Keep Rolling

Describing skateboarding can be pretentious: lifestyle, culture, cult and religion –all words used before.

But skateboarding is also a multi billion pound industry encompassing fashion, music, clothes, films, video games, skateboarding products and more.

Ramp City WSA, in Blackpool shows how business skills can profit from skateboard skills.

Owner Mick Houghton acquired an empty warehouse when he moved into Cropper Road with a travelling family. After starting an equestrian centre, model car racing track and roller hockey arena it became a skatepark.

Despite a capricious history, the building looks set to remain a skatepark for as long as it is profitable.

INTERVIEW 

Reporter: How long has your skatepark park been open?
Mick Houghton: We opened the park five years ago.

Why did you open it?
We had tried other things in the past but we knew that there were a lot of skateboarders who needed somewhere to go. We knew that this would make money.

What did you do to open it?
All we did was put in ramps. We owned the building so it was that simple. It used to be a roller hockey rink but it was not working. There was nothing on the floor so one week we put the ramps in.

How much did it cost?
It cost us £60,000 for the ramps. Then we have spent £40,000 on maintenance to keep it going. To build one from scratch now it would be another fifty percent on top of what it was five years ago.

How much money do you make?
It took us two years before we made a profit. Take into account we own the building so we don’t pay rent. But I can’t say how much it makes.

Preston skateboarders are trying to get a park built…
Why should I do anything that helps the Preston lot to get a skatepark when 25% of my customers come here from Preston? There’s no logic there. That doesn’t make sense does it?

How do you go about building a skatepark?
You need a building; what’s more, you need a building that’s a minimum of two hundred square feet. Then you need insurance and you won’t get any under a £100,000. There’s only one insurance company in the country that will insure skateparks. Then rent is expensive and the rates are high. Then you pay rent and heating and then you need lighting. Unless you have got some rich people you are just not going to do it. The council won’t do it because it will be too expensive. They build ramps outside but no body goes to them because they’re cheap rubbish. The council will not spend £400,000 and that’s what you need.

Have you worked with the council?
Do you know how much the council have put into this place? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But they have built two other ramps which nobody even uses.

How does your facility benefit the local skaters?
The kids can come here because its dry, it’s warm and it’s safe. They’re not going to go to a ramp outside when it’s wet. It costs five quid to come in here for the night and they have fun.

The skaters…

Tom Bass, 20, Blackpool.
I’ve been skateboarding for ten years. My mates keep me going. I just love skateboarding, my dad was a skater, and all my mates are. I just love it to bits. It’s an amazing park, really is so good. It can be a bit annoying in the winter when it gets slippery, but apart from that it’s an absolutely amazing park, I enjoy it so much. I’ve been coming here since it opened. I come down near enough every single night. When I’m not working I’m here.

Colin Johnson, 17, Blackpool
I come about three or four times a week. It’s just basically my hobby that I do, really. The park is very important because the next closest one is Liverpool or Burnley so other than this place we’d have to go quite far to get somewhere. I go into competitions so when I’ve finished school I’d like to have a proper job in BMX.

By Ricki Dewsbury