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FAQs

The National Recreation and Park Association has developed recommended levels of service standards for parks and recreation communities. For aquatic centers it is recommended that one facility per 35,000 residents.  Currently the City of Boise has roughly 230,000 residents (and growing everyday), however the City of Boise only has one aquatic center to try and meet the needs of the residents of Boise; The Boise City Aquatics Center located in the West YMCA. With the closure of the pool at Boise State, there is a void in the ability to provide adequate water space for swim lessons, competitive club swimming, masters swimming, water polo, high school swimming, community lap swimming, and lifeguard training.  The outdoor pools in the area attempt to fulfil part of the need but they aren’t able to sufficiently do so, leaving many residents of Boise lacking adequate resources for such endeavours.

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The Aquatic Center will meet the aquatics needs of recreational, competitive, social and therapeutic members across a wide range of ages and abilities. In addition, the state-of-the-art ‘fast pool’ is designed to attract elite competitive local, regional and national aquatic events to Boise, generating millions in economic impact for the Treasure Valley region.

The Greater Boise Aquatic Centre will be located at 3575 S. Findley Avenue in Southeast Boise.

 

We are anticipating an opening date in late 2022 or very early 2023.  Please contact us to be placed on our email list for all future updates.

Membership is not required to use the facility, anyone can purchase a daily or monthly pass for pool use.  

National studies suggest that metropolitan areas should have one aquatic center per 20,000 citizens. Boise is well below this threshold. ICA believes the Boise community could use multiple pools, but it is unrealistic to fund and build multiple 50m pools at once. Instead, ICA believes a measured approach, with opportunity to expand, is the best option. Further, the premier facility in the Western United States, the Weyerheuser King County Aquatic Center (“KCAC”), consists of one 50-meter pool and a second 25-yard pool. This is the same format ICA is proposing.
Yes. Our proposed facility will include men’s and women’s locker rooms with multiple showers, all required bathroom facilities, and locker space. The facility will also include separate ADA/Family bathrooms and changing spaces. As a comparison, user amenities will be consistent with KCAC. ICA will not be including concessions within the facility. We are not experts in food vending, food vending is typically a financial liability for aquatics venues, and alternatives are available. We typically contract to Food Trucks and outside vendors for events and those vendors provide a profit share to the facility.

The swimming community is extensive throughout the Treasure Valley. Club teams in Boise all carry extensive wait lists, city recreation league teams are limited in size and don’t meet demand, high school swimming is constrained by limited city and YMCA pool availability, lesson programming doesn’t currently meet the needs of the Boise area, and countless other aquatics programs are searching for water space. As of today, ICA has secured commitments from multiple programs for lane rental that will essentially fill lane space during key demographic times.

Facility costs have been developed using multiple comparative facilities from around the country. ICA has been incredibly conservative with respect to both revenues and expenses to ensure that projected financials are reasonable. A peer review of our projections was performed by CSL and the study confirms that our financial expectations are reasonable. ICA used actual financial data from facilities in Colorado Springs, CO; Federal Way, WA; Greensboro, NC, Cary, NC; and others to build our financial cost models. We also relied on industry experts to review our figures to confirm reasonableness.

Aquatic centres typically run at a deficit due to poor programming. They either offer programming that offers little financial return or offer so many programs, that pool space cannot be maximized for the success of the facility or its users. Modern facilities are designed to accommodate focused needs and consider areas of greatest use. Further, ICA has proposed a facility this is based on (1) rental of lane space for program use, (2) a robust learn-to-swim program, and (3) multiple event hosting. Eliminating loss areas, such as concessions (see above) and low revenue components (spas, saunas, and slides), will allow the facility to break-even and potentially create modest net income. See previous FAQs for additional financial information, including peer comparisons, peer review, and committed tenants.

ICA is founded by families that have been committed to the sport of swimming since the mid-1970s. We are multi-generational, multi-faceted, and deeply ingrained within the swimming community. We have over 250 years of combined experience. This is truly a passion and not just a hobby for us. We are swimmers, parents, grandparents, collegiate All-Americans, national champions, and Olympians. We believe every child and every adult should know how to swim for the safety of themselves and our community. In short, we’re not going anywhere—we love both the sport of swimming and the simple joy of teaching others to swim.

This is a one-in-a-trillion chance, but the property would revert to the Greater Boise Auditorium District. The District could choose to operate, lease to a new operator, or simply sell the real property at the then-current fair market value.
The proposed facility is similar to key venues in Federal Way and Mt. Hood, OR. These facilities bring in thousands of swimmers every year for various events. Smaller venues, such as Pasco, WA, Roseville, CA, and Kearns, UT, are also great examples of similar facilities with a track record of attracting regular events and out-of-town visitors. Boise swimmers regularly travel to Seattle, Portland, Tri-Cities, Reno, Roseville, Salt Lake City, Missoula, Bozeman, Phoenix, and other locations. As a central hub for these same cities, we provide an easy travel option for 1,000s of competitive clubs in the Western U.S.
Our financial projection package includes a table of possible events. ICA worked with the Convention & Visitors Bureau to examine the potential impact of various types of meets, including hotel nights, direct economic impact, and total economic impact. In order to be conservative, ICA projected a minimal amount of events, which included a mix of local, regional, and national competitions. The peer review performed by CSL confirmed that our projections are low and hosting more events than anticipated is likely. With multiple club teams, water pool, masters swimming, and high school teams planned as users, ICA is confident that hosting just one event each month will produce significant economic impact to the valley. ICA intends to host more than this minimum suggestion.
However, a review of other projects around the country (Greensboro, NC, for example) suggest that both daily and event facility users would be patrons of any new hotel or restaurant and provide a solid foundation for their success. The location of the proposed facility is in a growing area with existing restaurants and stores that will certainly benefit.
ICA is confident in our financial model and projections. Revenue data has been derived from committed users and extremely conservative rental rates. The national average for an hour of lane rental is $20/hour. ICA has used $12/hour to ensure that revenue projections are low. We anticipate that our lesson program will take several months to establish and build clientele—this build-up has been included in our model. ICA has also used peer facilities to accurately estimate program revenues. Facility expenses are more difficult to project. However, we have been in contact with various peer facilities and examined their operations. We have carefully reviewed their expenses and estimated both operating and maintenance expenses for the proposed facility. ICA founders Ryan Stratton & Jeff Erwin are both Certified Public Accountants and are comfortable with the projections. The feasibility review performed by CSL also confirmed that ICA’s projections are both reasonable and conservative.
We have commitments from a variety of users, including the Boise Swim Club, Sawtooth Aquatic Club, Boise Water Polo Club, and Sawtooth Masters Swimming. In addition, we anticipate hosting at least three area high schools during the high school swim season. During the core training hours of 5:00-7:00am and 3:30-7:00pm, we have nearly already filled available lane space. ICA’s financial projections include these users and their requested hours.
ICA was strategic is evaluating land options to ensure available space for possible future expansion. The proposed location will include an additional 1.5 acres of land to the west of the facility that is large enough to add an additional 50-meter x 25-yard pool, diving well, or other potential options.
Federal Way, WA; Mt. Hood, OR; Kearns, UT; Roseville, CA; Pasco, WA; Missoula, MT; Colorado Springs, CO and others. These venues host a variety of events that bring 1,000s of swimmers to their facilities each year. Swimmers travel to quality facilities and look for opportunities to find quality events. ICA has commitments from over 50 clubs willing to travel to Boise for events and training opportunities. These facilities operate in a variety of ways and by mostly local municipalities. ICA’s operating model is more consistent with Pike’s Peak Aquatics in Colorado Springs, which operated at a profit during the Covid pandemic.
The facility is designed to host a variety of events using multiple formats. We confirmed with USA Swimming that the proposed facility is adequate for hosting every level of swim meet, with just a couple exceptions. ICA could host local, regional, Zone, and national site meets. ICA would not be able to bid on a National Championship or Olympic Trials meet because of Boise’s elevation. Those meets are awarded to cities at or close to sea-level. We have also collaborated with water polo experts to confirm tournaments could be held within the facility.

The Greater Boise Aquatic Centre will be able to host a variety of events of all sizes. The facility can be set up to host summer league and high school swim meets with less than 100 participants as well as larger USA Swimming local and regional swim meets that can host over 1000 participants and spectators. The facility will also be capable of hosting multiple water polo games at any given time. The facility can run multiple courses at the same time to ensure that we will be able to host any swim meets or water polo tournaments that USA Swimming and USA Water Polo have to offer.

We have planned for spectator seating between 1,250 and 1,500. Bleachers will run the length of the west side of the facility and be separated by railing from the pool to ensure the facility can meet USA Swimming’s stringent athlete Safe Sport protocols.

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