Skate Central bringing back the buzz.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has created a very uncertain landscape for millions of British small businesses, which is going to make it very challenging for businesses to survive.  During the early stages of the UK's COVID-19 pandemic we took the difficult decision, for the first time in 18 years, to close our doors. We did this ahead of government intervention as we thought it was the most socially responsible thing to do. Unfortunately we’ve found ourselves in the increasingly difficult position of getting the doors back open when the time comes. This is due to having a rateable value over 51K so we are unable to access government grants. With your help we want to keep this Sheffield landmark and one of Sheffield’s oldest leisure facilities alive and kicking for future generations to have fun and keep fit. With this in mind, we also want to give back to “Our hero’s” the key workers and offer them a fun experience when out of lock down !! 

Bringing back the Buzz…………… About us !!

Silver blades was opened in 1965, with this a community was born. It became the iconic place to skate, meet, dance and have fun. It had a devout following, it was the place to go, the place to be seen, a friendly comforting fun atmosphere. Friends met lifelong friends, and people met partners here. It had personality, character, those were the golden days. Scrambling across the ice, either tentatively on blue plastic skates that rubbed so much that you had blisters, but you just didn’t care or on all fours, getting incredibly wet, hanging on to the barriers for dear life while watching the “good skaters” Wizz round, skating on the speed sessions where the adrenalin buzz was amazing, the damp rubber smell and freezing cold air that hit you as you walked the gloomy stairs with excitement, watching the hockey or figure skaters as you took off your skates and aspiring to be just as good as them and wanting to own your own pair of skates, dancing and trying to look cool as you tried to attract the attention of your potential partner or just laughing and watching dad think he’s good until he falls over in one painful heap. Whatever your memory, we want to reopen with a buzz. We want every generation either the young at heart or the toddler to experience the buzz, the atmosphere, the great experience of exercise while having so much fun. All that has changed is, you don’t get wet when you fall over, as we took out the ice in 2005 because the new fully funded ice rink, Ice Sheffield, actively encouraged our well established ice hockey clubs, speed skating clubs and figure skating clubs to transfer their activities, leaving us without a business. We therefore rebranded as a roller skating rink and called ourselves “Skate Central” and began the development of all the activities detailed below. We want to create on reopening – The buzz, a community, inclusivity, community cohesion, a big family, we want every visitor to leave with a smile on their face, raring to come back…. We want to bring back the Buzz to Sheffield. 

Current Day…….

Silver blades has now been renamed Skate central, it is a small business fully funded by its owners. With the vision to keep prices low and affordable, while still keeping all the fun of skating. Skate central is popular for its roller disco public skating sessions and children’s Birthday parties. Skate central has an avid roller derby and inline hockey contingent that train several times every week, it hosts boxing events, live music nights, lacrosse events, community get togethers, inline hockey and roller derby tournaments and regular sporting fixtures. 

What can you do to help bring back the buzz. With the money we intend to:

In the reopening month we want to offer every key worker a free skating pass (with or without skate hire) to use themselves or for their child, lets get together and reward the key workers, the hero’s, let them have some fun !! This will include NHS staff, care workers, postal workers, fire service, Police and supermarket employees.

We want to retain our current very hard working and loyal employees, also create new job opportunities for local people. 

We want to use your donation towards rent as we are unable to access government grants as we have a rateable value over 51K.

We want to use your donation for refurbishment, with your help we want bring together local people to be involved in creating a place they want to be a part of, a place they enjoy visiting, a community hub and bring back the buzz. We know we aren’t a palace, but it’s all about the people and party not the place. We have allowed parents/guardians to drop their children off at a safe place to have fun for many years and we want to get the community involved in refurbishing and getting a fresh lick of paint !! 

We want our venue to be assessable to all, we are an old building and currently don’t have disabled access. We have stairs in to our building and by installing a simple mobility lift, we can transform its use and crucially accessibility. The mobility lift will allow every demographic from our community to enjoy what our venue has to has to offer and it will also allow us to diversify its use.  

How can you get involved ?

Every donation will be greatly appreciated, the rewards we will be offering, allow you to experience the fun and give something back, they are:

£5 – Spare us £5 and you will receive entry to skate on any of our public sessions (with or without skate hire included) This to be used in the first 2 months of reopening. This will be a discount on our regular prices. Your donation will also help to fund our key worker free skating scheme and lift scheme, say thank you to our hero’s and help us become accessible to all. 

£6 – Spare us £6 and you will receive an inline hockey tournament day. This is for all you inline hockey players !! Hockey players get your mates together, bring a team or we’ll add you to one. We’ll organise a day of hockey, with the winning team of 10 players, receiving the day for free !! Open to all players over 18 with full kit, any ability welcome. If we have enough players/teams we will seed the tournament and play over 2 days. Your donation will also help to fund our key worker free skating scheme and lift scheme, say thank you to our hero’s and help us become accessible to all. 

£10 – Spare us £10, this will buy you an exclusive entry ticket to our Saturday night VIP party night (with or without skate hire), which we will be organising on reopening. This will be open to all, any age, let’s get together and party, when we are all aloud out of lock down, young and old, roller derby skaters, inline hockey skaters, session skaters, new and former silver blades skaters, lets reunite for a night of fun and laughter !! This will be a discount on our regular prices. Your donation will also help to fund our key worker free skating scheme and lift scheme, say thank you to our hero’s and help us become accessible to all. 

£15 –  Spare us £15 and you will receive a family ticket for 1 parent/guardian and 3 children or 2 parents/guardians and 2 children to skate on any session with or without skate hire. This will be a discount on our regular prices. Your donation will also help to fund our key worker free skating scheme and lift scheme, say thank you to our hero’s and help us become accessible to all. 

£45 – Spare us £45 and you will receive our regular children’s party package for 10 children at a very discounted price. Celebrate your child’s party or bring along a children’s community group, children’s sports team and celebrate, this includes admission, skate hire, food (burger/fish fingers/chicken nuggets/veggie burger and chips) drink, 45 minutes in a private party room and complementary party bag. This is will be a huge discount on our regular price and open to children only. This is to be taken in the first 6 months of reopening, on any public session and subject to your date availability, if your date isn’t available, its no problem you will be offered the nearest date/session available. Your donation will also help to fund our key worker free skating scheme and lift scheme, say thank you to our hero’s and help us become accessible to all. 

£50 – Exclusive advertising opportunity and party. Are you a small business, large business, charity group, community-based organisation, entrepreneur, service or ecommerce business ? Get your business seen. This exclusive one-off opportunity allows small, large business owners or services to advertise in our venue. We will place your advert inside our venue where thousands of people will see it, for a period of 6 months. Are you a plumber, dog walker, mechanic, retail or online shop, take away, community group, hairdresser…. We will promote your business inside our venue and also on our social media pages prior to reopening and after reopening, which the owner has nearly 5k social media friends and pages have over 2k likes . This offer will also entitle you, your family, your employees or colleagues to get together and come to our exclusive VIP business and sponsors party, which will be a great thank you and networking opportunity event. 

Your donation will also help to fund our key worker free skating scheme and lift scheme, say thank you to our hero’s and help us become accessible to all. If we raise over our target, we will open up the key worker free skate to community organisations and volunteers.