I am wondering how much other people have to pay for freestyles in their area and how long are the freestyles sessions? Does your rink offer contracts, seasonal, monthly and of course, they all have walk on rates
We travel to several rinks.
Home rink has several price options, but if you miss your freestyle, you loose your ice time, unless you are seriously sick. Regulation Size 12 week seasonal is $6.00 all are for 30 minutes sessions
Monthly is $7
Walk on is $8
Rink B we skate at sells stickers and they are $4.25 for 30 minutes and a walk on of $8 (??) These stickers usually have a two-month period before they expire. Regulation size
Rink C sells ten freestyles for $70 with no expropriation so that is $7 for 30 minutes 3/4 size
We have three other rinks not far off but their prices have eluded me. They too are all regulation size rinks

I ask this because the rinks keep telling us how "lucky" we are about our freestyle pricing. They are having to compete for the freestyle skaters and all threaten us that they will close the doors...........
What are your thoughts?

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Wow...why on earth do ALL these rinks allocate 30 minutes for a freestyle session? What does anyone have time to do in thirty minutes? I've never heard of that before. 45 minutes yeah, and an hour. But 30? These rinks are stingy. So you pay 12-14 bucks for the hour, that's a lot. :/

I can only speak with certainty about my home rink, but it is a full-size rink, and walk-on is $8 per hour (with 3 consecutive hours available in the mornings 6 days a week, not sure about other hours because mornings was all I could manage)

They sell 10-session and 20-session punch cards for $140 and $280, working out to $7/hour.

We have six rinks in town, and I regularly skate at two, owned by the same group. Sessions are 45 or 60 minutes long. Walk on is $10. Punch cards are 10/$75 or 20/$135. You can purchase more for a further cost savings, but that's about as much as I can lay out at a time.

Our walk on rate for 50 min ( that's a "rink" definintion of a hour is) $13. There are punch cards that are good only for the month and they are 10 one hour sessions for $110, and 20 for $200. The other two area rinks are much cheaper by comparision, but we are the only two surface rink in the area!

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The Punch card at our rink is good for as long as you use it, one month or a year, you just use it up, $300 for 30 sessions , 45 min a piece, get on the ice any session you want, great value. walk ons are $12. I think we have about 8 figure skating sessions a day..

Im glad there 45 minutes, as an adult I can't even warm up in 30 minutes.

my main rink is $12.00/hour contracted monthly, $15.00 walk on. Club ice at the same rink is $18.00/hour walk on , I believe $15.00, contracted for the whole season.

The rink where I take my lessons is $12.00/hr walk on, I don't know the contract price.

my rink has different time freestyles, so i'll make a little chart thing.

single 80 minute- $26
10 sessions of 80 minute- $195
50 minutes on a weekday- $19
50 minutes on a weekend- $23
10 sessions of 50 minutes- $165

and those get broken down by level as well.

at my rink you pay 6.00/hour, 7.00 for drop in. but that much for half an hour! that is rediculous!
~kittie

At my rink you buy a book of tickets, containing 6 tickets for £21.75. The sessions in the morning are about 4 hours long, and afternoon about 2 hours.

It works out at about £3.60 for a session.
90p an hour on a 4 hour session!
£1.80 for a 2 hour session!

Sounds awfully cheap when you put it like that.

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Our ice is $11/hr contracted, or $12/hr walk-on. I pay walk-on. I used to contract........until a week out sick meant I lost the money for all of the ice I'd contracted. Ends up cheaper for me to just walk-on most of the time.

From 12-3:30 we have an open session that is an $8.00 flat rate. Nice and cheap, but sometimes it's very busy and I'm the only non-freeskater out there (working on skills). It can get frustrating trying to get through a pattern with people landing triples all over the place!

Prime time (ie. after 4) drop-in ice is $11.00/hr for members and $13.00/hr for non-members. The drop-in rate at the club I skated at this summer was ludicrous. It was $12.00/session, not per hour...and some sessions, including the one I skated, were only 30 minutes.

ETA: We also use pick-up passes, which don't have an expiry date.

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the rink I normally skate at has 40 minute freestyle sessions.

Those with a "debit" card pay $8 per freestyle session (which comes out to about $12/hour).

Pick-up is $10/freestyle session (or about $15/hour).

There is also an "intense ice" rate that gets one unlimited freestyle sessions for a monthly fee of between $360 and $400 (not sure what the current rate is).

All of the rinks I skate at have 50-minute freestyles (pair/dance/highfreestyle sessions are an hour or an hour and a half). The best deal we have going is ten sessions for $70, but that pricing is mornings only. I don't skate there in the afternoons so I don't know what they cost then. The worst I know of is another rink that charges $10 if you buy 20 sessions at a time, $11 if you buy ten, and $12 for walk-on.

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Kittie, it seems like we're the only two with really good freestyle costs - here I was thinking they were really expensive! Half hour increments - that IS ridiculous!! I've only been to one freestyle session, for 2 hours, because though they allow me to skate in them, I'm really not good enough to and it's kind of intimidating... Maybe once I get a coach though - it's so much nicer than crowded public sessions, and going before work is the most wonderful way to start a day.

All our sessions are £5.00 each - that's about US$9.50 at the present rate of exchange - but if you have 3 or more sessions a week, you can pay £15.00 - snag is, you have to pay that 52 weeks/year, even if you are on holiday. But if you skate 4-5 times a week, as we do, it's a bargain.

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I pay the club rate of $7.00/hr for a 50 minute freestyle. Non club rate is $9.00/hr.

But through Learn-to-Skate, I get 8 free public skate passes a session. Both my power skating class and Synchro are through the Learn-to-Skate program, so I could technically have 16 free public sessions in eight weeks. Unfortunately, the only public sessions I could possibly make it to are on Friday nights (NO WAY -- Rock'n'Skate with fifty horny teens) or weekends (Crazy with kids whose parents drop them at the rink while they shop the mall). It's a drawback of having your rink in a mall.

I learned another drawback on Saturday when I was the only one on the ice: unwanted spectators who watch you and expect you to do something MARVELOUS. Yeah, right. Sorry my swing rolls are boring...

But the bonus include easy access to Target, food court (including Panera Bread) right across the boards, and a warm rink.

lets see...
Our private rink is 5.00 for 45 min or 7.00 for an hour
The CLUB ice is 70.00 a month for 630 to 830 mon wed and friday.
The rink itself has ice tue/ thur 630 to 830am for 28.00 for a three month pass.
If you dont belong to the CLUB you get three times to use the ice, at 8.00 a session.Not a incentive to join imo.
We skate pretty much at the private rink.

I wonder why our sessions (30 minutes) are so high in price? We have multiple sessions back to back and normally skate an hour and half to two hours a day that translates to $21-$28 YES A DAY...that is $140 a week.... ...OMG that is $7280 a year for ice time....better not let my husband see that!.....Are we getting better deal on coaching cost? The “average” coach here is $60 hour? Is that cheep, normal or high? On the other hand, are we being screwed all over the place!

If so where do some of you live with less expensive ice? Hows the coaching there we might just move! Anyone want roommates?

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Right now our coaching is 45.00 to 60.00 and hour, my kids coach is the 60.00 one.
When we are lucky enough for guest coaches to visit, its maybe60 to 75.00 hourly.
But then for us to compete its an arm and a leg to travel.

Right now I'm spending $1716/year for ice time, but that's only public sessions. I've been toying with the idea of going to freestyle one hour every weekday morning to start the day, once my skills get a bit better. That will add on another $1820/year, with about 15 hours of public skate time and 5 hours of uncrowded freestyle time per week.

I'm near Seattle - the coaching here is great from what I understand, but everyone I've heard of charges $60/hour here, so you're not getting screwed on that. But the coaches are flexible - whether you want a 15 minute lesson, or 20, or 30...they'll accommodate. One of the adult woman at my rink told me she prefers 20 minute lessons because they're just the right length for her. I'd probably want a longer lesson. The cost of them scares me a lot. 1 hour a week would run $3120/year...eek!

yes, the prices, it gets to me, it really does. the rink where i take lessons is the most expensive rink out of the other 2 i skate at, so i'm there only for lessons, since the ice afterwards is free. But try skating, going to school, getting paid a lousy $7 an hour at a student job, and working only 6 hours a week, taking the MCATs in april and having a prep course that costs $1400, the test itself which costs $200, and then in the summer, all the applications. I'm figuring about 20 schools, average of $75 an application, i'm gonna be broke really soon. And yet, i'm still thinking after these group lessons are over, i might take private lessons at the cheapest rink by my school, where hte coaches in general are not as good as where my lessons are right now, but i don't think i really need such an expert coach just yet.

yea, skatings an expensive habit. Especially when there are other things to buy, like food. Which is why my diet is mostly whatever was on sale that week at teh Stop and Shop. I could probably afford a meal plan if i didn't skate, but such are the sacrifices. Now i realize my parents didn't want me to skate seriously until i was old enough to fund it myself and get myself to the ice rinks. (i think we need a money smiley)

Great, now i'm all depressed thinking about how much this is all costing me, and i don't even go to freestyle sessions since i go to uncrowded and cheap public skating sessions where i am usually the only one on the ice, or i share the ice with 2 other people, and maybe a 4 year old with his mom (he is the cutest kid i have ever seen, and very well behaved, so he doesn't bother anyone). I need a raise at work. Last semester, i worked 13 hours a week, and so i was able to fund myself a bit better, but next semester is a drastic cutback, and so i figure somethings going to have to go.

I guess if worse comes to worse, i can mooch some meals off of other people, and steal the leftover lunches that hte professors are going to throw away. Don't tell me you thought i'd stop skating?

sk8g is an expensive sport. i don't understand what all the complaining is about. either budget and pay for what you can. sk8 where you can afford it. take the lessons you can pay for. and be done with it. if the cost is too much -- take up chess or needlepoint. i don't mean to sound harsh, but come on really.

Aww, cheer up! Just think about the alternatives...some people go out and buy too much food and get fat with the money, others blow it on a fancy new car they don't really need, many more outspend the worst of us with their drinking habits...at least in your case the money is well-invested in yourself - your body and soul are both healthier and happier as a result.

The daytime uncrowded public sessions are the best - I would go to them every day if I didn't have to work. I never did the school thing myself due to lack of financing - I wish you all the best with it!

Hey Sk8erfan,

Yes, we all know skating is expensive and I do not mind the cost because the end is justified. I just wanted to compare other areas freestyle fees/coaching fees. I guess you live in a harsh world, I am glad I do not. Like you have never wondered what the fees are in other areas of the US. Wake up this is just a discussion really. As you say "come on really"…. No need to sling mud or start a cat fight....

And sue123,

It is not very bad when you pay as you go. I just did the math in my head and realized wow; I could have a new car! Then that would mean give up skating and it is just not worth it to me. It can be done, and I lived off tomato soup in college and top roman noodles. Ah the staples of college life and the free samples at the grocery store. You can do it I have faith in you.....

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