Sports & Fitness NSW Please help save Macquarie Centre Ice skating rink

Hi all.
Yes... Long post.

There is a much loved ice skating rink at Macquarie Centre North Ryde that's been open for 39 years. (1980, I believe it's an original facility from when Macquarie Centre opened).

The management of Macquarie Centre had proposed to make the ice skating rink a lot smaller as part of an "upgrade" to the centre in order to make the access to the transport interchange better.

The local community has been horrified at the thought of losing the rink.

And the rinks' owner apparently spent 3.5 million to upgrade the rink just a year ago, and he had no idea that these changes to the rink was in the plans of the shopping centre.

Lots of people use the ice rink, and when working at the centre I used to enjoy watching the skaters while eating at the food court or from the McDonald's any time of the day but I particularly liked do watch in the early morning when the elite skaters train (occasionally my Big W shift meant I was there at odd hours).

The rink is used to develop elite skaters, however it's also the home ground for 2 ice hockey teams, (ok, its not a huge sport in Australia, but we really should be able to provide venues so people can play the sports they love) and it's entertainment and skills development for plenty of young people.

We lost the Putt 'n Games at Ermington recently, and the Roller skating rink at Carlingford Village is long gone. We don't want to lose all the "fun" local attractions from this area.

Currently, due to the community pressure, AMP have decided to hold off submitting their DA to Ryde Council for now (yay!) but we still need as much community support as possible in order to save the rink.

If you are wondering, I learnt to ice skate there when I ended up doing ice skating as part of school sport 29.5 years ago. (That training served me well as a few years later I ended up playing Ice soccer against someone much more accustomed to ice in Switzerland.)

Anyway, if you would like to sign a petition, here's a link, and please share!
https://www.change.org/p/macquarie-shopping-centre-save-macquarie-ice-rink

Thank you for giving me your time for reading this.

We need things for kids to do to keep them from participating in antisocial behaviour, keep them from just watching TV, the internet or playing video games all day long. The populating in the local area is growing immensely with lots more apartments.

Locally there is a real lack of sporting venues - I know for volleyball we struggle to secure venues for training. We compete against Basketball and many other sports to secure venue space. Also, (this is off topic) for unicycle hockey our "venue" is under threat with the plans for powerhouse museum to move to Western Sydney. We simply need spaces for people young and old to participate in sporting activities.

Thank you for reading, please sign and share the petition to keep the rink!

#bethechangeyouwanttoseeintheworld.

 

Add your weight to the petition...still more support needed.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...edevelopment-on-thin-ice-20190118-p50sai.html

 

And... Just in from the Macquarie ice rink Facebook page.

IMPORTANT..........

We are not an angry protest group. We understand people are emotional and angry about what has happened. But we ask that you remember that we are a family community and request that you remain calm tomorrow and support us in the manner of which we have handled this so far, calmly and with dignity. As you are all hopefully aware AMP have announced they are delaying their application to the council.

AMP are due to have their development plans on display tomorrow on level 3 of the shopping centre. As it is not in council submissions to the council are not the way to go just yet. We are asking that you and everyone you know goes to the display and asks the questions.

Especially anyone you know who lives in the Ryde area to do the following:

TOMORROWS PLAN (URGENT).....
PHASE 1 Level 3 Macquarie Centre between 10am to 1pm

Please as many people as possible they are not expecting it.

STAY CALM we understand you are all emotional BUT it is imperative that we are seen to be a concerned family community not an aggressive bunch of protestors.

ASK THE QUESTIONS:
- Where is the Olympic Size Ice Rink going to be.

- A recreational sized facility will not meet the needs of the local community.

- People will be turned away.
I'm sure you get the idea and each of you has your own reason for wanting the full size to remain.

PHASE 2 (ASAP)

* Go onto Macquarie Shopping Centre website. In the "redevelopment" area there is a place to submit questions.

Have it bombarded:
- Where is the Olympic Size Ice Rink going to be.

- A recreational sized facility will not meet the needs of the local community.

- People will be turned away. One more thing.

This was sent to me in a letter and I believe a very important note that can be used.

On the AMP Capital website it states your "purpose is to deliver places that inspire people to connect.

It also states your approach is to create "unique and authentic destinations that are the heart or our communities...to welcome our customers with distinctive and customised experiences that create much-loved places they want to return to again and again."

Macquarie Ice Rink has already and continues to fulfil this goal and vision for AMP Capital. Macquarie Ice Rink is much loved by the community and an experience that you can not experience anywhere else locally.

Have your say here
Macquarie Centre Redevelopment - Macquarie Centre Redevelopment
(I have put my comments on there)

 

Petition signed - I learnt to skate there!

 

Thank you!
I think a lot of us learnt to skate there!
I've always lived in the area. I reckon if that ice rink wasn't there, then quite possibly I never would have learnt.

 

I wish people did this with all the roller rinks that have been lost over the decades! I remember quite a number that closed and it was heartbreaking as we literally grew up in some - one my parents owned and we actually lived there!

If you haven't guessed by the name, myself and whole family did (roller) figure skating at an international level. I was first on skates at 15 months old (if I remember correctly, @skater can probably clarify that one) and now am still involved in the sport 25+ years later.

Signing the petition too, even though roller is totally superior

In all seriousness though, I adore ice as well and all skaters deserve to keep their rink, whether they're just starting out or they're at an elite level.

 

Great stuff. Thanks Sam, particularly as I know you don't even live in Sydney.
But imagine, it would be a real shame if your own kids or grandkids couldn't access any skating rinks because all the venues were forced to shut down!

 

Well, I don't live in Sydney anymore - but was my stomping ground for a long time

Absolutely think it's worth supoorting, growing up there were so many rinks that shut down around us and it sucked. We'd go there as kids and I know Mum and Dad have plenty of photos of us at these various rinks (and we even had photos in the cabinets at said rinks too!), and we'll never be able to visit them again or take B there either. Disappointing.

 

The issue is that the government don’t provide for these sports, both ice and roller, and they have to be supported by private enterprise. They don’t bring enough money through the door to really make them a viable business.

In many European Countries they have outdoor facilities for roller much like we have soccer fields, but in Australia it’s not looked at as a serious sport, so we struggle with inferior facilities and price gouging because we need to hire indoor sport facilities so skaters can get experience on large floors. Skaters often don’t get a chance to reach their potential as they don’t get enough floor time, coaches and students are left in the lurch when venues close. Good coaches in outlying areas loose their credentials as there’s no facilities, then years later if one opens up the coach just cant be bothered getting them back, as they know the venue won’t survive.

Sefton has a purpose built roller skating rink. Bankstown Council has leased it to a Community group who use it once a week for two hours, and won’t allow any tuition. This is a crime!

 

We have issues with indoor venues too. I'm a member of Sydney North Volleyball and manage some of their competitions. For volleyball we need courts to hire for competitions and training. Ryde council opened RCSC (Ryde Community Sports Centre) in 2011. Management had to be tendered for it. The YMCA won that. Then the YMCA filled it with a basketball programme and what not. Within 2 years my womens's volleyball competition was pushed out of the venue by the YMCA!

My Sunday night competition (7-9pm Sunday nights) had to play at 3 different venues last competition on different weeks as we couldn't get full consistency in court hire. It's a nightmare. It's really hard to secure timeslots at venues, and there's competition from other sports for hiring time.

My Wednesday night volleyball comp had previously hired 2 courts 7.30-10.30pm. The competition entries went down, so we downsized to 1 court. Then entries dropped again. We hired 1 court 7.30-9.30pm. Then in a future season we got more entries. However we were unable to get the 9.30pm-10.30pm time slot again as basketball hired the court. So then we couldn't allow additional teams to rejoin the comp and teams got turned away. Which is bad all round.
Now, we also have a rep programme, and then there have been times when the rep teams cannot train as the court hire is hard to secure. So it's squeezed in whereever possible. Not good.

Just securing court time is simply so difficult.

Re:Sefton.... Yep, so does that mean that rink is only used 2 hours a week? Wow. Actually a venue like that would be perfect for my unicycle hockey guys, they also need a good place to play/train, but perhaps not in Sefton.

 

I learned to roller skate on an outdoor, council owned, rink in Hervey Bay in Queensland while holidaying there.
Marg

 

Sounds like our community have won. Yay!

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