17 tabs, color coded
Each area of the building gets its own worksheet, labeled and tabbed in color at the bottom so you are never hunting.
Every rink owner says it depends. Here are the actual numbers.
A 17-tab Excel workbook that adds up what it costs to open a roller skating rink. Change any quantity or any price and every total updates itself. Built by someone who has worked the floor, not by a company that sells the same template to martial arts studios and dog groomers.
Susan reads every request herself. No instant checkout, and no bot deciding for her.
Built by Susan Geary. She has worked in skating rinks, consulted on them, and watched two rinks in her own hometown fail. She knows why they did. She wrote this so you do not find out about the $125,000 parking lot after you sign.
More than 20 years in the industry. She has worked busy sessions, taught lessons, hosted birthday parties, sold skates, handled redemption and prepared orders in the snack bar. She served as Editor of Rinksider Magazine, the trade publication for rink owners, and co-chaired the Roller Skating Rink Supplier and Manufacturer's Association, where she learned who sells the floor systems, rental skates, lighting and sound.
“How much does it cost to open a roller rink?”
It depends.
Ask ten rink owners and you will get the same two words ten times. And they are right. Real estate, labor, permits, shipping, inflation. It all changes from one town to the next.
That is fine as an answer at a trade show. It is useless when you are sitting across from a loan officer. Somebody is going to ask you what 300 pairs of rental skates cost, what music licensing runs per month, and why your utilities number looks the way it does. "It depends" will not get you the money.
So you start researching. And you find out that pricing a rink from scratch is weeks of phone calls to suppliers who would rather sell to somebody who already owns one.
Susan explains it
What is inside
It does the adding up for you
This is not a list you retype into your own sheet. It is a working model. Touch one number and the front page total moves.
Formulas already built
Quantities times prices, rolled into section totals, rolled into a grand total on the front page. You do not write a single formula.
Green means edit it
The cells you are meant to change are shaded green. Everything else is a total you should leave alone so the math keeps working.
Frozen headers, striped rows
Scroll a long sheet and the headers stay put. It reads like something you would hand a banker, because you will.
Room for your own line items
Blank rows are left in with the formulas already in them. Adding a second party room or a giant skate statue out front takes one line.
Priced from real suppliers
Webstaurant, Amazon, Roller Rink Distributors, rental skate manufacturers, and rink owners who answered the phone. Not guesses.
Green cells are yours to change
Totals calculate themselves
Real prices blurred until you own it
Startup TotalsRink FloorDJ BoothRest RoomsVendingSkate ShopRental RoomOfficeAislewaysGroup AreaOpsotherSnack BarStorageLobbyParking LotMarketingBuilding Rehab
Real screenshots. Only the prices are blurred.
Who has it already
From people who bought it
I thought it was super useful. You included some things that I wasn't considering. I really appreciated our conversation.
It's pretty spot on and from a financial standpoint. The way that everything is broken down makes it pretty simple to use and present with your business plan.
The spreadsheet was super helpful. We knocked off a few line items to fit our particular situation, but otherwise it was great as-is.
Just got a chance to go through the tabs. Wow! This is so helpful.
A warning
Skip the fill-in-the-blank template
Before you buy a template that promises a finished roller rink plan, look at what else that company sells. You will find the same document offered for martial arts studios, ice cream parlors and dog groomers. The people who built it have never run a rink.
A skating rink is not one business. It is admissions, an arcade, a pro shop, rentals, lessons, parties and a snack bar, and every one of those has its own costs and its own margins. A one-size-fits-all plan does not survive the first real question from an underwriter.
There is a second problem with generic numbers. They are usually optimistic, because optimistic numbers sell templates. Susan's are not. The arcade line looks expensive because new games with card technology genuinely run about $25,000 each, and she tells you how to get that number to zero by partnering with a games provider instead.
That is the difference between a spreadsheet and somebody who has been in the building at closing time.
What it costs
$5,000
What a professional charges to write your feasibility study and business plan
VS
$99
What it costs to find out whether you are ready to write one at all
Include it with your documents and it shows a lender you did your homework. Or find out early that the numbers do not work in your town, which is worth a lot more than $99.
How you get it
Three steps, one of them is Susan
Tell her about your project
The form below takes a minute. Where you are looking, how far along you are, and whether you have ever worked in a rink. That last one matters more than you think.
She reads it herself
No autoresponder deciding for her. Susan reads it, usually inside a business day. The competition across town does not get a copy of your numbers, and if something worries her she tells you before she takes your money.
Pay and it lands in your inbox
Approved buyers get a payment link. Pay it and the workbook arrives immediately, along with the read-me that explains how to use it.
Before you ask
Questions people actually send
Why do I have to ask instead of just buying it?
Because people who already own rinks have tried to buy it, and this is years of Susan's research. She reads every request and approves the ones that are real. It usually takes less than a business day.
What is not in the workbook?
Real estate is not in it, and neither are other attractions like mini golf, laser tag or a soft playground. Roller skating is the specialty, so roller skating is what it covers.
Are the prices current?
Not to the dollar, no. They were researched new in 2024, so figure they are a year or two behind your market today. They came from Webstaurant, Amazon, Roller Rink Distributors, rental skate manufacturers and working rink owners. Treat them as a reference for building your own budget rather than a quote. Every one of them is editable.
Do I need Excel?
You need something that opens an .xlsx file and supports formulas. Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers all work. Excel gives you the cleanest result.
Can I share it with my partner or my lender?
Show it to your partners and put the numbers in the packet you hand your lender. What you cannot do is pass the file around or resell it. It is a licensed copy for building one business plan.
What if I find a mistake?
Tell Susan and she will fix it and re-send the file. It is comprehensive but it is not claimed to be perfect, and she would rather know.
Does buying this mean Susan is consulting on my project?
No. The workbook is a tool. If you want her actually looking at your floor plan, your market or your numbers, that is a separate conversation and she is happy to have it.
Request the workbook
Tell Susan about your rink
She reads every one of these. If it is a fit, you will have a payment link back, usually within a business day.
Never worked in a rink? That is most of the people who write to her, and it is not a reason to get told no. She is screening for real projects, not resumes. The no's go to people fishing for her supplier research and to anyone looking to resell it.