Posted by Patrick on December 10, 2011
For those of you who filled out our survey, thank you. We had a lot of great feedback and some criticisim as well. The topic that received the most criticisim was the rink. Please read our response and understand we are doing the best that we can.
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We had complaints about the old surface (cracks, bubbles, paint chips, poor puck handling) that lead us to start researching new surfaces years ago. You know the old saying, “The Grass is Always Greener.” We went through at least 3 different pucks over the past couple of years on the old surface trying to figure out which one worked better after the “Z” puck stopped being manufactured (that was the orange puck with the black feet that you might see in some of the oldtimers bags). And none of them performed well. People were taking belt sanders and trying to modify them to make them work.
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Volunteers had to work very hard to get games in on the old surface. Not a lot of people realized that someone had to show up at 5 p.m. to dry the rink so that we could get our games in time and time again during a season. It could rain on a Friday, be sunny all weekend, and the rink would still have to be dried on Monday evening.
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We understand the new rink has dew issues that have especially impacted the adults in the fall, and we’ve implemented some scheduling improvements to combat the issue.
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For the Adults this year, we played a very consistent schedule during August, getting 7 games in before Labor Day. Then Irene hit, and rain has been falling at a record rate since then, so much so, that we are now the 2nd wettest year since something like the early 1900′s. And if it wasn’t actually raining, it was muggy and damp, which would have affected the old surface the same way as the new one this year. The ground is very soggy and the old surface would suck the moisture up from below. This surface at least protects us from the below moisture, but we were still affected by the muggy damp air from above, which again, was way above normal.
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We did a much better job preventing people from showing up at the rink only to have the game cancelled. Yes, it created some breaks in the play, but a lot of that was caused by actual rain, which would have affected us no matter which surface we were on.
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We finished the season this year for Adults, compared to last year, when we were not able to. And we did not revert to weekends.
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The town has invested $140,000 in our rink and surface. We do NOT have the right or ability to just say to them, “Rip this up and put down the old surface that we used to complain about” However, we will be approaching the town, and it’s engineer to see if there is a way to get air movement on the rink, to help with the dew issues. If there is a way to do this, taking into account the large surface, the fact that the fans have to be secured and ready to go at all times, security, expense, feasibility, etc. we will research that. But other then that, it is what it is. An outdoor rink subject to the weather.
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We are on town property and we don’t own the rink. Some of the suggestions that are proposed are not ours to take liberty to do. One of the the biggest suggestions is to add a roof. If we were even allowed to put a roof up, lets look at the effect of that. The approximate cost would be upwards of $400,000 to build, taking into account lights that are already there and have to be moved, construction, and materials. If we had 200 members per season (which we currently don’t), and we doubled our rates, double in a bad economy with membership already dropping, it would take us 10 years to raise that kind of money. Putting a roof over the rink would help with rain, but not with humidty and dew. Putting the rink inside a building, the cost is upwards of $750,000. You can do the math and how this works out. Now you would be at ice hockey rates, or more. For a sport which has higher insurance expense to our members then other sports, and higher equipment costs then other sports, we have to recognize the impact of any price increase we have to cover expenses we incur.
We still provide a great, inexpensive way to experience hockey. We work hard to make it competitive and even for all teams. We work hard to make the rules consistent. We are constantly looking to improve and reinvest in our league.
We will get better. We will make some mistakes, but we will learn from them. Thanks so much for your opinions and we do apologize if you have had an experience with us that was not 100% satisfactory. But we have to move forward.
If anybody has a positive solution or a constructive comment that they would like to bring to the board, please do so. We are gearing up for our 2012 elections, and we would be more then glad to accept new people with new ideas.
Thank you for your continued support
