Trampoline park phenomenon

Amusement parks? Check. Water parks? Check. Trampoline parks? Check.

The city of Troy will feature the grand opening of the AirTime Trampoline and Game Park this June.

The park will be a large, 15,000 square-foot indoor facility with most of the space being dedicated to interlocked trampolines and foam pits. The park in Troy will be the first of its kind in Michigan.

 

Bringing the park to Michigan

Pam Wannemacher, co-founder of AirTime, described the idea of the trampoline park as coming from others she has seen around the country.

“I believe the idea started with a company called Sky Zone, who went on to turn their parks into a franchise,” Wannemacher said. “Instead of doing a franchise, we wanted to it a little bit differently.”

AirTime looked at dozens of cities around the country for areas without a trampoline park and settled on the Detroit market due to demographics and population size in the area.

“We thought it was a great opportunity, especially seeing that the Detroit economy is bouncing back,” Wannemacher said. “We wanted to be a part of that.”

 

Features of the park

The trampoline park will be located in the Troy Market Place on East Big Beaver Road in a 31,000 square-foot facility. The park will feature about 12,000 square-feet of open trampoline areas and more room for foam pits.

“Essentially, it’s going to be wall-to-wall trampolines,” Wannemacher said.

Areas of the park will be divided by age, such as seven and under, eight to 13 and 14 and up. The purpose is for the area to be safe so younger children can have their own areas to play.

Other features of the park will include two different dodgeball courts, one featuring trampoline play and the other being a traditional gymnasium style court. Gymnastics instructors will also be at the park to teach willing learners how to do tumbling, which is the purpose of the foam pits.

“The trampoline dodgeball court will probably be one of the more popular features of the park,” Wannemacher said. “It’s something other parks have done and it’s a big attraction.”

The overall cost of the project is over $1 million, with much of the cost coming from the construction of the trampolines themselves.

While the facility in Troy already exists, AirTime has to remodel the building.

Some of the things they need to build in the facility are restrooms, reception areas and offices.

 

Reaching out

Participants will pay by the hour to use the park, with $10 during the week and $12 during the weekends after the park opens.

Wannemacher also hopes to reach out to the surrounding colleges, to help with fundraisers for student and Greek organizations at area colleges, such as Oakland University.

Elizabeth Gretkierewicz, a health science major, said the idea is a great one, but doesn’t see much potential for those her age.

“It seems as if the business is targeting a very small customer market, which pretty much includes athletes interested in trampoline training and young kids to have fun,” Gretkierewicz said.

The park is schedule to open in June and is using social media to promote itself in the area.

“We cannot wait for Michigan to experience our trampoline (park),” Wannemacher said.

For more information about the trampoline park and updates, visit www.airtimetrampoline.com

 

 

Contact Staff Reporter Damien Dennis via email at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @djdennisOU