Monday, December 15, 2014

The Golden Era's Long Tail...Legacies Now(!) At The Richmond Oval.

HeadsWePay
TailsTheyUseVille


Well, well well...

Looks like things at the community center that once was the Olympic speed skating oval are being privatized.

And to heck with the folks that have public memberships, especially those who can't afford to pay for fancy-schmancy value-added extras.

The Richmond News' Graeme Woods has the story:

The Richmond Olympic Oval is embarking on its first public-private partnership and it has some members steaming mad.

The Oval has decided to terminate all of its membership yoga classes in order to accommodate YYoga, a private yoga company, at the large, converted fitness facility initially built for speed skating for the 2010 Winter Games...


And the rationale?

Well, as you might expect the 'enterprise' has a spokesthingy/marketer to explain:

...Oval marketer and spokesperson Aran Kay said YYoga can offer better yoga classes throughout the entire day. He said YYoga will have hot rooms, hot yoga classes and tea service, among other things.

In turn, the Oval will eliminate its existing yoga services, which constitute about seven classes a week that serve roughly 200 members, according to Kay...



And as for future programs at the Oval?

Well, the spokesthingy/marketer has the perfect answer/non-denial denial for that one also:

...Kay said he wasn't aware of any future initiatives in which the Oval would shift more services over to a private company...


Gosh.

Ms. Rogers and her former mentor, the Hatman, must be so proud.

After all, everybody needs a 'Lift' (feel free to compare the 'Boards') now and then.

'Future Initiatives', indeed.


.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

BC hospitals are doing p3 et al.
microsoft tfw BC?
either way is outsourcing?

Unknown said...

I've heard that the Richmond Owe-val loses money on an annual basis and has to be subsidized by the City of Richmond so the city is constantly looking at money generating options. As the oval is now basically a giant multi-purpose fitness centre, it is perhaps no wonder that it's losing money. I wonder if this facility would be profitable if it had maintained its original purpose as a long track speed skating oval to be hired out to Olympic hopefuls on a full time basis. But no, Richmond council wanted to jump on the Olympic bandwagon and expensively bid for a facility that was ill equipped for its purpose, being at sea level (or below) and whose foundation is a perpetually shifting estuary, when a solid properly balanced base is required for speed skating. So much for legacy projects that encourage Olympic hopefuls.

RossK said...

mark--

Hard not to wonder if, perhaps, if many of those legacies do not have other purposes for other fine folks other than athletes and the citizenry.

.