Sporting a new surface
When Plymouth, Minn., opened its $9 million, 1,200-seat Ice Center in 1997, city leaders forecasted that the facility’s two ice sheets would be sufficient to meet the community’s recreational needs. By 2003, however, the center was selling more than 6,000 hours of ice time annually and staying open more than 16 hours daily. To meet the growing demand, in December, the Plymouth Parks and Recreation Department expanded the Ice Center to include another ice sheet, more locker rooms, a larger lobby and concession area, and more parking.
Plymouth is a community of 70,000 residents located 10 miles northwest of downtown Minneapolis. The Ice Center is one of many in the metropolitan Twin Cities area and was built to house an Olympic-sized ice sheet (200 feet long by 100 feet wide) with 1,000 seats and a smaller sheet (200 feet long by 85 feet wide) with 200 seats. The facility is home to youth hockey groups with a combined 1,200 members and 40 hockey teams, as well as two high school teams, adult hockey clubs and figure skating clubs.
With so many users, demand was high year round. “We have large associations for skaters and hockey players, and they’re all looking for ice time,” says Bill Abel, Ice Center manager. “Generally speaking, at least in the metro area, during the winter (from October through February) I could probably sell out an additional two more ice sheets. Most other arenas could also have an additional ice sheet and do a fairly good job of selling that out.”
Providence Academy, a private school for first through 12th grade, opened in 2002. To compete with other private schools, it wanted to start a hockey team but did not want to operate its own ice rink. The school offered to help Plymouth pay for an Ice Center expansion to accommodate another ice sheet. Knowing the youth groups also could use the additional ice sheet, city leaders asked them to contribute funds for the expansion, and Plymouth made up the difference.
The city contracted with St. Paul, Minn.-based Ankeny Kell to design the expansion, which included another 200-foot-by-85-foot ice sheet and 500 more seats. The design firm incorporated “green building” materials when possible, and as a result, the facility is generating rebates from the electric utility for some of its high-efficiency equipment. For instance, the team rooms are situated beneath the bleachers to minimize the building’s square footage. The building also features a thermally efficient roof system, high-efficiency water heaters and dehumidification systems, and occupancy sensor fluorescent lighting to reduce energy costs. A variety of recycled products and plastic lumber were used for locker room amenities and flooring, and green tinted exterior glass minimizes heat gain in the summer and maximizes solar gain in the winter.
The $5.3 million expansion was funded by the private school ($1.2 million), the youth hockey group ($725,000) and the city ($1.5 million from the Parks and Recreation Department budget and an internal loan for $1.875 million). The city’s internal loan will be repaid by a $15 surcharge on every hour of ice time sold over 15 years. “We contacted all the users and told them that in order to have the ice sheet, we have to raise our rates $15,” Abel says. “They all agreed and said they would rather skate here than drive to another community and try to rent whatever ice would be left over.”
Since the expansion opened, the facility has increased its annual net profit from approximately $120,000 to nearly $190,000. Besides hosting more hockey players and figure skaters, the rinks are open most weekends for residents to skate. “With two ice sheets, we didn’t have enough open skating sessions because every minute was rented. The response from the community since we opened has been great,” Abel says. “It has worked out to be one of the nicest venues in the Minnesota area.”