Chapter 5: Management

Entrance Fees
Some Parks Departments consider skateparks special attractions for a nominal user group. With over 13-million skaters nationwide there is no shortage in any community of people ready and eager to enjoy a new skatepark. Unlike many other special park facilities, such as pools and ice rinks, skateparks are used every day and often by the same users. Some skaters will use a park for hours at a time; others may just have a quick skate before work or school. Those skaters who will be using the skatepark will be diverse and they will all be dedicated to their pastime. Most skateboarders ride at least once a week. Many ride nearly every day, especially during summer. For this reason it is extremely difficult to assess the value of one person’s skatepark experience over another.

Skatepark fees are simply a bad idea. Few skateparks that charge “green fees” do so out of desire to generate revenue. Most are a byproduct of zealous planners and advisors looking for ways to cover maintenance costs. The reality is that the fees serve to do just that, but not as expected. Rather than cover maintenance costs, they dissuade enough of the local skaters from using the facility on a regular basis that maintenance is not as necessary.

Some entrance fees are instituted to subsidize on-site supervision payroll. Again, the anticipated usage may never be met due to the prohibitive expense to the skateboarder. A dollar per visit may seem nominal to most adults, but even $50 for a 3-month summer pass can be too much for the average 14-year-old. These kids will find other places to skate.

Do not forget that skateboarding in the streets and public places beyond the skatepark is free. From a fiscal stand-point, it may be difficult to create a viable business model with this attractive alternative. While street skating may be illegal, it is an environment that most skateboarders are accustomed to. Decades of failed or irregularly enforced ordinances have done little to discourage skateboarding, and today skateboarding is more popular than ever in spite of the absence of legitimate skateboarding options. Instituting a fee structure will cripple the success of the new skatepark and produce another incentive for skaters to “take it to the streets.”