Smithfield on Ice, what a con..

ApeXaviour

Firstly it's a disgrace that this country doesn't have one permanent ice-rink, let alone a full-size one. Now smithfield on ice (http://www.smithfieldonice.ie/gpic5.html) is little more than a sh1tty outdoor frozen puddle. Yet they charge €14 for 1 hour of prebooked ticketed skating! FFS you'd swear it was a bloody theatrical event! This is what's called milking a monopoly. They are making an absolute bomb as it costs pittance by comparison to maintain the ice, seriously..

I was in Canada of recent and went for a saturday afternoon 2 hour recreational skating session. How much did it cost me? $3CND (about €2). Now granted I had my own skates, but to rent was only another $3. And this was a proper affair in a proper sports and leisure centre in it's own dedicated all-year-round building.


Anyone know if smithfield offer a discount if you have your own skates? They mention nothing of it on the website, seems they just assume they'll have to lend you some..

Sparky

i do think the prices are mad but, think of public liability insurance for an outdoor event in this country, maybe that would explain the high price.

Red Alert

i smashed my knee bad the christmas before last - i did get a good bit of sympathy tho'!

ApeXaviour

Sparky_S wrote:

i do think the prices are mad but, think of public liability insurance for an outdoor event in this country, maybe that would explain the high price.

I don't think that's an issue at all really:

Entry to Smithfield On Ice (the Event) shall be deemed to constitute un-qualified acceptance of all these conditions...

...Patrons assume all risk of injury and all responsibility for property loss, destruction or theft and release the management of the Event, its sponsors and agents from any liability...

AndyWarhol

Yeah it's a bit of a con all right. I generally find that the whole place is crawling with screaming kids with rough Dublin accents.

iguana

The place in Smithfield is really awful, the last time I was there 2 years ago there were holes all over the ice. I nearly tripped in one which was bigger than my foot so I asked my friend to stand by it while I got someone who worked there to come see it.

Their reaction was to stand by it for 10 minutes and then go away without fixing it or cordoning it off. The one in the RDS is normally maintained better but last year when I went there I had to leave after about 15 minutes because of dangerous overcrowding.

Luckily I now live in London quite near a pretty great year round rink. During the summer you can get a full days unlimited access & skate hire for £3/4. And reasonably priced figure skating lessons each evening.

kmart6

I was at the one in the RDS last Christmas and it was a bloody disgrace!!!
Puddles of water all over the place and all they use to do to solve the problem was push it to the sides.

The workers were more interested in the skates my sister's boyfriend was wearing cause he is from Canada and has proper profssional skates. They just stared at him in aww!!!!

whiskeyman

ApeXaviour wrote:

Yet they charge €14 for 1 hour of prebooked ticketed skating! FFS you'd swear it was a bloody theatrical event! This is what's called milking a monopoly.

Cant really be called a monopoly as there's no real restrictions to the market, and that one at the RDS will be there too.
They charge such a high price because demand is there... simple as that. Like so many "rip-offs" in this country, people are willing to pay an excessive price for a not up-to-standard product/service.
Fair play to them.. they're probably making a fortune :rolleyes:

snorlax

i think the student price might be slightly less

Binomate

Why would anyone want to go and slide around on some ice for an hour in the first place?

ApeXaviour

snorlax wrote:

i think the student price might be slightly less

It's €9.50 but only on weedays between 10 and 16.30

Why would anyone want to go and slide around on some ice for an hour in the first place?

Apart from it being great excercise, great fun a great rush and requiring skill, you also get to go really really fast unassisted and it looks cool..

The workers were more interested in the skates my sister's boyfriend was wearing cause he is from Canada and has proper profssional skates.

Heheh I was actually unaware of the one in the RDS tbh. When is it on? What are the prices? Yeah my canadian cousin is a professional hockey player and gave me his old $500 skates there a few weeks back, legend he is..

ixoy

Personally I think it should be shut down on health grounds. That and it's going to piss me off mightily given it's right outside my window...

jonny68

AndyWarhol wrote:

rough Dublin accents.

southsider are we are something :rolleyes:

kmart6

ApeXaviour wrote:

Heheh I was actually unaware of the one in the RDS tbh. When is it on? What are the prices? Yeah my canadian cousin is a professional hockey player and gave me his old $500 skates there a few weeks back, legend he is..

Not being smart or anything but I'd say around Christmas time and I dont have a clue what the price is,sorry!!!

Yeah hes a size 12 I think and wears size 4 skates,its unreal and he's class at it.

AndyWarhol

jonny68 wrote:

southsider are we are something :rolleyes:

Trust someone to bring up the cliched north-south geographical divide. Yawn.

Saruman

Pigsback usually have a 2 for 1 special offer for RDS. I used a couple of times last year.

That said we should have at least one permanent rink. Look at Belfast, its about the only good thing about Belfast but the Arena is class and they even have an ice-hockey ream

gonker

Pigsback have got a two for one offer at the moment