Now that the ice has melted on the Fleet Skating Center the real fun can begin.
That’s not to say the season of long johns and wooly mittens wasn’t a blast for those who flocked to the latest proof of Providence’s revitalization. Indeed, the more than 82,000 skaters who paid almost $600,000 to take to its slippery surface attest to the fact. It’s just that winter doesn’t hold the potential of those warm spring and summer days and nights.
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To that end, marketers of the $3.7 million facility are putting the finishing touches on a plan that tests what Rhode Islanders want from their 75- by 185-foot concrete carpet.
The schedule in the making is a mix of the fresh and the predictable. Either way, Lee Esckilsen, executive director of both the skating rink and the Rhode Island Convention Center, predicts a positive outcome.
“I think people will be as surprised as they were with the success of the public ice skating,” he said. “I don’t think anyone predicted the demand we had for that.”
Nancy Derrig, superintendent of parks for the City of Providence, which owns the center, echoed Esckilsen.
“I think this year is really an experimental one. It’s up to us to try a variety of things and see where the audience really is,” Derrig said. “It’s sort of trailblazing here to see what works out well and what attracts a big audience.”
Sports, concerts and special events are all on the roster of possibilities.
Early last month, the rink opened to in-line skaters. The response has been heartening, according to Esckilsen. The center is working on radio station sponsorships featuring contests and prizes, he said.
Lunch-time concerts sponsored by the Parks Department and Ogden Entertainment, whom the City of Providence hired to manage the center, begin July 24 and continue through August 26.
A beach party is in the works, in which “we’re going to set up a beach in downtown Providence, essentially,” Esckilsen said.
A “rib fest” will bring purveyors of all that is barbecued and sticky to the rink for a taste-off in which the public will serve as judge.
On nights when the river plays host to Barnaby Evan’s Water Fire, the center will become a legal place for people to consume beer and wine out of doors but within the confines of the rink.
Money from those events and others will be funneled back into the rink, which is self-supporting. Another source of potential revenue is the renting of the facility to private parties.
A wedding on in-line skates?
“Sure,” said Esckilsen, adding that the sky’s the limit when it comes to the scope of the events that could take place at the rink. Between the concessions stand, the lighting and the sound system, “it’s a tremendously flexible place,” Esckilsen said.
