Family Aquatic Center attendance takes a dip but revenues increase

The Village of Grafton Family Aquatic Center saw a decrease in pool attendance this year in comparison to the 2021 and 2022 seasons due to numerous factors, including the air quality issues during the summer.

This year, the pool saw a total attendance of 22,139. That’s in comparison to 24,680 people last year and 22,823 in 2021, according to a report by Parks and Recreation Director Chad Hoier.

Total attendance is the sum of season swim passes sold, swimming program attendees and activity attendees at the aquatic center.

The sale of season swim passes also trended down in the past two seasons.

This year, the aquatic center sold 7,956 season swim passes. Thats in comparison to 8,211 last year and 9,683 in 2021.

Hoier said the number of pool passes is something that ebbs and flows year to year.

“It’s one of those things that goes up and down, a lot of people enjoy our facility. I think we put together a good product. Once people come, they keep coming because of their relationship with the staff and they like how they are treated here,” he said.

More so, Hoier said, the weather has a lot to do with it.

“We had a really warm start to the swim season in 2022 and some significant temperatures in the summer that boosted attendance,” Hoier said. “Looking at 2021 and 2023, we are not off by much. We did have a little bit of a cooler summer.”

Hoier also pointed to the Canadian wildfires over the summer, which heavily impacted the air quality in Wisconsin and across the United States.

“We had a  couple days with the air quality issues and that played into the issue. One of the days we were closed it was a really warm day, so we lost some potential attendance there,” he said.

As for the aquatic center’s revenues, that dollar amount jumped from $117,896 in 2021 to $154,471 in 2023.

Hoier attributed the jump to an increase in the price to attend the pool.

“We increased our daily admission fees for the first time in over ten years this year,” he said.

While Hoier said not a lot will change with the pool next year, he said the new recreation supervisor position will help the pool run a little more smoothly.

The position, which was added to the budget for next year, will oversee the day-to-day operations of the pool and the aquatics programs.

“We will have two people working directly with the recreational programming. Currently we have one person that runs all the programming and we are putting this position together to split up the duties,” he said. “This will help us bring in more programs and do some more research in the community. It will be a great benefit to the community.”

Hoier said this supervisor will also work year-round rather than just seasonally.

Overall, Hoier said the aquatic center had a “solid” season and anticipates the same thing next year.

“I think, granted our attendance was down, our revenue was up. Our swim lessons were also up. Overall, we had a solid season and I would expect, granted it’s weather related, I assume we will have a solid season next year,” he said.