.  All that stopped during the pandemic, of course.  Recently my home rink only sporadically has one.  Several rink directors have told me they are still short staffed.  I know at my home rink we used to have one person specifically in charge of party events, which included Friday disco nights; that position has been eliminated for now. 

[transmissionoftheflame]

I've got to chuckle about the short staffing.  Some people claim that here in the UK it's because of Brexit.  I've recently been to Italy and Sweden and they are short staffed there too...


Most disco sessions have returned here but not all, some are pre-book only.  Ice skating is one of the few indoor activities open to teens - shame if it's being taken away.  I get the impression there are more roller rinks in the US.