Elected Member Briefing - Engagement and conclusions on ice provision

About this Briefing Note

Report by: Stephen Crawford, Strategic Lead - Property Services

Date: 30 August 2024

Subject: Summary of engagement and conclusions regarding ice provision in Perth

Responsible Officer: John Fyfe, Principal Officer (Project Management)

Details

Purpose

To provide Elected Members with a summary of the key outcomes of engagement with Scottish Curling, sportscotland, Perth Curling 1988 and World Curling, to provide further context to the recommendations on ice set out in Appendix E to the Perth City Integrated Investment Plan report which is to be considered by Council on 4 September 2024.

Briefing Information

Background

In January 2024 Council instructed officers to undertake further work on curling usage, market trends and affordability including curling demand and usage for 2023/24 and consideration of growth opportunities for curling. Officers were instructed to include an ice rink component within a costed PH2O proposal to be brought to Council in August, now September 2024, including options for hosting curling competitions at national and internationally level. 

Officers did not consider options or develop ice hockey as there is not considered a demand for ice hockey in Perth.

The following organisations attended 5 engagement meetings with Officers and Leisure Consultants Integratis:

• Scottish Curling 
• Perth Curling 1988 
• World Curling
• sportscotland

The above met with Perth and Kinross Council Officers and external consultants to consider curling (ice sport) demand/usage and viable business model options for PH2O, including income options over a 12-month period.

Curling demand

The following data is confirmed:

• 658 curling members in 2023 account for 80-90% of 11,112 curling visits in 2023/24 season to Dewars (source: Live Active Leisure income records), plus approximately 5,288 visits to events a year, providing a 2023/24 total income of £178,428. Approximately 1,000 of the visits were from school age participants, 20% of members are from outside Perth and Kinross. Curling accounts for approximately 80% of Dewars Centre's user base.
• Officers disagreed with Perth Curling's estimates of current usage/ activity and projections which were considerably higher than the LAL records.
• Data from Scottish Curling identified 467 new members in 2023 and 327 members left the club. The average membership length is 3.16 years.
• Total curling utilisation of Dewars is inefficient at approximately 20%, resulting in a significant operating deficit. Morning/ after-school use has showed increases, afternoon usage is declining, most spare ice time is during the daytime circa 83%. The current large scale 8-lane facilities at Dewars are most heavily used in the early weekday evenings, with low usage at all other times.

• There is currently a 27-week curling and skating season from September to March. Options to extend this marginally were recommended by Scottish Curling. The curling season is at most 6 months with no demand across 12 months. Local private and community models operate on this basis.
• It was proposed by Perth Curling that charges could likely be raised by Live Active Leisure 10-25% without significant impact on participation.
• Scottish Curling/ Perth Curlers indicated that if PH2O were constructed with ice, but there was a closure of ice for a number of seasons then significant numbers of current curlers would likely not return.
• Scottish Curling have provided data which shows that across Scotland national curling membership has been in decline since 2010, mirroring Perth's membership figures. While membership does not equal participation, as noted above there is a clear correlation locally with Perth members representing 80-90% of users of the curling facilities at Dewars.

Growth potential

The Scottish Curling national target for participation increase is 6% per annum. A 6% rise in usage from the 11,112 visits in 2023/24 translates to 666 additional visits. Options to support this ambition were considered to be: 

• Attract more curling events. However as with other types of sporting events, there is an expectation of a major financial contribution from the hosts for national and international curling events. Hosting is not guaranteed due to the bidding process. 
  • The overall business case for PH2O is focused on delivering a community facility which meets local community usage demands rather than creating an events/performance centre space. The recommended ice-lane options to support international events have however been built into the options detailed in Appendix E of the report to Council.
  • During the 2023/24 season, Dewars hosted 9 curling competitions over the course of 26 weekends, with 4 of these events being exclusive curling club weekends. 
• Build an April to August revenue generation plan.
• Extend current 27-week ice season to 30 weeks.

World Curling hosting requirements

While, as noted above there has been no intention to host international events built into the direction of Council on PH2O, to allow full consideration of what that might entail officers have investigated the requirements from World Curling (formerly World Curling Federation) for an event venue. A similar bidding process for national events is followed for determinations by Scottish Curling.

The existing Dewars Centre is recognised as a high-profile events centre. As previously noted all events are awarded following a 'bids' process and so there are no guarantees that annual or regular events would be awarded to Perth. Also as previously noted the costs of staging an event are onerous and have not been incorporated into the revenue costs of PH2O to date.

World Curling has bidding guidelines for any host site of a World Curling event. The bid has to be submitted with written approval by the host's World Curling Affiliate National Curling Associate/ Federation, which would be Scottish Curling for any bid to bring an event to Perth and Kinross.

The guidelines state a major contribution to the successful outcome of a bid would be evidence of support, both financially and value in kind, of Government and other agencies, tourist organisations, etc. 

The guidelines outline the principal financial contributions for the Organising Committee (OC) of a host site following negotiations and agreement: 

• World Curling will receive a percentage of any event profit.
• Any of the costs anticipated as a result of responsibilities listed in the bidding guidelines.
• Rental charges of ice arena/venue to cover ice preparation and competition.
• Organise Opening and Closing functions. Tickets to be made available at no charge (small charge negotiable).
• The bid shall include a budget (revenue and expenses), along with the proposed prices of game tickets and event packages.
• Provision of ground transportation at no charge between event hotels and venue, and hotel and the international airport.
• Public Liability and Cancellation Insurance for the event.

It should be noted that World Curling have always negotiated on an event-by-event basis the criteria above. However, these criteria provide an indication of the expectations/ responsibilities which would accompany hosting events.

Technical/ Financial

Scottish Curling funded a technical assessment of Dewars by a Canadian curling plant specialist. The report recommends different options to increase energy efficiency at Dewars including installation of an energy recovery condenser to integrate waste heat from the refrigeration system for use in the building. If ice provision is approved by Council energy recovery technology would likely be built into the technical solutions. 

Ice provision as part of an integrated leisure facility with other activities has significantly less operating costs than a standalone ice facility. Obvious front of house staffing efficiencies, significant energy efficiency and low staff management needs assist this. The major issue is the capital costs (and resultant annual borrowing) of the initial investment for a basic 3,000 sqm facility 6-lane facility at £10m-£15m to new/ current building standards.

Scottish Curling stand-alone operation

The above informed the PH2O operating model conclusions of officers that developed since January 2024 and which are detailed in Appendix E of the report submitted to Council. Scottish Curling were asked about potential interest in an operating model where either they as an organisation, or a community, operated Dewars (as per the user-led model outlined the options set out in the report submitted to Council). 

Scottish Curling were open to this option, however would expect capital and revenue support.