Community
Lack of Offering at NSC is ‘Surprising’
As well as reviewing the island’s regional pools, the report looked at the role of the NSC.
A report into the island’s swimming pools has recommended doubling the size of the NSC’s fitness suite.
The Knight, Kavanag and Page Report was ordered by Education, Sport and Culture Minister Julie Edge.
As well as reviewing the island’s regional pools, the report looked at the role of the NSC.
The report acknowledged that thanks to the never-ending story that was the pool and flume refurbishment, a fire and the pandemic, the NSC is in a process ‘re-building its usage and membership base’.
It also noted that the 2021/22 income from the pools at the NSC, £398,916, was ‘lower than what we would expect fro a pool this size’, it said that the income from November 2021 to October 2022 of £558,285, is ‘more reflective of what we would expect’.
Wet and Dry
The report also found that the health and fitness offering at the NSC is ‘not what we would have expected from a flagship wet and dry sports centre’.
It added: ‘Although the NSC has a 40 – 50 station fitness suite it does not have any group exercise studios to enable it to provide a complementary fitness offer.’
According to KK&P, this is deliberate as the gov told them that ‘there is a clear policy not to drive commercial health and fitness income at the centre as this might impact on commercial facilities in Douglas’.
However, the consultant firm said that from its perspective ‘there is a drive for families to be active together and a way of doing this is to offer opportunities for parents and children to undertake fitness activities in the same space’.
Rearming that is is ‘surprising how small the health and fitness offer is at the NSC’, the report recommended doubling the size of the fitness suite and adding ‘at least two bespoke group exercise studios’.
It said: ‘On this basis we would suggest that the service drives the sale of fitness as a core product and would seek to add at least 1,500 fitness members into the facility. This could increase income by as much as £450k per annum although additional staff would be required to operate the service.’
