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| Zamboni machines don't need drivers |
Compared to other sports such as skiing, it's a bargain thanks to city generous subsidies, as a kid gets about 70 hours on the ice time for about $400.
Compare that to something like gymnastics where a comparable course costs about $2,000.
Governments allot resources to sports without much rigorous thought or discussion and it's not only in the form of cash handouts.
As we've repeatedly noted, the once-green park near my home was sacrificed by municipal authorities for soccer and basketball (complete with fences), simply because some people showed up at a borough council meeting and pressure the elected officials to hand it over, as a result the neighbourhood is almost entirely without green space.
Indoor skating rinks are surely quite expensive, as they are always packed with staffers, including a zamboni driver, who seems to work about 11 minutes per hour. There's also a guy who comes out to move the nets forward a few feet once per hour to allow the driver to get by.
An fully-automatic zamboni would surely be an easy thing to produce, as the contraption takes the same course every time anyway. The nets could also be hooked up with a small motor that pushes it a few feet foward and then back into place for the few seconds the water truck goes by.
Those two small innovations could save something like $700 a day per rink, which would shave about $100,000 off the operating budget for each arena at the very least.
Usually those two guys are the maintenance workers for the rink so they're also cleaning the stands, dressing rooms, bathrooms, etc. while also maintaining the cooling machine and the zamboni itself. There is also more to running a zamboni than just driving it around the rink, it also needs to be emptied of snow after use and then it needs to be filled up with new water and gas and clogs of snow and ice need to be cleared.
ReplyDeleteHey, is that Doug Harvey Arena? I was there Sunday for free skate, (which actually costs adults $2.75).
ReplyDeleteAnywho, the nets are actually removed from the ice during free skate, and the net guy also shovels the ice that the Zamboni dumps in the corner.
I did spot the Zamboni driver (a woman) chatting with the arena attendants when I walked in. Not sure what work if any was going on.
-Kevin
Arenas are great facilities and full of very nice people but they're overstaffed.
ReplyDeleteThe zamboni drivers I've seen don't do other tasks. I've asked other employees what they do for the rest of the hour and it doesn't seem to be very much. Plus they get paid a higher wage, something like $30 an hour.
There are a lot of other hockey arena employees that seem to stand around and not do much of anything, so it could easily be better administered.
I am glad they have jobs and they seem like very nice people but the might be kept busy doing other tasks, like smacking down clumps of ice in front of the entrance etc.
And regading your comment, I don't think there are many gas powered zambonis going around these days by the way. There were too many air poisoning issues in the 90s. The only task that seems to really require manpower in the zamboni run is the shoveling of the last bits of slush thare are left on the ice after the clearing.
The refilling of the water could be done automatically.
Many car washes have far more elaborate systems, all of which are done by robotics.
Zamboni drivers routinely miss spots too and often pour way too much water on the ice, errors that wouldn't happen if the route were programmed in by computer.
Hockey Arenas-Libraries-Community Centres-Football,Baseball,Soceer Fields-out door skating rinks etc that are run towns/cities are not in it to make money they are given a budget to run at and hopefully they do not go over budget & if they do that is when you get cutbacks at that particular facilty or close it. It is for the public & basically a public service to the residents who pay taxes in their respective town/city.....
ReplyDeleteRoomba Zamboni?
ReplyDelete