Hockey vs Figure Skating (or other ice sport)

[BK 0]

Our rink is heavy figure skating and rec. It is was the 2001 olympic venue and hosted the womens hockey events. Ironicly enough, the general manager favors figure skating over hockey programs. 2 years ago, the only choices you had for hockey were 10pm drop-in on tuesday and thrusday and house league. There were no beginners courses or classes for people who were interested in skating. There WAS a "learn to skate" program, but the instructor was an avid figure skater and required all students to wear figure skates. All the while, there were 6 levels of figure skating class 6 days a week all day long (except for public skate).

We have 3 sheets of ice in the arena. 1 is covered with turf and used for indoor soccer. The north rink is used mostly for rec and the south rink is usually closed. Just this year, they started a beginners hockey class (yay.. my wife finally gets to play in a REAL game and not drop in!) and have made a little more time for house league. Keep in mind that this was after there were only 3 house league teams signed up last season after seeing the 11pm-1am weekday game schedule times. This is the first year I can play house league because of those horrific times.

[hockeymom 2]

We go to about 6 arenas on a regular/weekly basis. 4 of them are mostly hockey (which is balanced in my view lol), 2 are olympic sized arenas and they do have more figure skating. Some of the 6 pad arenas seem to block one pad off for exclusively figure skating and the rest of the pads are hockey and rec.

A bunch of the figure skating clubs in Toronto are starting learn to skate/power skating programs which is a terrific thing.

[pantherfan 0]

My rink prefers figure skating they get much more (and cheaper) ice time and also get better times where as we'll be up in the early hours of the morning on weekdays.

I'd say in ice time it's a 2-1 split in favor of figure skating.

[Chadd 916]

If figure skating is bringing in money, and if you have good instructors there it is, don't expect better ice times. Rec skating is usually the single best moneymaker for a rink. 200 people paying $5 a head plus skate rentals and concession sales, a lot more money there than the $250 ice rental for a league game.

[mack 44]

Definitely their reasoning. One mall here has an ice-rink in it and would always have kids' games going but now it's more and more geared solely for rec skating. The only thing annoying is I'll be trying to get the wife skating and you have all these guys skating like they're Bo Jackson and end up cannonballing lines of people.

[chikinpotpie 137]

My rink is more geared towards figure skating. The GM is on some board of figure skating whatnot and the coaches here pretty much dictate what the ice times will be. Numerous time hockey times have been cancelled because the local figure skaters need extra ice time for their shiny shirts and glitter. It is not even like they are the major source of incoe either. For most of the figure sessions, there is only a couple of skaters out and they demand a resurface after an hour when there was only three skaters out on the ice.

(I'm kind of light headded now that I was so high on my soap box)

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

I was going to a stick and puck session one saturday morning and there was figure skating before us, and as we were crossing the bleachers to the changing rooms, we heard one of the mothers say to another "here comes the knuckle draggers, I was hoping they wouldn't show up so we could keep the ice"

My local rink is very figure/free skating based. Not a lot of hockey, and not a lot at a reasonable time (league games start between 9.45pm to 11.45 pm on weeknights, stick and puck has been moved to 7am on a saturday or 5.45pm on a monday evening)

[chk hrd 164]

our rink is more geared to hockey. The rink owner has 2 kids that play and is very involved in our orginization. The public and figure skaters are only allowed on one (of the two) rinks so they don't tear up the ice on the "good" side. Figure skating and public skating times are not as good as the hockey times. During the kids hockey season they even kick the adult game times back so that there is a little more time for the kids teams to schedule practices for. If the rink wanted they could have every weekend booked solid for tourneys

[sonsplayhockey 0]

We have 2 NHL rinks and an Olympic.

Hockey is played on all of them.

Youth Hockey on the weekends

Adult hockey on 2 of the 3 rinks on Sunday and every other night of the week.

Figure skaters pretty much only come during the workday.

they have lessons and freeskates.

Adult and youth hockey pays the bills.

Figure this, you have figure skaters, maybe 6-8 of them (freestyle they call it) on the ice for an hour. How can they pay for the ice time. They gotta be rich or something or they just come in when adults or parents work.

No disrespect to the actual kids doing the figurskating, after all, would you do all those jumps without a helmet or pads?

Allsmoke, that mouthy mother should have tasted your lumber!

[mack 44]

She's the mother of a figure skater, I'd let her off the hook for time served.