What a shopping centre is really buying
A centre is buying footfall, dwell time and the knock-on lift to tenant sales, plus the media and social reach a winter attraction generates. The rink is rarely the profit centre itself. It is the thing that pulls people through the doors and keeps them inside longer, and a longer visit means more transactions and a stronger case at the next lease renewal.
Why that outcome depends on the surface
The rink sits on display in the concourse, in front of the exact audience the centre wants to convert. About 80% of a rink's attendance depends on people enjoying themselves, and passer-by traffic, the whole point of a mall rink, is drawn by the sight of people having fun. A full, happy rink pulls the next shopper off the walkway; an empty or unhappy one repels the footfall it exists to create.
What regular synthetic ice costs a centre
A soft surface makes skaters plough and tire, so they leave early and do not come back, and a visibly tired rink in the middle of the concourse suppresses the passer-by draw the whole thing was bought for. Advertising can be weatherproof, steady income a rink relies on year over year, but the risk follows the operation: a poorly run rink loses advertisers after season one and may be unable to replace them. And a rink that looks cheap undercuts a centre that is trying to feel premium.
Why Glice quality delivers it
Glice keeps skaters gliding and enjoying themselves, which is the full, lively rink that draws the next shopper and produces the shareable moment a centre wants online. Lower abrasion means no debris tracked across a retail floor, and an edge that holds means the rink still looks good at 6pm on a Saturday, not just at opening. That edge life holds only while skates stay on the ice or rubber matting; hard flooring or asphalt ruins it fast. With premium boards, it elevates the space rather than cheapening it. The performance is independently measured by Fraunhofer.
The premium, and why it repays itself
Glice costs about 20 to 30% more than regular synthetic ice, and each cost of going without the quality stands on its own. The tenant-sales lift a fuller concourse produces can cover it. So can the advertising a well-liked rink keeps. So can the sharpening a dulling surface would pile on, provided skates stay on the ice or rubber matting because hard flooring or asphalt ruins an edge fast. Any single one usually repays the premium, and the return runs through footfall, not ticket margin.
An honest concession
There is no verified retail footfall benchmark specific to Glice, so a centre should run these arguments against its own footfall and conversion data rather than a headline number. And location inside the centre matters: a rink tucked into a dead corner underperforms whatever its surface, and the centre's marketing has to carry more of the load.
In short
A mall rink is bought for footfall, dwell and the lift to tenant sales, almost all of which depends on people enjoying the rink and being seen to. Regular synthetic ice rarely delivers that, and a tired rink on the concourse repels the traffic it was meant to draw. Glice's independently measured quality protects the footfall, the advertising and the premium feel, and any one of those usually repays the premium within a season.
Reviewed by Viktor Meier, Co-Founder and CEO, Glice AG. Last reviewed August 2026.
Glice — Swiss-engineered synthetic ice. No water, no energy — proven across 3,000+ rinks in 100+ countries.