Mirabeau Wave Pool May Drown In Red Ink

A study by the YMCA shows it would be cheaper to send a school full of kids to Maui than to build a wave pool at Mirabeau Point.

County commissioners had asked YMCA officials to visit indoor wave pools in Oregon and British Columbia to see whether one could be added to a proposed aquatic center at Mirabeau Point.

Based on information from three pools, the attraction would add at least $2.8 million to the cost of the YMCA’s proposed center, Executive Director Richard Wallis said Thursday. None of the three wave pools is self-supporting, he added.

“The wave pools that are making (a profit) are the outside pools, where they capitalize on the peak season and have only three months of expenses,” Wallis said.

If the county has the money for construction and annual expenses, the Y will add the wave pool to its plans, Wallis said.

Otherwise, Wallis said, the private, non-profit organization will build a center with two or three conventional pools, depending on whether the county chips in $1.3 million plus $36,000 a year, as the YMCA has requested.

County commissioners still are deciding whether to join the YMCA in a private-public partnership. The option is to replace the crumbling outdoor pool at Valley Mission Park, about a mile from Mirabeau Point.

The wave pool proposal probably is dead, Commissioner Phil Harris told Wallis.

“If it’s going to cost all that money, I’m not interested,” he said.

, DataTimes