'Everything has a season' popular skating rink closes after 25 years

Northskate held party bookings over the weekend of Saturday, June 1, 2024, in what would be the final skate day, leaving the community of Glen Innes contemplating many childhood memories of attending birthday parties, social skating, competitive games, and community events.

Northskate first opened its doors on April 10, 1999, and at one point in time had 114 skater members, ranked 4th in Australian Roller Hockey, and had significant participation and success in NSW State artistic skating.

"We were open for nearly 25 years, you know, and it's sad because we are just starting to see the second generation of kids coming through the rink," Mr Bradley said.

"Kids that used to come to the rink when we started now are bringing their own children along to birthday parties.

"It's bittersweet but my wife and i are both getting on now and there are plenty of other things we can be doing, everything has its season."

Mr Bradley said it was a combination of realising that they were missing out on many family events due to commitments in the rink which required their presence, but also the realities of running the rink in effectively a voluntary capacity.

"We of course made sure our floor staff and managers all got paid you know but as for us, we have been running this place voluntarily for the most part.

"I remember when we originally built the rink and I read over the guidelines for the industry and it said for a town of fewer than 10,000 people the business wouldn't be profitable, well, I suppose we have proven that theory.

"We have our grandkids which we would like to see much more of, and we have other jobs too, other commitments, this will simplify things a bit for us."

Despite the aforementioned small size of town, Glen Innes has been punching above its weight when it comes to representative skate sports. Northskate has a proud history of roller hockey excellence with over a dozen Australian representative players and numerous state representatives coming from the local area.

Northskate Rink has also hosted the Australian National Championships and held the first roller hockey skate of origin event in 2016.

As recently as October 2022, two local girls, Maddison Crawford and Kyah Heagney represented Australia at the World Skate Games in Argentina, both girls skated and taught at Northskate.

Mr Bradley himself has previously held positions as Australian Roller Hockey Chairman, Skate Australia President, and as an International Referee.

"I do feel for all the mums and dads," Mr Bradley said of Northskate's closure.

"I especially feel bad for all the kids who are going to miss out on skating, and I've been there myself you know, I grew up in Newcastle and they had the same situation there where they had to close down. But at the end of the day, it's business and unfortunately, you cannot operate on vapors for a whole lifetime."

Another business, Kings Gym and Fitness will utilize the space and will be opening soon

"All of my family have played roller hockey, we've been to several world championships, we've organised Australian championships at Glen Innes, and our club was ranked fourth in Australia at one stage. I loved every minute of it.

"It's been a very successful rink as far as participation of club members goes, but it generally whittled down and COVID really put in the final nail."