Bolton Draws Ire of Skateboarding/Riding Community with Planned Closure of Indoor Skateboarding Park

[thetrailboss]

This seems shortsighted to me. Apparently they want to replace it with indoor tennis/pickle ball courts. Riders ain’t happy. I recall Bolton having a decent snowboarding draw.

Skateboarders Cry Foul Over Bolton Valley's Plan to Close Indoor Park | Seven Days

Bolton Valley Resort CEO Lindsay DesLauriers wishes she’d put more thought into breaking the news that she’s closing a popular indoor skateboard park to make...

m.sevendaysvt.com

 

[Domeskier]

snowboarding : skateboarding :: pickle-balling : tennis-balling

 

[kbroderick]

FWIW, they've "hit pause" on the plan after community response:

Bolton Valley on Instagram: "To the BV Skate Community, You’ve got our attention. We are going to hit pause on our timeline. While this pause does not mean we will scrap our plans, it is a recognition that we rushed this process and did not mee

1,038 likes, 127 comments - boltonvalley on September 21, 2023: "To the BV Skate Community, You’ve got our attention. We are going to hit pause on our timeline. While this pause does not mean we will scrap our plans, it is a recognition that we rushed this process and did not meet our...

www.instagram.com

You’ve got our attention. We are going to hit pause on our timeline.

While this pause does not mean we will scrap our plans, it is a recognition that we rushed this process and did not meet our commitment to our community.

It’s very clear to us that we did not give people (especially our staff) the opportunity or even just the time to understand the rationale, to discuss the change, and to provide feedback. We totally underestimated the level of disappointment and anger that this has caused from within the skate community. We should have known better and done better.

So I will say to you what I have already said to our staff: we are going to pause to create the opportunity for the conversation that should have happened weeks ago to happen now. You have a right to understand our thinking and we want our community to weigh in.

To this end, I would like to invite you to have a conversation with me and our GM, Nathaniel. We are lining up a date for this community forum shortly, stay tuned for details. If you can’t make that - or in the meantime– send us your thoughts via the link in bio.

You are a valued part of our BV community. We see you and we hear you. I’m looking forward to this conversation and I’m confident that we can find a positive path forward together.

 

[2Planker]

Hmmmm Please a bunch of teens OR the 30-80yo's that will play pball or tennis...
Only a matter of time.....

 

[thetrailboss]

Hmmmm Please a bunch of teens OR the 30-80yo's that will play pball or tennis...
Only a matter of time.....

As crazy as it sounds, the skateboarding crowd WILL drive or get a ride up to Bolton to go skateboarding. There are lots of places to go play indoor tennis and pickleball. There are no places to go skateboarding inside (maybe one small place in BTV). From my POV, having no competition is better than having a lot of competition.

 

[Domeskier]

A lot of folks who started skating in the seventies and eighties are still into it, too. Not just teens anymore.

 

[urungus]

FWIW, I’ve been to the Bolton Sports Center a few times over two winter weekends and I didn’t see a single person using the skate park. Small sample size I know.

 

[slatham]

FWIW, they've "hit pause" on the plan after community response:

Bolton Valley on Instagram: "To the BV Skate Community, You’ve got our attention. We are going to hit pause on our timeline. While this pause does not mean we will scrap our plans, it is a recognition that we rushed this process and did not mee

1,038 likes, 127 comments - boltonvalley on September 21, 2023: "To the BV Skate Community, You’ve got our attention. We are going to hit pause on our timeline. While this pause does not mean we will scrap our plans, it is a recognition that we rushed this process and did not meet our...

www.instagram.com

Given the families reputation of being good stewards of Bolton and managers of the mountain, surprised by this poorly thought out decision. But I am curious what the end analysis concludes - rad skaters, or old pickle ballers?

 

[kbroderick]

FWIW, I’ve been to the Bolton Sports Center a few times over two winter weekends and I didn’t see a single person using the skate park. Small sample size I know.

Given the families reputation of being good stewards of Bolton and managers of the mountain, surprised by this poorly thought out decision. But I am curious what the end analysis concludes - rad skaters, or old pickle ballers?

I haven't been directly connected to Bolton in over a decade, but my guess is that the decision was actually thought through carefully, and based in part on a larger-than-urungus's sample size on usage. I would also guess that what they overlooked is the aspirational crowd that wants to think they will actually go skate there, but on any given day is going to get derailed by some other aspect of life. Kinda like why I have a mountain-bike pass for Mt. Abram that I used roughly twice this summer, but I'd still be really bummed if they stopped offering mountain biking.

Whether or not there's enough of an effect from the skate park to bring actual business in to other outlets at BV (F&B / snowsports / MTB / etc), I don't know. But it is distinctly possible, and the userbase may have been more interested in sliding on snow on those winter weekends. If it was actually drawing a lot of tweens and teens, it probably would make a lot of sense to keep it open given the match with BV's overall niche.

As far as "rad skaters or old pickle ballers", I don't think that's really the defining line. They noted in the blog that they want to be able to use the space for events, and pickleball is relatively easy to displace for a special event; a skate park is not. If it were drawing any non-trivial number of truly rad skates, I'd expect the halo effect to be pronounced enough that it would also be drawing a fair number of wanna-be-rad skaters too.

 

[AdironRider]

Switching to pickleball and tennis, along with opening that facility up to banquet events, is a no-brainer financially.

Signed a guy who has done the accounting for facilities that have both skate parks and pickleball courts, as well as banquet facilities.