Millers’ business on a roll

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Frank and Tammy Miller say they never forgot how much fun they had skating when they were children, which led them in part to open Hot Wheels Skate Center, located off Sparta Street on Hot Wheels Lane, almost four years ago. (Amy Satterwhite photo)

While few approaching middle age would want to host hundreds of children ranging between the ages of 8 and 14 every single weekend, Frank and Tammy Miller are the exception.

The Millers opened Hot Wheels Skate Center off Sparta Street four years ago next month and wouldn’t have it any other way.

The couple grew up skating, Tammy Miller said of how the business got started. After marrying and not skating for a time, they starting going to skating rinks as adults. That’s where the idea for Hot Wheels came from.

“We got the fever again,” she said. “It was always in the back of our minds, but we decided that at the age we were at, we were either going to do it or quit talking about it. It was pretty scary. It was a big endeavor,” she added of starting a brand new skating business, which is equipped with the latest in technology, for example, like having a liquid urethane floor versus a wooden floor.

The couple admits to a learning curve on the business end of skating, but nevertheless, they love what they do. Even though they have made life long friends with children’s parents, their clients are obviously the children themselves, and they don’t mind at bit.

“That’s our public,” Frank Miller said. “Our public is 8-to-14-year olds. That’s who we deal with every weekend and that’s who our friends are, basically. Anywhere you see them, they’ll come up and we’ll talk and hang out and stuff.”

The skating rink is open Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night and Sunday, which is family day, and offers patrons admissions of $3 and $5 or a family rate of up to five family members for $8 on Sundays. Speed or regular skate rentals and roller blade rentals are available. Every Tuesday, a beginner’s class is offered for $3 and a variety of other skating activities are offered throughout the course of the year.

A well-stocked snack bar is also available, as are games, lighting and music to roll to in various formats. Hot Wheels also hosts special events like birthday parties and other private parties and offers a special fund raiser through local schools.

Although initially the couple didn’t know what to expect, four years and thousands of kids later, it’s no secret Hot Wheels has caught on in a community where youth are constantly looking for something to do.

This time of year, an estimated 250 patrons walk through the doors on a Friday night, as well as 125 on a Saturday night, they said.

“We figure we do between 500 and 600 a week,” Frank Miller said, “so that would be 275,000 to 300,000 people to come through here a year. That’s not all separate people. That’s just head count,” he added.

It would not be a stretch to say the couple feels triply blessed – doing what they love while making a living and providing a form of entertainment for children.

“We feel like we’re providing entertainment and exercise, which children need both instead of sitting in front of the video games, and it’s always good when you can find something they enjoy,” Tammy Miller said.

“And there’s not a lot of trouble to get into at the rink when you’re in a skating rink and you are kept inside and can’t get out,” he added, noting there are nine people on staff to watch over children and that skaters are not supposed to leave the rink.

The bottom line is, the skating world has brought joy to a couple who has always loved to skate.

“We feel like we’ve found whatever it is in life that people are always looking for – that one thing that they were meant to do,” she added. “We feel like this is it.”