Elite vs. Fitness

Mike, I'm about to use some of your comments as a point of departure for a mathematics discussion. Please don't interpret this as a criticism of you. I'm assuming you are a perfectly pleasant gentlemen who gets on well with your neighbors and is kind to children and small animals. Pools ain't cheap. Chemicals, life guards and other staff wages, substantial utility bills for heating and running the filtering system, maintenance of significant physical plant in the face of sometimes corrosive chemicals or other hostile environmental conditions, liability insurance. There's a reason why most pools are owned and operated by school districts, universities, military bases or municiple governments. Most pools couldn't break even off of user fees, and they have to turn to larger entities to close the budget gap based on the value the pool provides to that larger entity. Mike characterizes pool managers as "whoring out" their facilities to outside groups. But let's look at numbers. My impression is that someone would reasonably expect to pay $50/month to be a "member" at a pool facility and have unlimited use during "open swim" time slots. (Note: that is on the high side, many facilities charge less.) One characteristic of some (not all) lap swimmers is that they want their lane during "prime time" (11am-1pm) because it fits their schedule. They also want their lane. Maybe they will split one without too much grumbling, but circle swimming even for experienced competitive swimmers is annoying because you will always get that so & so in your lane who is a whole lot faster or a whole lot slower than you. In a 6 lane pool, that maxs out at 12 swimmers splitting a lane at a time. Let's say people swim for 40 minutes each; that would mean 36 members in the pool during prime time on a given day. If you assume that members average 2 workouts a week (i.e. it's not the same 36 members all 5 days of the week), that is 90 members using the pool during the most desirable 2 hours of the day, or in dollars and cents, $4500 a month in revenue. Yes, there will be other revenue streams from other time slots, but $4500 will not go far maintaining a 6 lane, 25 yard pool for a month. Mike how much more are you willing to pay to swim when you want to swim? Enough to make a difference? Now let's look at some of the other uses of the pool. One reason we USMS members get so irritated with block-head pool managers is the compelling economic argument we can make to accomodate us. A good masters program has no trouble putting 4 or 5 people in a lane. If you assume the same $50/month swim team member fee (which is also a pretty fair estimate of market rate), you can see a swim team could pay double what lap swimmers are providing in membership dues, while still making generous allowances for coaches' pay and club overhead. Don't even get me started on higher density uses like water aerobics classes, or simply turning loose a pack of grade school kids from the local school district. In the first place, the outsiders are outbidding you, and in the second, the pool manager can't run the place solely on what you are providing. He has no choice but to look elsewhere to close the budget gap. Of course, pool use decisions are made for all sorts of other reasons than simple dollars and cents. If it was only about the money, lap swimming would ALWAYS lose. (However, if the village board is subsidizing the pool so its residents can go swim, yet the pool manager effectively cancels open swim because the swimming and water polo teams can pay so much more, watch how fast the subsidy will go away. There is a self-correcting balance at work.) My soap-box point is that everyone who uses and enjoys the pool needs to realize that everyone contributes to keeping the pool running, and we all need to show due regard for other people's uses. A lot of us have an "I got mine, Jack" mentality that causes us to think that if the manager will just give us what we want, and let all the other "little people" fit in around our desires, budgets will balance and everything will be OK. This is delusional. We're all in this together. With apologies to Sting and The Police: I don't want to bring a sour note Remember this before you vote We can all sink or we all float 'Cause we're all in the same big boat One pool is enough for all of us Matt

Mike, I'm about to use some of your comments as a point of departure for a mathematics discussion. Please don't interpret this as a criticism of you. I'm assuming you are a perfectly pleasant gentlemen who gets on well with your neighbors and is kind to children and small animals. Pools ain't cheap. Chemicals, life guards and other staff wages, substantial utility bills for heating and running the filtering system, maintenance of significant physical plant in the face of sometimes corrosive chemicals or other hostile environmental conditions, liability insurance. There's a reason why most pools are owned and operated by school districts, universities, military bases or municiple governments. Most pools couldn't break even off of user fees, and they have to turn to larger entities to close the budget gap based on the value the pool provides to that larger entity. Mike characterizes pool managers as "whoring out" their facilities to outside groups. But let's look at numbers. My impression is that someone would reasonably expect to pay $50/month to be a "member" at a pool facility and have unlimited use during "open swim" time slots. (Note: that is on the high side, many facilities charge less.) One characteristic of some (not all) lap swimmers is that they want their lane during "prime time" (11am-1pm) because it fits their schedule. They also want their lane. Maybe they will split one without too much grumbling, but circle swimming even for experienced competitive swimmers is annoying because you will always get that so & so in your lane who is a whole lot faster or a whole lot slower than you. In a 6 lane pool, that maxs out at 12 swimmers splitting a lane at a time. Let's say people swim for 40 minutes each; that would mean 36 members in the pool during prime time on a given day. If you assume that members average 2 workouts a week (i.e. it's not the same 36 members all 5 days of the week), that is 90 members using the pool during the most desirable 2 hours of the day, or in dollars and cents, $4500 a month in revenue. Yes, there will be other revenue streams from other time slots, but $4500 will not go far maintaining a 6 lane, 25 yard pool for a month. Mike how much more are you willing to pay to swim when you want to swim? Enough to make a difference? Now let's look at some of the other uses of the pool. One reason we USMS members get so irritated with block-head pool managers is the compelling economic argument we can make to accomodate us. A good masters program has no trouble putting 4 or 5 people in a lane. If you assume the same $50/month swim team member fee (which is also a pretty fair estimate of market rate), you can see a swim team could pay double what lap swimmers are providing in membership dues, while still making generous allowances for coaches' pay and club overhead. Don't even get me started on higher density uses like water aerobics classes, or simply turning loose a pack of grade school kids from the local school district. In the first place, the outsiders are outbidding you, and in the second, the pool manager can't run the place solely on what you are providing. He has no choice but to look elsewhere to close the budget gap. Of course, pool use decisions are made for all sorts of other reasons than simple dollars and cents. If it was only about the money, lap swimming would ALWAYS lose. (However, if the village board is subsidizing the pool so its residents can go swim, yet the pool manager effectively cancels open swim because the swimming and water polo teams can pay so much more, watch how fast the subsidy will go away. There is a self-correcting balance at work.) My soap-box point is that everyone who uses and enjoys the pool needs to realize that everyone contributes to keeping the pool running, and we all need to show due regard for other people's uses. A lot of us have an "I got mine, Jack" mentality that causes us to think that if the manager will just give us what we want, and let all the other "little people" fit in around our desires, budgets will balance and everything will be OK. This is delusional. We're all in this together. With apologies to Sting and The Police: I don't want to bring a sour note Remember this before you vote We can all sink or we all float 'Cause we're all in the same big boat One pool is enough for all of us Matt