There are plenty of under used municipal and school pools across the country that could be bought or managed by an outside organization, just for the promise of occasional public access. USMS is not loaded with money, but has lots of knowledge and experienced people who could pull off a stunt like this. One club in Indiana has done just this thing by taking over a county pool that was in peril of closing because it could not afford to operate it. As far as I know, the agreement is still in force and the USMS club is still paying for operations by its own management and programming.
San Diego has three public pools but cannot afford to keep them all open at once, so they have one or two open and close the other one (or two) on a rotating basis. Not a good way to keep programs filled.
I wholeheartedly agree that there are private organizations that could likely do a much better job of running pools than many public parks & rec departments. But, to do that, you need volume of usage - lots of swim lessons, probably a large USAS team, lap swimming lanes, water aerobics, etc. A USMS team is a nice addition to that volume ...
However, even in a great case, I don't imagine you're turning over a huge profit, so I suspect it's a pretty poor investment. If pools were a great investment (beyond hyper-focused and small facilities that only do swim lessons), you'd have private companies popping up around the country to make the business case to municipalities to run their pools. I don't think that's happening in many places because, as much as I love swimming, pools are a community investment in health and not a profit-making venture.
I'd love to be proven wrong.
Your hypothesis is correct, pools need a lot of programs to make money. There are 24 hours in a day and I am always wondering why cities cannot see that there are plenty of money making opportunities after 9 pm and before 5 am.
Not looking for huge profit, break even is good enough for a 501(c)3 corporation. Some profit will of course be welcome, but first we need to try.
The BoD has spoken informally about this subject a few times over the years, but nobody wants to be the leader and possible goat if it does not work. In 2006, we (USMS) spent over $125,000 hosting FINA worlds. That was the final tally, after we had fronted over $200,000. I believe we can do better when we are our own bosses.
Pools are a huge investment initially, but the continuing costs are only fractional and mostly based on programming. The more programs you have, the more money you have to use. USMS would be buying or managing existing facilities, so construction costs would mostly be moot.
I wholeheartedly agree that there are private organizations that could likely do a much better job of running pools than many public parks & rec departments. But, to do that, you need volume of usage - lots of swim lessons, probably a large USAS team, lap swimming lanes, water aerobics, etc. A USMS team is a nice addition to that volume ...
However, even in a great case, I don't imagine you're turning over a huge profit, so I suspect it's a pretty poor investment. If pools were a great investment (beyond hyper-focused and small facilities that only do swim lessons), you'd have private companies popping up around the country to make the business case to municipalities to run their pools. I don't think that's happening in many places because, as much as I love swimming, pools are a community investment in health and not a profit-making venture.
I'd love to be proven wrong.
Your hypothesis is correct, pools need a lot of programs to make money. There are 24 hours in a day and I am always wondering why cities cannot see that there are plenty of money making opportunities after 9 pm and before 5 am.
Not looking for huge profit, break even is good enough for a 501(c)3 corporation. Some profit will of course be welcome, but first we need to try.
The BoD has spoken informally about this subject a few times over the years, but nobody wants to be the leader and possible goat if it does not work. In 2006, we (USMS) spent over $125,000 hosting FINA worlds. That was the final tally, after we had fronted over $200,000. I believe we can do better when we are our own bosses.
Pools are a huge investment initially, but the continuing costs are only fractional and mostly based on programming. The more programs you have, the more money you have to use. USMS would be buying or managing existing facilities, so construction costs would mostly be moot.
