Rush, one of the UK’s leading trampoline park businesses with parks in High Wycombe and Birmingham has set out its plans for re-opening the business on Saturday 1st August despite being overlooked by the government last night with no indication in its guidance yesterday about whether trampoline parks are included in the businesses that are able to re-open on or after the 25th July.
Phil James, Group Head of Operations, said: “The government has completely overlooked our industry with no guidance on whether we are able to re-open. We know that indoor gyms, gymnastic facilities, fitness and dance studios and indoor sports venues and facilities are able to open but there has been no indication as to whether this includes trampoline parks. We know many children are keen to re-visit trampoline parks to exercise and have fun after being at home for many months. We have contacted the government for clarity however we have been passed to the sports and enquiries team with no response as yet. Rush was one of the first trampoline parks to voluntarily close its doors due to COVID-19 and the business is struggling due to impacted revenues. It’s imperative that the government provide us with this clarity on when we can re-open so the business has a chance of surviving.”
In the meantime, the team at Rush are preparing the business for a possible re-opening on Saturday 1st August and will be completely changing the customer experience to ensure customers and staff are safe and can practice safe social distancing.
Rush will be following the International Association of Trampoline Parks’s re-opening guidelines and upcoming government guidance closely and plans to implement a phased re-opening strategy with a number of new measures being introduced following on from a consolation with its staff and customers.
Phil James continued: “The guidance for gyms is to have 100 sq ft per person so with our parks being 30,000 sq ft and 35,000 sq ft we are preparing for a limited capacity of approximately 80 jumpers per session and up to 80 spectators. We urgently need the government to release guidance for this.”
Rush will also be introducing a huge number of news measures to keep customers and staff safe but still able to visit and have fun at the parks. Rush recently polled 1,100 of its customers and 79 per cent said they will visit the park once it re-opens and 42 per cent have missed the experience of visiting Rush over the last few months since closure.*
Rush will also be offering 200 NHS and key worker families the opportunity to visit the park for free for the first ‘session’ every day for the first two months that it will be open as a thank you for the service provided to society throughout the Coronavirus crisis. Commonwealth gymnast Dominic Cunningham will also be re-opening the park with a virtual re-opening ceremony’ once a date has been set.
The new re-opening safety measures will include:
- A completely new customer journey throughout the park to ensure social distancing while moving around.
- A phased unlocking of the business with significantly reduced capacity and opening hours during each phase.
- Temperature checks for all staff.
- PPE equipment for all staff.
- A contactless sales and drive-thru ‘checking in’ process with online booking only.
- An intense ‘always on’ cleaning schedule including a significant number of hand sanitising stations in the park and enhanced cleaning schedule with a 30 minute break between each jump session.
- All customers will be required to watch a remote video in how to use the park safely and practice social distancing and will sign up to a ‘pledge’ to follow social distance guidelines.
- Implementing a new ‘age’ restriction policy. Children under the age of 4 will not be able to visit the park at all due to the fact they are less able to practice strict social distancing. All children under the age of 12 must have an adult member of their family supervising them at all times. This age 15 and under need to have an adult present with them in the building.
- A new ‘Social Distance Director’ role has been created for each jump session and the member of staff will be ensuring children are following good social distancing in a fun way.
Over 1.5 million jumpers have visited a Rush park over the last four years and the business had experienced its best ever February in 2020 with over 22,000 customers in the February half-term alone. This week Rush Birmingham won the ‘Best Family Activity and Entertainment Centre’ category at the UK Enterprise Awards.
The first phase of Rush re-opening will see the business being open with a significantly reduced capacity. The Rush restaurant will be closed and café will serve snacks and hot and cold drinks only. The soft-play centre in the High Wycombe park will also remain closed.
Phil James, said: “The indoor leisure sector has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and it was absolutely devastating to go from one of our best ever month in February to being closed in March this year. We urgently need clarity from the government on when we can re-open. By releasing our plans for re-opening, we want our customers to be reassured that Rush will be as safe and clean as possible. While we are lucky in that our trampolines are at least 2m apart and our parks are huge so children can still enjoy Rush safely, we still have a huge challenge in keeping the business afloat and we need our customers to support us when we do re-open to ensure long term viability of the business.”
