Revenue Potential


Building a state-of-the-art Aquatic Center at North Domingo Baca Park not only provides revenue from solid local use. But, it also offers an unprecedented opportunity for Albuquerque to attract Aquatics-focused tourism from around the country and world. The far Northeast Heights, with it's proximity to Balloon Fiesta Park and it's tourism infrastructure, is already well-suited to host and delight tourists from around the world.

REVENUE POTENTIAL - LOCAL

Given the significant shortage of public swim facilities throughout the northern half of the City of Albuquerque, there is tremendous demand for this proposed facility. It is expected that local swim teams, parents seeking swim safety classes for their children, individuals needing aquatic therapy classes, water sports clubs seeking practice and game facilities, and everyday kids wanting to hang out, play and just be kids will be, regularly, using this pool. We expect solid revenue potential simply from strong, local demand.

Our citizen group recently learned that the development of a 'Cost-Benefit Analysis' is planned for the North Domingo Baca Aquatic Center. (We are not clear on who will perform this analysis.) To give you an idea of what this will likely entail, here's the one for the aquatic center that Las Cruces recently designed and built (in 2018). We believe Albuquerque could EASILY derive MUCH more revenue benefit from the North Domingo Baca Aquatic Center and would strongly encourage the City's tourism office have some involvement in this program.


REVENUE POTENTIAL - TOURISM (DOMESTIC & INTERNATIONAL)

But, there's MORE!! A unique, unprecedented tourism revenue opportunity is at hand for Albuquerque. In addition to revenues generated by the local use of the proposed aquatic center, we believe this facility will also be in high demand during lower-use seasons. Athletes nationwide and globally seek out high-altitude training facilities to provide a more strenuous training experience that leads to higher performance at lower altitudes.

The proximity to mountain running and biking trails, river access, tourism-supporting infrastructure, plus our moderate climate all combine to make Albuquerque a fantastic place for athletes to train. Our goal is to have the City design and build a 50m Olympic pool (and seating) that will also attract out-of-state visitors for a wide-variety of aquatics-based competitions, trainings and events.

For the City, this could not only create greater awareness of New Mexico and Albuquerque as prime tourism destinations, but also generate a huge influx of tax revenues while improving the economy for local businesses (hotel nights, restaurant and retailer visits, etc.).

National and International athlete groups that would likely be interested in training in Albuquerque:

  • International Olympic swim teams (members of the Japanese Olympic swim team train in Santa Fe)

  • Senior Olympics participants

  • Triathletes from around the world (many currently use Santa Fe)


INFRASTRUCTURE

The area around North Domingo Baca Park already has a very well-developed infrastructure in place to serve both the local community and the International Balloon Fiesta visitors and balloonists. It is also ready to serve the needs of the swim community. From city bus services to restaurants, retailers (including a Big 5 sporting goods store), hotels, and developed roads, the park and area are fully ready to support an aquatic center.


ACCESSIBILITY

North Domingo Baca Park and the long-planned, not yet funded Aquatic Center are located in the highly accessible far northeast heights of modern-day Albuquerque. The location, just one minute north of the intersections of Wyoming Blvd. NE & Paseo Del Norte, is easily accessed by I-25, Paseo del Norte/the PDN bridge, the Alameda bridge & ABQRide bus route #31 (Wyoming). It is an ideal location that can easily serve many parts of the northern half of the City.