United Skates of America, Inc.

For more than 100 years, Americans have been roller skating for the sheer fun of it. It's a great way to spend time together as a family and offers an exciting, high-energy workout for all ages. Because roller skating has been part of the fabric of American life, skating rinks have become great social gathering places.

"Clean, Fun, Friendly and Safe" describes the sport, but it is also the motto of United Skates of America, one of the nation's oldest chain of roller skating facilities. Founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1971, USA also has become the largest owner/operator of roller skating facilities in the United States, attracting more than 1.8 million guests to its facilities each year. The company operates 14 roller skating/family fun centers in nine states, including Ohio, Indiana, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona, and Maryland.

USA leads an industry that generates annual revenues exceeding $900 million. Core customers are children between the ages of 5 and 15 years old and their families. While the typical skater frequents a roller skating facility 9 to 25 times annually, facility operators have greatly expanded the customer base through promotional and special events. In short, roller skating offers clean, friendly and safe fun at affordable prices for the vast majority of the population. Parents often view skating as a healthy and generally superior alternative to video arcades, an afternoon at the movies, or simply "hanging out" at the mall.

Each USA facility is equipped with solid wood skating floors, bright, modern lighting, and first-class sound systems. Interior decors range in style from festive fairgrounds to night clubs and space-age settings. In addition to roller skating, USA facilities feature concession and birthday areas, large game rooms offering the latest video and redemption games, laser tag, and novelty shops. Lessons and instruction for children are available at all times, and many locations sponsor full-scale roller hockey leagues.

In more recent years, USA has been able to expand its presence in the family entertainment business through the development of WOW family fun centers. WOW features a roller skating facility as the anchor attraction while offering an entertainment menu that includes laser tag, soft-play, arcade games, and an expanded food concession. Many industry observers note that WOW offers more than a Discovery Zone and is more affordable than DisneyQuest. At all USA and WOW facilities, customers can rent space for private parties as well as for corporate functions. Additionally, distinct themed "sessions" are offered to the public to attract a wide demographic mix of customers and to increase overall utilization of the facilities.

USA has been aggressively increasing its presence in urban areas and now operates skating centers in Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, and Indianapolis. The beauty of roller skating is that its popularity cuts across all ages, income levels, races and genders. USA management recognizes not only the business potential of operating in a variety of areas, but the human potential as well. Company policies include exemplary programs for children, often in areas where they are sorely needed. USA centers provide a safe and clean environment where kids can find an outlet for physical activity and have a good time with their friends. Weaving into their surrounding communities, the roller skating centers also become deeply involved in fundraising with local schools and often work closely with principals, teachers and PTAs to hold skating parties for worthwhile school projects.

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Another USA school-based effort is a student incentive program. The objective is to improve school attendance, student behavior and academic performance by allowing schools to reserve time slots in their facilities at reduced rates. Children who distinguish themselves through good grades, attendance or citizenship are eligible to earn passes to the local USA rink. USA also works closely with local police departments and DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) programs. In short, USA becomes a part of the community it serves. Three of USA's urban centers, in Newark, Cleveland, and Baltimore, are public/private partnerships that provide recreational centers for the children and families of those cities and significant revenues for the partnering governmental entity. Many municipalities (especially urban ones) attempt to operate roller skating facilities because they are recognized as an important source of recreation for the pre-teen and teen markets. The problem is that they usually manage these centers at a loss. USA has been very successful in using its extensive industry experience to manage municipally owned facilities.

In its first two years of operation, the Newark, New Jersey rink returned in excess of $120,000 to Essex County. The company's second inner-city partnership, with the City of Cleveland, Ohio, is a $5-million urban recreation center offering roller skating, food service, indoor and outdoor basketball, an outdoor swimming pool, several multipurpose rooms, softball fields, soccer fields, gymnastics and an indoor jogging track. Although the roller skating portion of this center is not quite as large as the skating facility in Newark, it should generate close to $500,000 in revenues this year and infuse $200,000 into the local community.

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USA's latest public-private endeavor in Baltimore is a 77,000-sq.ft. recreation center that features roller skating and bowling. USA formed a partnership with Baltimore that will transform a money-losing operation into a profit center. In fact, in USA's first month of operation in Baltimore, it generated about $60,000 in revenue, which compares very favorably with the grand total of $325,000 generated by the city for the entire year in 1998.
USA's roller skating facilities are situated in both stand-alone buildings and as vital recreation/entertainment anchors of retail centers. Ranging in size from 22,000 sq.ft. to 34,000 sq.ft., USA's roller skating centers are generally located in major metropolitan areas with high population densities. Each site typically has 200,000 people living within a five-mile radius.

"Clean, Fun, Friendly and Safe" is its motto, and USA is a company with a history and a future of living up to that credo. USA plans to continue growing throughout urban and suburban communities. Expansion opportunities are sought nationwide.

For more information, contact David Feitel, vice president, United Skates of America, Inc., 14024 Weeping Cherry Drive, Suite 100, Rockville, MD 20850; 301-315-6390, Fax 301-315-6649.

Norman Traeger, founder and chairman of the board
-- In 1962, prior to founding USA and while in college, Mr. Traeger founded Varsity House Inc., one of the originators of the silk screen sportswear business. Between 1962 and 1968, Traeger negotiated every sports license available in the United States for his company as well as negotiating Disney character licenses. In 1968, the company was taken public and then sold in 1969. Traeger graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in marketing from Indiana University and has served in the United States Navy.

James Dvorak, president and chief executive officer
-- Mr. Dvorak has been with the company since 1980. During his tenure with USA, Dvorak has been a highly visible industry leader and has developed extensive relationships throughout the industry. Prior to joining USA, Dvorak was a manager at Xerox Corporation. He has a B.S. in business management from Ashland University in Ohio.

Michael Feiger, vice president
-- Mr. Feiger joined USA in 1991 as a general manager on the East Coast and served as an East Coast regional manager before obtaining his current position as vice president in 1993. He has a B.A. in psychology from Western and New England College and an M.E. in counseling psychology from Springfield College.

David Feitel, vice president
-- Mr. Feitel joined the company in March 1997. Prior to joining USA, Feitel served as an attorney at Miles and Stockbridge in Baltimore, Maryland and was staff counsel to the United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics in Washington, D.C. Feitel graduated magna cum laude with a degree in political science from Duke University, where he also obtained his J.D. Feitel has been admitted into the Maryland and District of Columbia Bars.

Robert Tyler, chief financial officer
-- Mr. Tyler has worked for the company since 1983. Prior to joining USA, Tyler was employed by Arthur Anderson & Company. Tyler has a B.S. in business administration from The Ohio State University and is a certified public accountant.

No need to reinvent the wheel

Wouldn't it be great if there was a tried and true entertainment concept, one that was proven to appeal to all ages and incomes and didn't have to depend on expensive high-tech glitz and gadgetry to draw a steady crowd? There is such an animal. It's called roller skating, America's favorite form of leisure entertainment for more than 100 years.

Ever since Belgian inventor Joseph Merlin crashed into a mirror at a London party on his first pair of patented roller skates in 1760, the concept has been a constant source of intrigue and entertainment. However, it was not until 1863 that the activity's appeal became more wide-spread with James Plimpton's invention of the "rocking" skate. The popularity of the new skate prompted him to established the first skating club in New York, where gentlemen would perform fancy figures and steps for their ladies.

In the early 1900s, wealthy gentlemen of Newport, Rhode Island played a primitive form of hockey known as "roller polo." Others held contests in dance and figure skating. Outdoors, men and women were racing in speed contests. The more the public saw of skating, the more they wanted to try it themselves.

The roller skating boom that started in the early part of the century began to be nurtured in 1937 by a group of skating rink owners, who established an association to promote skating and solid business practices for skating rinks. Known today as the Roller Skating Association (RSA), the group helped to guide the industry's steady growth process through the 1940s, 50's and 60s. Roller skating's most popular era was during the 1970s, when outdoor skating and disco skating were at their peaks.

Literally the grandfather of family entertainment venues, roller skating has been around so long that it flies below the radar screen of many who are searching for a hot draw to today's new destination lifestyle centers. But those who ignore it because of its low profile or who are tempted to relegate roller skating to the Rodney Dangerfield category should be aware that this old-fashioned activity is far from a "been there-done that" kind of thing. Americans may have been roller skating through the last century, but 150 million of them are still rolling into rinks to the tune of $900 million a year.

These figures give a partial explanation for the sport's long-lived popularity. Roller skating is, above all, affordable. It costs about $20 for a family of four to go roller skating. Compared to the average cost of that family attending a major-league baseball game, estimated at around $120, that's a real bargain. But the real story is that roller skating is also fun, healthy, recreational, and provides great social interaction. It doesn't require expensive equipment, fancy clothes, athletic prowess or special training. Anyone can do it and anyone can afford it. And that's why roller skating rink attendance tops that of other, better advertised recreational activities such as bowling, which according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association had 1998 attendance of 50.6 million, or professional baseball, which pulled in 73.3 million viewers during 1998.

Over the past 25 years, the roller skating industry has experienced stable, long-term growth estimated at 7-10 percent a year. Although there have been times of peak demand, the industry has demonstrated remarkable resilience. Today, even the high performance plateau of the disco days is giving way to a brand new rise in popularity as the combination of in-line skating and hip-hop/club dance music is replicating the same synergistic relationship, producing a resurging interest for the modern era. In addition to the recent popularity of in-line skating, roller hockey has become a major activity in several markets, with many rinks built in the last five years exclusively for that purpose. There are now more than 2,400 rinks throughout the United States. Beyond the fact that it is and always has been fun to do, another explanation for roller skating's longevity is that it hasn't segmented its client base into age groups or restricted itself to a particular type of setting. Its appeal cuts across all ages, income levels, races and genders.

Roller rinks are as successful in swanky suburban settings as they are in underprivileged urban areas. And this type of flexibility carries over into their placement within a retail center as well. Roller rinks don't need or demand the high visibility that other, newer forms of entertainment need to pull in customers. Because their draw is the activity they offer, roller rinks will succeed in off-the-beaten-path sites and in areas of a mall that are traditionally hard to rent.Another plus for developers and leasing agents is that roller rink operators typically do not look for big tenant improvement allowances. Their credo seems to be, "Simple store, simple formula, lots of people." Given their high traffic and low prices, roller skating rinks are kind of like the Wal*Marts of the entertainment industry. And like that retail giant, they offer real value for the money.