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Menlo Park’s public pools attracted fewer swimmers this year amid the financial struggles of the city’s pool operator.
A staff report presented to the City Council on Sept. 9 shows that summer attendance at Burgess Pool fell nearly 12% compared to 2024, while Belle Haven Pool visits declined about 3%. Together, the two facilities drew thousands fewer visitors than the previous year, even as the city continues to invest heavily in maintaining them and advertising them.
The downturn comes more than a year after the city celebrated the reopening of Belle Haven Pool as part of the new Belle Haven Community Campus. At the time, officials touted the project as a long-overdue equity investment for the neighborhood, which historically had less access to recreation amenities than central Menlo Park.
This summer, the city helped Team Sheeper, the pools’ contracted operator, with greater marketing efforts. Although not contractually obligated, the city funded a mailer to residents advertising the Belle Haven and Burgess pools and offering a one-time use coupon. Menlo Park did not pay for the costs associated with the coupon.
The decline in usage complicates an already tense debate over aquatics funding. Menlo Park pays to operate and maintain both pools, while its private partner staffs lifeguards and runs programming. The arrangement has been fraught in recent years as the operator has asked for more city support, citing rising labor, insurance and maintenance costs.
Payments from users and subcontractors are supposed to fund the operations and provide revenue to the city through a revenue share. Team Sheeper says due to increased expenses with the new Belle Haven pool and less users than expected, it has been put in a tough financial position and lost nearly $200,000 year-to-date from its Menlo Park operations as of the end of August.
Scholarships for swim lessons, funded by the Beyond Barriers Athletic Foundation, rose 66% this summer. That boost helped expand access for low-income families but did not offset the broader trend of declining pool traffic.
If the city does not make a “do-or-die” decision by increasing funding for the operator or cutting hours, Team Sheeper says it will leave the city. The city council directed city staff to finalize a plan to provide additional funding to keep Team Sheeper afloat.
There are a lot of factors beyond our control. Public swimming pool use is down all over the US this summer compared to previous summers, due to multiple sources. This partly due to aging infrastructure and a lifeguard shortage, neither of which plague Menlo Park. On the other hand we have experienced an exceptionally cool summer. All over the country, pool attendance picks up when the weather heats up. Also economic insecurity has a negative impact on all kinds of spending. I don’t know whether operating the Menlo Park city pools is a viable way to make a living.
It’s also worth noting that the Belle Haven pool has a higher percentage of resident usage compared to Burgess. Over 70% of pool users in Belle Haven are city residents. I think that is important to note since part of the reason for the invenstment was to cure historic inequities. High residents usage would seem to indicate that it is doing what we wanted it to do. The cynical side of me suggests that rising wealth gaps could contribute to the larger usage drops at Burgess pool, but I have no data to back that up – just a tin foil cap. Just keep swimming and supporting the pools – public services should not be under pressure to turn a profit.