50' Indoor Pool - What's Your Best Management Strategies

[Oldbear]

SB,

There is a public pool in Montreal that is 50' (15m) deep that is still under threat of being closed. Through a petition action there appears to be a reprieve on closing the pool and a consultation group is being formed to explore its future.

Please list your suggestion for the pool's future. Help give the local diving community suggestions that they might be successful at the consultation group.


If you had access to such a pool how would you like to use it?

If you managed such a pool, how would you do it so that it is used to its fullest potential?



Here are some of my suggestions:

1. Hire a pool director that will actively promote the pool within the diving community.
2. Develop Scuba Camps for children that incorporate both diving and marine ecology subjects. Hold these camps throughout the year for different age groups. For the younger children snorkeling can still be fun in the pool too.
3. Partner with a reputable dive training center to offer "specialized" diving courses, e.g. technical courses. But I would not give exclusive usage/training rights/privileges to only one dive center. As a public pool everyone should have access to the pool.
4. Promote the diving through local Universities and colleges that might have student scuba diving clubs.
5. Start a diving club at the pool itself. Bring in guest speakers each month and hold a fun dive.
6. Have monthly skills completion for divers…most divers love to get wet and I think many would love a friendly completion. An example might be an underwater Poker or Blakjack Tournament with proceeds going to Olympic Athletes (play cards at a table with no chairs...just trim and hover).

I know with the the briliant minds on SB there has to be more ideas out there. Lets help the Montreal Diving Community save this truly unique pool.


Here is the original thread with a little more details about the pool and the legal petition on the 3rd page.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ea...deep-indoor-pool-shut-down-3.html#post6610107


~Oldbear~

 

[Mimal]

Hi Oldbear. I haved dived at this pool 4-5 times before and I must say that it is a real treat for anyone living close to Montreal. The gov't recently officially announced that they will be closing the pool and converting it to allow 30,000 kids to use it annually, as opposed to a few hundred scuba divers. It's unfortunate and sad for all scuba divers, but especially for those who live close by such as me but its a numbers game. If you understand french, this is their communication link: Fermeture du bassin de plongée sous-marine - RIO ? The Régie des installations olympiques - Olympic Park of Montreal

---------- Post added January 20th, 2013 at 07:38 AM ----------

Sorry Oldbear. I haven't had my coffee yet and I'm not thinking straight - I should have read the very recent update news before sending my posting. I now realize that after officially announcing the closing and transforming of the Olympic Bassin Pool, given the recent and constant pressure from many scuba divers, the gov't has recently accepted to hold a consultative process to see what could be done with the pool. This explains your above request for ideas from the diving community. I know that there is a scuba diving company that coordinates all diving for the Olympic Bassin and they offer many training courses. I think the problem is more in that there is a lack of promotion. There are many divers in the Montreal area who don't dive at the pool because they simply don't think of going there. The last time I dived there was a few months ago and the parking was a real mess, because of the construction on-site. Usually its not that bad. A better job promoting would include hiring of someone full-time who would be dedicated to promoting the Olympic Bassin. Target groups would include existing diving community, dive shops, initiating diving in schools, specialized training courses, police and military training, etc... Unfortunately, we will still be up against a numbers game. If other divers help our community influence our gov't to find a new mission for this amazing place to dive, we may be successful. It would be a real shame.

 

[MichelG]

Like said above the promotion of the site is a big problem. The accessibility is too, when you want to dive say... friday, you have to call on... (I don't remember well) tuesday , not before. So that means that if you want to go diving with some friends that live out of town in 2 weeks, you can't secure a spot, you might call on tuesday and there's no spots left anymore when you call. I don't know of a lot of businesses that does that kind of crap if they want to stay in business. And after that they say that there's not enough people using the pool...
That said it's a very nice place to dive, especially to learn and try new stuff, and it should stay open but managed in a better way.

 

[Mimal]

The pool is very popular - In fact as mentioned by MichelG you have to call to reserve your spot(s) and yes, its a drag to have to call days in advance to ensure your spot(s). If however management eliminated the need to reserve your spot(s) at the pool, could you imagine that most of us would be refused entrance to the pool, as there are just too many divers who use the pool for diving. Its certainly a drag to have to reserve but I'd rather do so than be refused entrance after carrying my gear for 10 mins from the parking lot. The problem is that its purely a financial numbers game. The Montreal diving community is up against the alternative of converting the pool to serve 30,000 kids every year, as opposed to serving a few hundred scuba divers. We need to find a special niche for the Olympic Bassin, and that is why we need divers to assist in the wave of suggesting ideas or a special mission that can assigned to our Olympic Bassin Pool to ensure its continued existance in serving the diving community for many years ahead, otherwise we will lose it and good luck if you wish to re-open it to divers after the fact. There is still time from what I understand. Get involved.

 

[Diver0001]

Whenever I hear things like this the first question I have is why they aren't making money now.

There has to be a reason. Is the location bad? are there restrictions on usage, for example, restrictions on opening hours? Are the rental costs in line with what clubs can pay? Do they have recurring expenses that are hard to cover? etc. etc. etc. In other words, aside from "usage" then whole business case needs to be looked at. Costs and Income.

I think some of the ideas above are interesting but if they said "30,000" kids because they're thinking "30,000" operational hours @ X dollars per hour then what you need is a proposal that will generate at least that much income or to generate the same income at lower cost (or risk) to the owners than having 30,000 kids running around.

Frankly, to the owners of the pool it probably doesn't matter if you're diving, teaching synchronized swimming or having squirt gun fights. Don't focus so much on what you want to do with it (at first). First you have to convince them that your business proposal generates the kind of income they want to see. If your diving activities don't bring in enough income to keep it exclusively reserved for divers (which I think is the case when I see a picture with a handful of divers in the pool) then I would lobby to have certain blocks of time (for example from 9-11 PM) set aside for dive clubs to rent, assuming clubs will actually rent those times. That way the kids can have their 30,000 hours and the pool could be used for training when the kids are in bed. The owners could be open to that because it will mean more operational hours and more $$$.

One major modification to the pool will also be necessary. The 5m shelf needs to be cut in 1/2 and 1/2 of that shelf needs a floor at 150cm. Without that you can't do any Open Water training in that pool because there is nowhere to do skills that need to be done in "shallow" water. That forms a major limitation to the reasons why a club might want to rent time (especially later in the evening). This limitation might need to be addressed in the business case if you need them to invest in a modification to make your plan viable.

R..

 

[chillyinCanada]

Diver0001, the pool will not be shared in it's current state. The intention is to replace it in it's entirety to a Moe conventional pool for swimming and swimming lessons. The current pool is not condusive in that regard. What I don't know is whether or not diving boards are in place. One would think that there are high diving programs that could compliment the pool budget?

 

[Zen Diving Inc.]

Wow! Thats a nice pool... If had something like that here its would be booked out 6months... I would have to hire staff to work a grave yard shift to accommodate everyone... Not sure what the overhead head is like at that place but I would have NP charging 20 per student per day here.

 

[Diver0001]

Diver0001, the pool will not be shared in it's current state. The intention is to replace it in it's entirety to a Moe conventional pool for swimming and swimming lessons. The current pool is not condusive in that regard. What I don't know is whether or not diving boards are in place. One would think that there are high diving programs that could compliment the pool budget?

I see. The problem with diving or high-diving activities is that they're niche sports as compared to swimming or swimming lessons generally.

But you know..... if they *are* planning on replacing the entire pool then the thing to do, really, is to be involved in the function design of the new one so that you have influence over the form and it can be used for more purposes. Swimming lessons, diving, high-diving, water polo.... you name it. Judging by the picture alone, this pool isn't much good for training new divers. It might be cool that it's nice and deep but from where I'm sitting (I obviously have no emotional attachment), it could be a lot better.

If they're willing to invest then don't resist them, become a partner.

R..

 

[vladimir]

I see. The problem with diving or high-diving activities is that they're niche sports as compared to swimming or swimming lessons generally.

But you know..... if they *are* planning on replacing the entire pool then the thing to do, really, is to be involved in the function design of the new one so that you have influence over the form and it can be used for more purposes. Swimming lessons, diving, high-diving, water polo.... you name it. Judging by the picture alone, this pool isn't much good for training new divers. It might be cool that it's nice and deep but from where I'm sitting (I obviously have no emotional attachment), it could be a lot better.

If they're willing to invest then don't resist them, become a partner.

R..

I'm curious—what would your ideal scuba diving pool look like?

 

[nimoh]

I think it would be fun to dive in a pool like that, however I would not be willing to pay extra to use it.

I generally use a pool to practice basic skills, and don't really need anything deeper than 15'. I would prefer a larger area than what the picture shows, but what is shown is fine as long as the number of divers is limited.

My ideal scuba diving pool (i.e. money is no object) would be 50' deep, contain an artificial reef and be stocked with tropical fish. However, if diving in this pool was $200/hour, I probably wouldn't use it.