The current Welsh Government is led by a strong Climate Aware leadership who are looking to make Wales leader on Climate Change Policy and renewable energy, apparently. There main scope seems to be on removal of harmful pollutants, such as limiting car usage, not building large car networks, reducing speed limits and implementation of fines, increasing costs for businesses etc etc, not so great on new initiatives, so far.......
Now will owning and running a massive freezer at a time that energy costs are increasing for the use of a few thousand hockey fans and a few hundred regular skaters fall into their Climate Crisis solutions portfolio, I’m thinking not unless they can find a way to maintain an ice surface using free energy efficient, carbon neutral cheap solution.
Wales only other ice rink that has a Curling Club is in North Wales, in England, I’ve no idea, is there a demand in South Wales that would make a dedicated Curling Rink viable, not sure. Interestingly Curling requires the ice surface to be Pebbled by water droplets freezing, it’s why in Canada for instance curling is not done on Ice rinks used for skating, here though the need for such detail is lacking, nobody cares as it’s mainly recreational, not competing. The ice is also difficult to maintain as it needs to be so level and temperature is critical, far more than for skating and ice hockey.
My interpretation is that the Welsh Government will hike prices, significantly to such a level the IAW will slowly loose appeal, become redundant and the land then reused for redevelopment. I very much doubt the IAW is financially viable at the moment, it could be if the Devils paid for the use, is that financial hit then an issue for the viability of the Devils, does the 3000 average ticket sales per game cover the increase in costs or would the Devils need to find savings. Since the Devils Business is only a name and a few grand in equipment, it’s biggest costs are player wages & travel. That means either profits need to drop or player budget or worse both. That then brings in player Catch 22, when player quality drops, attendance levels drop.....
The Council received a substancial EU grant for the IAW, the scheme funded the huge costs involved in reclaiming industrial land that could viably be used for housing. The building of the IAW and other “Sports Facilities” allowed for that cost to be met, very clever.
So yes if Mr King or any other businessmen got their black cards out and bought the IAW and surrounding land I’d be confident as it shows there is viability and potential growth. The fact the Council is going to purchase from Greenbank, not so much, if this was Dragons Den it’d be leaving without a deal......