Dave Alley
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – A longtime skating rink in Santa Maria is facing potential closure later this year.
“It’s in jeopardy,” said Tobin Flamm, Central Coast Sports Arena co-owner. “If we don’t figure out what we’re going to do by October, we will likely be closing.”
Central Coast Sports Arena, which has operated at the Santa Maria Fairpark since 1997, will have its current lease end in just over four months.
“Their lease is due in October,” said Santa Maria Fairpark Interim CEO Todd Ventura. “We’ve given them a model that if they can get there, then they’re more than welcome to stay.”
However, Sports Arena ownership said it may not be able to financially reach a deal with the Fairpark, which may cause the family-owned business to shut down permanently.
“It’s a pivotal moment,” said Flamm. “There’s been a lot of uncertainty, and it’s been very difficult to absorb and I’m still absorbing this.”
Ventura said the Sports Arena lease has been undervalued for years and has made an effort to work with its ownership to come up with a new deal that makes better financial sense for the Fairpark.
“Everything we do is self-funded here,” said Ventura. “We have to look at market value on all of our properties, all of our buildings, all of our rentals, everything, and that’s the one obvious area that we’ve been coming up short. it’s just the finances, you know, we’re just really driven by the finances of the Fairpark. It takes a lot to operate this place and we have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure we’re doing the job.”
With its lease soon expiring, Sports Arena ownership is now reaching out to the public and is seeking assistance from the community in an effort to find a new place to relocate, or to find a way to extend its lease with the Fairpark.
A “Save Our Rink” campaign is now underway with a stated goal to find a new home before the current lease expires.
“We just want to spread the message and make sure the community is aware of what’s going on and try to see what they can do to help,” said Flamm. “If we decide on relocating to another facility, we need assistance and building a team around us that can help us with making a better decision for relocating the business. We would like to keep the business open and we would like to relocate, but we can’t do it ourselves.”
With the effort now underway, ownership is the process of actively looking at existing facility, commercial and warehouse properties, sponsorship opportunities, community partnerships, as well as funding and investment solutions.
“It’s very difficult,” said Flamm. “I’ve been making contact with agencies and property managers to see what we can do to relocate. It’s a very difficult facility to find that’s available right now, and so we need we need support with people and business people that can help us either find an available property or building that can house such a business model.”
At the same time the Sports Arena is looking at potential new sites, the Fairpark is also exploring new options for the 19,000 square foot building, which is the largest facility on the 34 acre property.
“We have already had an interested party come in and offer us more in just capital improvements than our entire contract with the Central Coast Sports Arena, in exchange for using the building four times a year and doing a revenue split with us for the events that they put on,” said Ventura. “I’m not really at liberty to talk about who and what, but financially it puts us significantly ahead of where we are.”
Should the Sports Arena close or leave, Ventura added a reimagined usage for the building may have a different business model than it currently has.
“It’s not going to necessarily be somebody who has that building day after day, month after month for a long term contract,” said Ventura. “It may look more like an interim type situation where it’s a promoter, for example, who might be putting on different indoor concerts in a building of that size, where we can attract different types of entertainment, whether it be comedic or bands, etc. in a building of that size, indoors. It really gives us a lot of variety that we can program into the building and it opens up a world of opportunities for us as a whole.”
Another usage Ventura spoke about is the potential for a new partnership with the City of Santa Maria to create new recreational opportunities.
“There is some impetus where we might be able to partner with the City of Santa Maria and do indoor pickleball courts,” said Ventura. “That’s a win for everybody. The City wins because they’re always being pushed for more open space, more usable field space, more larger, more diverse buildings to do volleyball, pickleball, indoor soccer, all those kinds of things, and all of those are on the table as we continue to work closely with the City and the Chamber of Commerce. It really gives us a lot of variety that we can program into the building.”
While the Sports Arena has been in business since 1997, the building has been home to roller skating dating back to the 1950s.
Currently, the building is used as an inline skating rink for youth and adult hockey leagues, the Cal Poly club hockey team, as well as recreational skating.
Flamm estimated about 1,000 people use the rink each rink.
“We’re the only indoor skating and hockey rink on the Central Coast,” said Flamm. “The local the closest hockey rink that’s indoor is San Jose and LA. We have youth learn to skate, learn to play programs open to all ages. We have tournament teams. We even have professional high end tournament teams come in and travel and compete here. We have public skates, birthday parties. We host private skating events. We also do a lot of stuff with the local schools and churches.”
Those who use the rink are hoping it will be saved in some capacity, either remaining at the Fairpark or in a new location.
“It would be a huge loss,” said Brittany Anderson-Cain, who has a 12-year-old son and husband that play hockey in the arena. “The uncertainty is really upsetting for all of us, but if we reach out to the community and enough people know about it, then all the support will come in and support it so that we don’t lose something so unique and important to the community.”
However the final outcome turns out, Ventura praised the Sports Arena for its longtime contributions to the Santa Maria Valley and Central Coast, and should a deal not materialize, emphasized it will be due to the Board of Directors making a financially driven decision for the longevity and the health of the Fairpark.
“The Central Coast Sports Arena is an icon on the Santa Maria community and really up and down the coast,” said Ventura. “We wish him the best of luck. They’re great people. They’ve been here a long time. They really do offer a service to our community. We wish them nothing but the best of luck. We just want to make sure that the fairgrounds has longevity and we’re putting on programing for our community that is appropriate and going to be here for a while.”
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