The roots of Madison’s first skatepark, scheduled to officially open Sept. 10 in Central Park at the end of South Few Street, go back to 2001. That’s when Patrick Hasburgh, a local skateboarder then in his 20s frustrated about the city’s lack of places to legally ride, appeared on WORT-FM to discuss the issue.
A listener called in and suggested Hasburgh start a petition for a skatepark. A few months later, Hasburgh had collected more than 4,000 signatures, and the Madison Skatepark Fund was formed.
“We really had no idea what we were doing,” Hasburgh, now 37, says, admitting he and other skatepark proponents initially thought they could raise hundreds of thousands of dollars by staging local punk rock shows and other events. They never even came close.
Ryan Wisniewski
Skate park detail.
But when area skateboarders and other interested residents get an eyeful of the Irwin A. and Robert D. Goodman Skatepark — the $1 million, 20,000-square-foot concrete oasis on Madison’s east side — it’ll be clear Hasburgh and his fundraising crew eventually figured out what they were doing and convinced local officials to help them build one of the area’s largest and most appealing skateparks.
Roughly 70% of the skatepark caters to street-style skating, with stairs, ramps, railings and other urban obstacles. The remainder of the space includes two large bowls that allow skateboarders to generate momentum and perform airborne tricks.
The larger bowl is nine feet deep and shaped like an eggplant, to replicate the original empty swimming pools Southern California skateboarders used in the 1970s. Willy Street Co-op donated $50,000 toward the bowl. Large low-glare, reduced-spill lights illuminate the skatepark, and it’s enclosed with decorative black metal fencing separating the skatepark from railroad corridors to the north and south.
“All of this is occurring because of the Madison Skatepark Fund,” says Michael Sturm, a landscape architect with the city of Madison Parks Division.
Over the years, momentum picked up speed for a Madison skatepark. Support from city leaders including Mayor Paul Soglin, former Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and District 6 Ald. Marsha Rummel was crucial, and by 2013, hundreds of thousands of dollars were coming in via donations, grants and sponsorships from individuals, local businesses (including the Just Coffee Cooperative and Alumni Boardshop), the Tony Hawk Foundation, the Goodman Foundation, the Madison Community Foundation, the Marquette Neighborhood Foundation, the Purple Moon Foundation, and city and county entities.
“At that point, we felt like if this didn’t happen, we were going to let a lot of people down,” says Hasburgh, who over time became known as the Madison Skatepark Fund’s “spokesdude.”
Dane County is home to smaller skateparks in Middleton and Mount Horeb, but Hasburgh contends few free concrete facilities like the new one exist anywhere else in the Midwest.
“This skatepark legitimizes skateboarding and skateboarders in Madison,” he says, adding that he expects smaller facilities to pop up in other city neighborhoods. “Once people see what a real destination skatepark looks like — and the quality of athletes it brings — they will realize how legit the sport is.”
Sturm agrees. “I think it’s going to be a tremendous asset for the city,” he says. “The intent is to make this a destination skatepark.”
