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Industry News: Rollerdome Rules the North Country
Skating the Rollerdome In 1990, Scott Olson, the ousted founder of Rollerblade, had another one of his bright ideas. He was looking for a way to help skaters in Minneapolis keep rolling through the winter — which in Minnesota consumes roughly half of the year. And he thought: Why not use the Metrodome sports stadium? Why not turn over the concourses of the domed stadium to skaters when it wasn't otherwise occupied? At the time, Olson was president of Switch-It, a Minnesota company that made skates that could be converted for use on ice or pavement. He turned over the stadium idea to one of the company's bright young staffers, Mike Cofrin. Rollerdome Info • Estimated number of skaters since it opened: 525,000 • Ticket prices: $6.50 for adults, $5.50 for students and $4.50 for pre-teens and seniors • Open: About 70 days each year, generally three to four days a week from November to April. Cofrin turned the idea into reality — and on Dec. 5, 1990, he stood at the Metrodome door as skaters arrived for the first Rollerdome session. "The first day we had 175 skaters," Cofrin recalls. "For the next 10 days, it grew at a rate of 50 skaters a day. At that point, we knew we had something that was going to work." Today, the Rollerblade Rollerdome will mark the start of its 16th season. And while parts of the inline industry are struggling, the Rollerdome is still going strong. During the last 15 years, more than half a million people have skated Rollerdome sessions, Cofrin says. Last year, there were 24,570 — or an average of 351 skaters per session. Already this year, 200 skaters have paid for season tickets at $169 a pop. But the Rollerdome hasn't only provided Twin City skaters with a winter haven. It's also supported a healthy skate business, which has spawned two successful events: the Saint Paul and Metrodome inline marathons. Olson's Rollerdome vision has clearly succeeded ... but only in Minneapolis. Stadiums in Seattle and Indianapolis both tried Rollerdomes of their own. But they quickly abandoned the idea when too few skaters laced up. The only place where the concept caught on outside of Minneapolis — at least for a while — was at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan.
Stadium owners hoped the skate sessions would help pay the bills after the Detroit Lions moved to a new stadium in 2002. But the trickle of revenue from skate sessions and special events wasn't enough, and the Silverdome shut its doors last year and is now slated for demolition. The Rollerdome appears to be another one of those "only in Minnesota" ideas, which haunt the inline skate industry. Cofrin, who owns Rollerdome, Inc., says he doubts the concept would work anywhere else right now. "For something like this to work, you have to be in a community with a high propensity for skating," he says. "And there's no where else with more of a propensity than here." Related link: Latest headlines
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Copyright © 2006 by Robert Burnson | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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