A recent twitter follower @mastromonoco simply asked, "Why is it called the Rink Exchange."
As with most things that seem simple on the surface, the answer is quite a bit more complicated and speaks to the history of the place itself. So, let's call this the ultimate TT.
The ice rink itself was built (well repurposed) back in 1989. It was a project Lane County completed with the help of a lot of local citizens many of whom still skate at the rink today. The building used to be a Horse Barn. The rink, in the first few years, was incredibly popular with a pretty large user base, especially when it came to public skating.
Fast forward to 2010 and for various reasons, with the County itself facing large budget cuts of its own, they decided that the rink was no longer as an asset it wanted to finance directly. The rink itself was losing close to $250k per year and by some estimates needed over $1 million in maintenance upgrades.
At the same time, since 2005 the Eugene Generals had been operating in the facility as the area's premiere hockey team playing at the Junior level. When 2010 came along, and the rink decided it needed to shutdown, the Generals came to an agreement with the County that allowed it to operate the facility. The asset (building, land, etc.) would remain public property, but the operations (maintenance, staff, etc.) would be a private venture.
As with all things of this nature, the first year was a "kick the tires" kind of year. The Generals were asked to operate some sections of the rink (namely Public Skating Sessions, some scheduling, and the pro shop) while others including staff and private ice rental remained under the County domain.
With the pro shop being operated privately, it needed a name. At the time, it was assumed that the model that was established would remain. The Generals would only operate public skating sessions and the store. So the team needed to come up with a name that kind of equated with with the Generals. Some on the staff had served in military circles and the name needed a Generals theme. Given it was a store, the name Rink Exchange was crowned. An exchange on a military base is a store where goods and services are bought and sold. It was a good description of exactly what was going on at the time at the Rink. The Rink Exchange was the middle man between the public and the County in exchanging goods and services (namely ice).
Well, as luck would have it, the roles grew, rather quickly. Soon the Exchange had it's own phone number, email addresses, and services. Little by little, the roles increased from operating the pro-shop to running the entire facility completely independently but in partnership with the County. This occurred in June of 2011. By then, the name kind of stuck. The internal users already knew it as the Rink Exchange and with any brand, we just decided it needed to be introduced to the public.
To this day, it really is an Exchange with the ice being the primary good. But services are a huge part as well with major user groups participating in the development of ice sports as well as Rink Exchange run programs such as Adult League, Adult Learn to Play, and Learn to Play for Youth.
The Rink is growing and in some circles larger now than ever in the past. Public skating sessions routinely fetch 150 plus skaters and during the Christmas season that number grows to be over 200 plus skaters. The youth hockey program now sports over 250 participants (a large size as a percentage of the population) and there are now 16 adult league teams playing out of the Rink.
The Annual Eugene Figure Skating Holiday Show brings participants from all over the region and brings in upwards of 1,000 viewers of the show sporting toys for the Toys for Tots Drive.
So as you can see, it really is an Exchange that has brought Ice Sports back into the forefront of the community.
Thanks for the question @mastomonaco!
As with most things that seem simple on the surface, the answer is quite a bit more complicated and speaks to the history of the place itself. So, let's call this the ultimate TT.
The ice rink itself was built (well repurposed) back in 1989. It was a project Lane County completed with the help of a lot of local citizens many of whom still skate at the rink today. The building used to be a Horse Barn. The rink, in the first few years, was incredibly popular with a pretty large user base, especially when it came to public skating.
Fast forward to 2010 and for various reasons, with the County itself facing large budget cuts of its own, they decided that the rink was no longer as an asset it wanted to finance directly. The rink itself was losing close to $250k per year and by some estimates needed over $1 million in maintenance upgrades.
At the same time, since 2005 the Eugene Generals had been operating in the facility as the area's premiere hockey team playing at the Junior level. When 2010 came along, and the rink decided it needed to shutdown, the Generals came to an agreement with the County that allowed it to operate the facility. The asset (building, land, etc.) would remain public property, but the operations (maintenance, staff, etc.) would be a private venture.
As with all things of this nature, the first year was a "kick the tires" kind of year. The Generals were asked to operate some sections of the rink (namely Public Skating Sessions, some scheduling, and the pro shop) while others including staff and private ice rental remained under the County domain.
With the pro shop being operated privately, it needed a name. At the time, it was assumed that the model that was established would remain. The Generals would only operate public skating sessions and the store. So the team needed to come up with a name that kind of equated with with the Generals. Some on the staff had served in military circles and the name needed a Generals theme. Given it was a store, the name Rink Exchange was crowned. An exchange on a military base is a store where goods and services are bought and sold. It was a good description of exactly what was going on at the time at the Rink. The Rink Exchange was the middle man between the public and the County in exchanging goods and services (namely ice).
Well, as luck would have it, the roles grew, rather quickly. Soon the Exchange had it's own phone number, email addresses, and services. Little by little, the roles increased from operating the pro-shop to running the entire facility completely independently but in partnership with the County. This occurred in June of 2011. By then, the name kind of stuck. The internal users already knew it as the Rink Exchange and with any brand, we just decided it needed to be introduced to the public.
To this day, it really is an Exchange with the ice being the primary good. But services are a huge part as well with major user groups participating in the development of ice sports as well as Rink Exchange run programs such as Adult League, Adult Learn to Play, and Learn to Play for Youth.
The Rink is growing and in some circles larger now than ever in the past. Public skating sessions routinely fetch 150 plus skaters and during the Christmas season that number grows to be over 200 plus skaters. The youth hockey program now sports over 250 participants (a large size as a percentage of the population) and there are now 16 adult league teams playing out of the Rink.
The Annual Eugene Figure Skating Holiday Show brings participants from all over the region and brings in upwards of 1,000 viewers of the show sporting toys for the Toys for Tots Drive.
So as you can see, it really is an Exchange that has brought Ice Sports back into the forefront of the community.
Thanks for the question @mastomonaco!
RSS Feed