Weather, economy hold down pool attendance

Municipal swimming pool revenues might have weathered the bad economy better this year if only the summer had been, well, more summery.

Not that area cities had a bad season in pool attendance, but officials still cannot help but think about what might have been.

“June was the best June we’ve had in almost 10 years. With those very good numbers we were very excited about how the season would play out,” said Chris Engel, assistant to the city administrator in Prairie Village. “But July came along, and it started out OK, but then the numbers really started to drop off. I’m sure we can correlate it with the weather.”

Officials in several other cities also reported big June attendance figures. But thanks to a lot of unseasonably cool and wet days, the most common dive witnessed at pools during the last two months of operation was not the belly flop but a revenue drop.

“I was really expecting attendance to be less, because July and August were extremely chilly,” said Lenexa Recreation Superintendent Jim Finlen.

Still, officials are not willing to put all the blame on Mother Nature. They believe the economy almost surely played a role in keeping numbers down.

Most Johnson County cities had either slight increases or slight decreases in attendance compared to last year, but Merriam was a big exception. The city saw its attendance rise by about 20 percent overall despite increases in admission fees. Parks Director Susan Hayden credits part of that jump to a new five-city program that allowed more non-Merriam residents to have open access to the pool.

While attendance changes in most cases were modest, concession stand revenues sunk significantly in many cases.

Even Merriam, with its big bump in attendance, had a 12 percent decline in concession sales. Prairie Village pool attendance dropped 1.8 percent, but concession sales declined about 12 percent. Overland Park’s overall attendance was down about 3 percent while concessions were off almost 16 percent.

Pool officials believe a combination of factors caused the decreases.

Engel said many patrons might have come to the pool despite cool weather, but were less apt to want or need a cooling drink or ice cream treat.

Bryan Toben, aquatic supervisor in Overland Park, theorized that the city’s $1 bump in most admission fees might have led to lower concession sales.

“We think Mom might drop off the kids at the pool and give them $10 to spend just like last year. So, since they spent more to get in they had less to spend on concessions,” Toben said.

He agreed, however, that cool weather could have been a factor as well.

Hayden also believes higher pool entry fees in her city left less money for visitors to spend on concessions. The unwillingness to buy treats, she and Toben both said, also was quite likely a symptom of the economy.

Hayden also said the Merriam pool changed and reduced what it offered at the concession stand, and some patrons might not have been satisfied with the selections available.

In Fairway, the trend was much the same, with attendance up 18 percent in June from a year ago but down about 12 percent in July and August.

Parks and Recreation Director Nathan Nogelmeier said he agrees that the weather and the recession probably teamed up to keep pool receipts from being higher.

Lenexa has not yet compiled all year-end pool totals, but preliminary calculations showed attendance for the year was down about 3 percent compared to 2008.

Cities participating for the first time this year in a new Super Pass program were pleased with the results.

People buying season passes in five cities were given the option of paying slightly more for the Super Pass, which gave them open access to pools in all participating cities.

Hayden said she believes Super Pass customers were a major reason Merriam saw its attendance increase so much.

Cities in the program, which was initiated by Prairie Village, also included Fairway, Mission and Roeland Park.

Nogelmeier said he anticipated that about 30 percent of patron card purchasers would pay the extra fee for a Super Pass. Instead, 60 percent chose to do so. Visits to the Fairway pool by non-resident Super Pass holders accounted for about 7.5 percent of the season’s total attendance, he said.

Engel said officials from participating cities will meet soon to discuss results of the program and decide whether to continue it.

Based on the numbers and comments, Engel said he anticipates the Super Pass will come back next year. In fact, it could grow.

“We heard feedback from other cities asking if they could get involved in that program,” said Engel, who is unsure whether expansion would be an appealing idea for those now involved.

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