6 bucks to swim for one hour?
All these YMCA's I've been too are chargin that much to swim for the 1 hour adult lap swim. That's outrageous. They have a punch pass...20 visits for 50 bucks....which is semi reasonable, but when I'm not even in the city for 20 days then the rest is wasted. Why do they charge so much. It's not just Oklahoma, I've seen one in PA charge the same thing.
Kelli,
Parents
Former Member
Having operated a number of swimming facilities for many years, I can tell you that they are extremely expensive to plan, build, operate, staff, maintain, condition and insure. And, like everything else, those expenses keep going up. In fact, MOST commercial pools operate at a loss that is typically absorbed by the club, community, Y, school or other institution as a necessary (and, from the bean counter's viewpoint, evil) cost of doing business.
When you factor in all the real costs of providing pool spacetime for you to utilize, that $6/hr likely represents a loss for the facility. There IS an outside chance that's not the case if the pool is heavily used during lap swim hours (averaging say, 4 to 6 swimmers sharing each short course lane), but lap swimmers tend to like private or semi-private lanes. Even if there IS heavy utilization, $6/hr is definitely NOT overcharging.
Where else can you utilize 10 to 50 square yards of expensively developed, maintenance-intensive, professionally staffed facilities, which must be conditioned 24/7 whether in use or not, for less than $6/hr?
Having operated a number of swimming facilities for many years, I can tell you that they are extremely expensive to plan, build, operate, staff, maintain, condition and insure. And, like everything else, those expenses keep going up. In fact, MOST commercial pools operate at a loss that is typically absorbed by the club, community, Y, school or other institution as a necessary (and, from the bean counter's viewpoint, evil) cost of doing business.
When you factor in all the real costs of providing pool spacetime for you to utilize, that $6/hr likely represents a loss for the facility. There IS an outside chance that's not the case if the pool is heavily used during lap swim hours (averaging say, 4 to 6 swimmers sharing each short course lane), but lap swimmers tend to like private or semi-private lanes. Even if there IS heavy utilization, $6/hr is definitely NOT overcharging.
Where else can you utilize 10 to 50 square yards of expensively developed, maintenance-intensive, professionally staffed facilities, which must be conditioned 24/7 whether in use or not, for less than $6/hr?
