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The long road to a new Ice facility for Bendigo

Plan Started: 6th July 2011 Plan Location: Bendigo, 3550, VIC Category: Sport

"The Big picture is for Bendigo to have a brand new Ice facility. To offer different sports away from mainstream sports that a..."

Plan by: Karen Lucas

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Case Study

Plan Description:

The Big picture is for Bendigo to have a brand new Ice facility. To offer different sports away from mainstream sports that are offered in this region. An Ice rink could be located near our Basketball stadium to make a multi sports facility. This would help the community enormously with offering an activity that families could participate in together. Employment opportunities for all ages and most importantly get everyone moving !!!! Melbourne has $5m brand new "Ice House" on speaking with management about their business plan they have exceeded all projected income and rink usage. They have doubled their projected figures and the rink is booked out from 6.30am till 11.00 pm 7 days a week. They have 2 rinks one for recreational use and the other for Ice Hockey, speed skating. curling and figure skating and various other usage on offer with skating lesson and training sessions Bendigo has a mini bus going down every weekend and sometimes twice (Sat & Sun) one of the training sessions for ice hockey is 6.30am Sat morning. The kids get up at 3.30am to go down and train. Ice sport is still alive in Bendigo. I am the treasurer of Central Victorian Ice Sports and Entertainment.

My Big reasons are:

Bendigo had old rink that was closed down 18 months ago, it was over 30 yerars old. The zambonnie (ice maker) was older than 30 years and heaps of money was used to keep it running. The shed that the facility was housed in was in dire need of repair with no insulation to help in summer. When it rained the roof leaked. It was a cold cold place too. Bendigo was just starting to get the ice use back up and running with 2 teams competing with Melbourne teams We had ice figure skaters and curlers all competing. We are working with the COGB on a business plan and then we will move on to a feasabiliyt study. We have some engineers in our organisation and there are cheaper options available and new technology to run an ice skating rink so a new one would viable.

My plan will be a success when:

We need to raise $12000.00 to bring a synthetic rink to Bendigo in the Easter school holidays next year. We want to place it in the CBD to get as much exposure as possible, and keep the interest alive in ice sports. It could help the CBD traders while kids are skating parents could do some shopping. We want to grow our membership and broaden our network of supporters around us. Council challenged us to get 1000 paid members..

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My plan success story

1. Now you’ve marked your plan a success, what about it makes you most proud?

We did it, we bought a Skating Rink to Bendigo, in the winter school holidays.
2300 people skated in cold weather just like it would be in the Nordic countries. They even skated in the rain. The Bendigo Mall traders did well commenting that families had come back to the mall.
We raised the profile of ice sports for Central Victoria and got people talking about ice skating again.

2. What challenges did you face on your journey and what have you learned?

We totally underestimated that amount of volunteer labour we would need. We thought 1 on cash, 1 on shoes and 1 skating to assist.
We needed 1 on cash but 3 out skating and 2 on shoes.
This was the first time this American rink had been here the major problem was that their skate sharpener just wouldnt work with our electrical wattage?. We kept blowing fuses even with the power converters we bought.
Security was our biggest expense and totally needed.

We had the rink cancelled on us at the previous holidays , so we very cautious getting our advertising out before the event. We should have gone harder with the advertising.

3. What are some ways that PlanBig has helped you?

Plan Big were there from the get go, PlanBig helped us get insurance so that we could have P/L insurance to hold a bbq. PlanBig introduced us to LeadOn who were fantastic help at getting us insurance, posters and many other areas they assisted us with.
PlanBig atteneded our meetings arranged for different community sectors to meet with us.
Promotion of our event, Volunteer hours, so many ways of un measureable support.

4. Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Stay tuned for our next installment of the "Long Road for a new Ice Facility for Bendigo"

1. Now you’ve marked your plan a success, what about it makes you most proud?

We did it, we bought a Skating Rink to Bendigo, in the winter school holidays. 2300 people skated in cold weather just like it would be in the Nordic countries. They even skated in the rain. The Bendigo Mall traders did well commenting that families had come back to the mall. We raised the profile of ice sports for Central Victoria and got people talking about ice skating again.

2. What challenges did you face on your journey and what have you learned?

We totally underestimated that amount of volunteer labour we would need. We thought 1 on cash, 1 on shoes and 1 skating to assist. We needed 1 on cash but 3 out skating and 2 on shoes. This was the first time this American rink had been here the major problem was that their skate sharpener just wouldnt work with our electrical wattage?. We kept blowing fuses even with the power converters we bought. Security was our biggest expense and totally needed. We had the rink cancelled on us at the previous holidays , so we very cautious getting our advertising out before the event. We should have gone harder with the advertising.

3. What are some ways that PlanBig has helped you?

Plan Big were there from the get go, PlanBig helped us get insurance so that we could have P/L insurance to hold a bbq. PlanBig introduced us to LeadOn who were fantastic help at getting us insurance, posters and many other areas they assisted us with. PlanBig atteneded our meetings arranged for different community sectors to meet with us. Promotion of our event, Volunteer hours, so many ways of un measureable support.