Wanted: 50 Meter Pool

Greg- This pool would absolutely NOT be just for Masters. The vision is to have a large community pool that would be able to accomodate a wide variety of aquatic activities *including* a large masters team. We want this to be community based, not a pool that would attract large swim meets because the neighborhood would not tolerate such crowds. -GG

Funny because I just sent an email to the pool manager at the club I swim in informing her the pool was 85º this morning. I'll take an 82º 25 meter pool over an 87º 50 meter pool any day of the week. If you advertise the pool as being good for the general public and mean it; then the pool will be at 87. Water aerobics, swim lessons, lap swimmers, floaters' they all want an 87º pool. You want it at 80 and can deal with 82. You will lose. You will be stuck with a pool too hot to seriously train in. This will be more to your detriment at the local long course meet than having trained in a 25 meter pool will be.

Guppie girl in an earlier post you discounted the use of this possible new pool for competition other then local type meets. If you have a first class 50 meter pool, many times you can host large USA age group swim meets. Meets of this sort can attract up to 1000 swimmers at around $50 in entry fees per swimmer + concessions etc. You could gross $60,000 in one weekend! Don't try to limit that option. Yes the masters may not get to workout that weekend you host a meet but one or two weekends a year can be good trade off for that kind of revenue.

GG, Why would you not want to host meets at the possible new pool. The revenue brought in from either masters or aau meets would be benificial to the community. Am I understanding this thread right and it's only to be for Masters? Having aau swimmers, meets, lessons is vital, after all, those youngsters are the masters future, don't be so quick to shut the lanes down on them. greg

GG, Ok,sorry been a long day here at work and was getting confused with this thread, happens often with me :confused: Still though, unless the pool is near the backyard of someones platt, I don't see how the hotels, restaurants and all other businesses would not be for the extra revenu brought in by a few meets a year. Good luck with the proposal. Greg

Again, I strongly recommend that you contact Betsy Durrant at the email listed above. She is in contact with people who have successfully helped such efforts in their area. If you email me at: seltzer@metasoft.com I can put in touch with someone locally who successfully made the case for a 50 meter pool AND a shallow 25 yard "instructional" pool based on a careful study of swimming usage patterns and showing people that based on no more than 3 swimmers per lane they needed a 50 meter pool to accomodate the different aquatic programs. He also created some future demand forecasts. I'm not sure if he saved all of this data/secenarios but it worth a try and I'm not sure how available he will be to provide this information right now. I'd also strongly recommend that you contact Mel Goldstein, a member of Betsy's committee at goldstein@mindspring.com Mel has lot experience and is very savvy when it comes to marketing/fundraising. I'm pretty sure that Mel will respond to you right away. He's that kind of guy. Good luck

1) I think you need data on expected usage levels (ie, # people using pool per hour) and a proposed schedule of operations (swim team practices, open swimming, water aerobics, swim lessons, etc). YOu want to prove that the demand necessitates the larger pool. 2) Longer pool better for long run. Think big to meet future demand, not small and have a pool that's too small. 3) Competitive analysis of pools in other nearby towns/suburbs, esp the newer pools. MOst new pools/aquatic centers are BIG. Your town wants to keep up, right?! Good luck!

I have been part of a committee the last few years trying to get a fifty meter pool for our city. They do agree now that we need a pool but will put it to public forums to decide just what we get, an fifty meter with a bulk head or another 25m. It will be in an aquatic center which is what we brought tp them. The Aquatic center will have wave pool, small water slide, hot tubs and hopefully a 52m pool with the moveable bulk head. A center like this can then operate at the same time as a swim meet and won,t disrupt lessons etc. Also try to show a fitness center is the center as well as that can bring in good revenue that you could show as using to help offset the operating cost of the pool. Bring up leasing out areas of the center for retail as well as this brings in revenue. You want to show them everything that could help to pay the cost of operating. Also remember you may get those opposed to the pool saying that a 50m pool will cost twice as much to build and operate when in fact it doesn't. We are now putting together a game plan to make sure that we are at every public hearing and we ask the right questions. Also write as many letters to the editor in your local paper as you can stating that the city really could use one. We found that bringing up major meets that could be held there didn't carry much weight because they could only be a maybe. Get the diving teams involved as well as water polo teams even tri clubs if you have them. Try to get hold of other pools like the one you would like to build and get their operating costs and the cost to build the pool. Try to find as many cities the same size as yours that have a 50m pool and list them. I don't know how many pools you have in your city now but check out how many pools per thousand population other cities have. Go in with as many facts you can and make a good presentation and have the answers for all their questions. Look into private public partnership and if it would be a possibility for your city. Good Luck

We will get another pool in Kelowna but we will need to fight for a 50m right to the end. Kelowna is not a poor city so you would think it wouldn't take much more than a rubber stamp like they do every time they build a new arena but we have the problem in Kelowna where our city fathers are a good old boys club who believe in HOCKEY RINKS over anything, they have come out and stated that with the lake right here why would we need a pool. We have more rinks per pools than any city in Canada(they have built 2 new ones in the last 10 years and have started building 2 more as we speak). We have most of the seniors on our side as they are the ones that use it the most and would like something that they can still use while other things are going on like lessons, meets, etc. as well as they are the one who turn out to vote more than any other age group here. Peter I think you guys built as close to perfect pool as you can get and I enjoy going there. That is one facility that any committee should useas an example. Peter just a little update, the fire has turned towards the city again tonight and 3300 people have been evacuated over the last 2 hrs.

Again, may the contents of a million 50m pools dump in Glen's general vicinity. Your community is undergoing incredible trials & you know our prayers are with you. Kind of makes debates about the contents of Swim magazine pale in comparison...