THUNDER BAY -- A late start to the season is being blamed for slumping usage of the waterfront rink.
Marina Park operations coordinator Kathy Ball said since opening in 2011 the waterfront rink has been extremely active.
“This season we are down a little bit,” Ball said. “I would say about 500 skaters on average from what we’ve seen in the past years.”
Ball added that the decrease in popularity could be the result of the rink opening a week later than usual due to the warm weather and rain the city had in November.
There were also some cold temperatures throughout December, which kept skaters from coming to the rink as well.
“We are down a little bit, but basically we are right on average to what we’ve had over the years,” Ball said.
The rink was opened from Christmas through to the New Year and Ball said they were pleased with the number of people who came and skated late into the evenings.
As the holiday season wraps up Ball believes the rinks popularity will increase once again.
The first year the city saw about 24,000 skaters. Since then it has dropped a little bit, but they average somewhere between 18,000 and 20,000 skaters from Nov. 15 to March 15.
“We are pretty happy with the numbers and people using the park,” Ball said.
“Previously, nobody came down because there was nothing to do in the winter time and now there’s a lot of activities.”
Ball said so far, they’ve seen about 3,700 skaters coming through this season.
