2008 Woodie Awards
IU Natatorium
After 12 world records and 25 years, it's still THE PLACE to swim
Jake Thompson
Issue date: 11/28/07 Section: Sports
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The Natatorium, located on the southwest side of campus off of New York Street, provides a place for the citizens of Indianapolis and the surrounding areas to come and learn to swim or just exercise. It is the host to events for local high schools, which returns economic benefits to the community.
The benefits of the facility far outweigh the costs associated with maintenance but the Natatorium always finds itself in the predicament of needing money for just the day-to-day operation.
"We have to create our own existence," said Julie McKenney, the IU Natatorium director. "It is why we have our instructional programs and summer camps. Those are where we bring in the revenue to maintain our staff and hopefully create the money that we need for a maintenance fund. It is a struggle to run a facility of this size and maintain it especially on the small budget that we have."
There are a lot of little things. For instance, the roof leaks a lot when it rains but the operations manager, Keith Dollard, does a nice job doing with what he can, keeping the water from overhead under control.
With $1.5 million budgeted for its fiscal year the Natatorium has many expenses to consider when planning. Maintenance of the Natatorium tops the list of expenditures with a bulk of money going to costly chemicals to maintain the water.
Eight full-time employees and 30 to 40 part-time employees in the winter and fall-and up to 70 part-timers in the summer-make up the staff it takes to operate such a large operation.
The university contributes an allotment to the operating budget for repair and maintenance, but the contribution changes year to year.
Major sources of revenue for The Natatorium come from the summer instructional camps that are offered and the programs that come in to use the facility.
There are a number of details that must be handled for any event. Ed Merkling, the Competitive Programs manager, must meet with representatives of the individual event and contact Chartwells, which has the university contract to provide food on campus for concessions. Parking and attendants must be arranged. Building services have to be employed after the event to clean and maintain the facility.
The economic impacts of big events like the Olympic trials are both internal and external.
Internally, the Natatorium always hopes to turn a profit when such large events come to town but that may not always be possible. The complexity of bidding against other facilities for events is so costly that the most the Natatorium can hope for is to break even when it wins an event.
Most of the staff for events is on a volunteer basis from the city. The Natatorium will provide lifeguards, supervisors, and scoring people in addition to help to guide the volunteers.
The hotel, parking, and the food service on campus all benefit greatly from the events that are hosted at the Natatorium.
Externally, the downtown hotels, restaurants, and malls all benefit financially from the events that take place. These events bring millions of dollars to downtown Indianapolis and the surrounding community.
The Mega Zone Championship in 2003 brought in a little more than $3 million to the city while an event like the recent ConocoPhillips National and Speedo Junior National Swimming Championship in 2007 brought in a little more than $5 million to Indianapolis, according to the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association.
"It is a lot of work," McKenney said. "People think we have lots and lots of staff but that is not the case. The Indianapolis volunteer base is phenomenal and that makes Indianapolis a very special place to hold these events."
Several programs use the Natatorium and pay for their use time. Among those programs are:
The Indy Starz Diving club instructs local and state divers who travels some distance for the opportunity to use the world-class diving pool. The IUPUI Swimming and Diving teams meet there for all home competition and practices.
Indy Swim Fit incorporates the facility into its rotation of five different locations for its members.
The Indy Dolphins Swim Club provides elementary through high school swimmers instruction and technique work (www.dolphins.iupui.edu)
Swim America, operated by the American Swimming Coaches Association, uses the facility. Swim America has more than 500 program directors at different sites throughout the U.S. The Natatorium runs the program for Swim America with its own aquatics supervisor.
Indy Synchro, formed in 1984, progressed from a beginner-level program to a nationally ranked age group program.
The Natatorium also offers swimming instruction programs for all ages from infant-toddlers of 6 months to 36 months to adult beginner classes. Costs range from $45 to $60.
Aqua Fitness classes are also available. There are both shallow and deep water classes available costing $36 to $50. The Natatorium staff payroll for these activities and the money must come from the fees charged.
Swimmers say they like the Natatorium because it has the reputation of being a fast pool where 12 world records have been set.
The lane width is larger than most pools--wide enough almost to accommodate three swimmers at the same time--compared with most pools, which are crowded with just two.
The well system for drainage along the side of the pool is six feet down and does not allow the water to create the resistance that would be there if the well were shallow.
The pool is 9.5-feet deep the entire way, which is much deeper than most competition pools thus creating less resistance than a shallow pool.
The lane dividers are called lane eaters and reduce the amount of current on top of the water as the swimmers create a wake.
In most pools water is re-filtered through jets coming through the sides however, at the Natatorium, the water comes in from the bottom of the pool underneath half inch metal plates that run the length of the lanes, cutting resistance by expelling water all over the pool at once.
Other places were quick to try to copy what the Natatorium has. Two facilities have used the Natatorium significantly as a model.
The Federal Way Aquatic Center, south of Seattle, was built for the 1990 Seattle Goodwill Games. Like the Natatorium it has been the site of Olympic diving trials and top international and national competitions. The Aquatic Center also is open to the public for swim lessons and instruction. It's very similar in its appearance to the Natatorium because the Natatorium was used as the basis when the Aquatic Center was built. It has only one side of seating compared to the Natatoriums two sides.
The Georgia Tech Aquatic Center was an outdoor pool that was designed to host the 1996 Olympics. Michael Edwards, the former IUPUI Natatorium Aquatics director from 1982-1992, took on the job of helping to construct the Georgia Tech facility with ideas he gained while on the job and incorporated the same technology that makes the Natatorium pool so fast for swimmers. The pool was built outside during the Olympics but over the past few years' money has been raised to enclose the facility. This is the only pool that rivals the Natatorium in speed in the country.
Edwards said the George Tech facility added a couple of improvements that the Natatorium does not have including a bigger deck, a control room with an elevated view, and lighter bulkheads that make for easier movement, but the improvements may not necessarily affect competition in the pool.
"The IU natatorium has been the gold standard, nowadays the platinum standard, for major aquatic facilities in this country," said Edwards, the current Director of Campus Recreation at Georgia Tech University. "There wasn't much that needed to be improved upon. The engineering used to build that facility is still pertinent today."
IU Natatorium
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