New rink

[All Torhs Team 0]

Alright our town has a major inline organization, maybe some of you know us we are the Phantoms out of Illinios. Alot of our players have had to travel 45 min. for practice and about 2 hours for home games in order to play ice.

We finally got a new rink -- actually its an arena. With a huge rink that will get taken down for big events and there is a smaller rink for figure skating hockey and public.

As an organization we were promised that we would get ice time and the first game played on the big sheet of ice in the arena would be our 2 highschool rivaries. Well we were lied to.

the new owner of this arena held a board meeting and invited our Inline board to come so we could be informed of getting screwed over.

We were told that hockey will not be a priority, figure skating will be the main use for ice. If we do get to use the rink it will only be the small rink and for $185 an hour. We are coming from $100 an hour.

Plus a new hockey store just opened becuase our town was turning into a big hockey town.

So after this guy tells us how hockey willl not be recognized, apparently he went 1 hour out of his way to another towns organization and offered them some ice time deals.

Well we are the locals so thanks alot bud <_<

But we have one thing to hold over his head. One person that is a represenative of our major inline org. is also a USA hockey affiliator.

Basically all youth hockey leagues that want to develope have to go through him first. So what we plan to do (as an organization) is not let this rink owner start up youth hockey until he takes back all the things that he wronged us for.

I am asking you if you agree with our actions (as an organization) holding the USA hockey leagues against him. That will be alot of money that he could use but thats pretty much the only "gun" we got.

Any thoughts? And I know, I wanted to take my anger out somewhere.

[warrior37 0]

sounds a little far fetched to me, there are probably politics that are out of most peoples league going on

[stickfixchaska 0]

Do I agree with your actions? Nope.

Your post made it sound like it's a privately owned arena. That means, they can do as they wish. Starting a huge battle over the price of Ice isn't the best move. If you don't want to pay that price, continue driving to your old rink. The owner obvioulsy EXPECTS you to use his place and doesn't think you'll go else where. If your protest takes you 2 hours away for cheaper ice, he may get the message.

If your USA Hockey guy really has to power to stop a youth association from starting in the area, what would that do the the cost of ice times? They would only go up. Your "organization" would only get put on his $hit-list. Once you're on that list, you could have a very difficult time getting off it.

If I am mistaken and the facility is run by the city, then you can continue to go to board meetings and address the cost of ice time. They will get tired of hearing it eventually and do something about it.

I guess I am saying that you need to be smart and go about it the right way. Stoping a local association from forming or buying ice from a rink is just bad publicity. More so for USA Hockey than the Arena.

[All Torhs Team 0]

It is run by the city and I dont know who gets to decide ice time.

But our actions, (keeping youth hockey out of there) can hurt us, I see your point, but it will also hurt him too because he will need money.

I am not complainging about the money. $185 we can get used to, but the lying that had gone on and the promises that were broken really killed alot of our plans.

And I guess what Im saying is how does this guy think he is going to rake in alot of money if hes going to treat his locals like this.

He did state that hockey is not a priority to him so he doesnt need his money.

He will get it from the arena shows and figure skating but Its kinda disgusting that our new rink and the towns biggest accomplishment treats hockey this way.

[BK 0]

It is run by the city and I dont know who gets to decide ice time.

But our actions, (keeping youth hockey out of there) can hurt us, I see your point, but it will also hurt him too because he will need money.

I am not complainging about the money. $185 we can get used to, but the lying that had gone on and the promises that were broken really killed alot of our plans.

And I guess what Im saying is how does this guy think he is going to rake in alot of money if hes going to treat his locals like this.

He did state that hockey is not a priority to him so he doesnt need his money.

He will get it from the arena shows and figure skating but Its kinda disgusting that our new rink and the towns biggest accomplishment treats hockey this way.

I feel your pain.

We have 4 local sheets here..

The Peaks (2002 Olympic venue).. SOME hockey, but only late at night. Drop in is after 10pm.. but if you figureskate, pick your time durring the day.. the schedule looks like this:

8am-11am: Open Ice (figure skating only)

11:30am-2pm: Beginners Figure Skating

2:30-4pm: Advance Figure Skating.

4pm-5:30pm: Learn to Skate

6:00-7:00:Open Ice (figure skating only)

7:00pm-9:00pm: Public Skate

9pm and after - Private team hockey (BYU, UVSC, Private groups etc).

Want the know the best part? They have 3 sheets of ice. 2 are figure skating sized (lots larger than hockey regulation) and the only nhl regulation sheet, isnt a sheet.. they covered it with astroturf and they have an indoor soccer league play on it...

The Olympic Oval:

Its about 30 min away from here and rarely has dropin.. they focus more on speedskating. They host a lot of events so they dont have much time to host hockey.

Bountiful Rec:

LOTS of hockey.. but shitty ice. Spit in your hand and stick it in the freezer till its frozen.. thats what the ice feels like. Its like you are skating on semi-frozen snot. They host a lot of hockey events, but are about an hour away from Provo.

Gullivan center:

My driveway is bigger.. No joke, its like 40'x30' square.. no hockey period.. but that doesnt matter cuz they cant even get a zamboni on the ice there, so the ice is shit anyways.. I have seen better frozen lakes.

Ecenter:

GREAT VENUE! but not much hockey going on due to the Griz games.

[hocckey77 0]

It is run by the city and I dont know who gets to decide ice time.

are you talking about the edge?

[All Torhs Team 0]

no, the edge is a wonder full rink. Statewars in chicago right?

I dont know much about the edge's rink time scheduales and how they treat the locals. But I betcha its better then around here.

[Hobbes_86 0]

Have you thought of creating your own organization? The women’s travel teams out of the Ann Arbor area have banded together to buy huge blocks of ice from Yost. It keeps their price down and Yost is more than willing to help them get prime ice times. It’s a better bargaining chip when instead of buying X amount sheets of ice a week now your buying X sheets a week for multiple teams.

[hocckey77 0]

no, the edge is a wonder full rink. Statewars in chicago right?

I dont know much about the edge's rink time scheduales and how they treat the locals. But I betcha its better then around here.

What rink do you play out of? When you said it was controlled by the city I thought of the Edge since I think the Mayor of Bensenville runs it kind of.

[All Torhs Team 0]

Bloomington-Normal,Illinios.

The rink has not yet been opened to public.

I think its like May 6 opening day. But the board meeting was held like two nights ago.

[analog999 0]

Quit your bitchin.. at least you have a rink closeby now. I would gladly pay $185 an hour. We pay $300/hour and the rink is an hour away.

Anyway, he will learn that to up his revenues he will need hockey. Figure skaters can't keep a place running unless there are buttloads of them. I don't have a problem with your actions - business is business and may the dirtiest dog win. ahem - keep it legal!

[sdcopp 1]

You know what business men like this respond best to? Show him the money. Show him how much revenue Hockey can bring in. That's the bottom line. No angry gestures, no outbursts and threats, just straight up numbers. Look to the long term, especially if you know how much you have been spending the past few years.

[Hkydog 0]

185 an hour isn't bad. Ice here goes from 165 to 250. There are 8 rinks in town and Figure Skating is the big money maker followed by public skating. Assoc. only get ice in the evening one Assoc went to the extreme to buy an inline complex and change one of its rinks over to ice. That said you didn't say if the out of town organization just came in and made a contract for ice first in the new facility. Awhile back here in Colorado Springs a new assoc. came in and bought all the ice it needed leaving the old Assoc. out in the cold. Old assoc. never took new serious and didn't contract for ice, assuming it had nothing to worry about when it came to ice. Money talks so the guys with the money got the ice. You situation sounds like the above.

[All Torhs Team 0]

yes, I understand and I agree that $185 is not bad ice but we were lied to on multiple occasions.

And this guys actions is what im upset about.

He treats his locals horrible and the rink is not even running yet.

He goes and gets a contract in other towns when he tells us we can not have alot of hockey.

He tells us we can have an opening game there that had already been advertized and then backs out because "hockey is not good enough for an arena".

The arena is all that we've looked forward to for the last two years and now we find out that not much has changed.

I know alot of you own hockey shops ( and I know that rink manager does not compare to hockey shop owner ) but one thing they have in common is the locals and Wanting business.

Why show him the money when he tells us that he does not need hockey.

[Hkydog 0]

Its all economics. If a figureskater is paying say $10 an hour plus whatever the coach has to pay the rink to work out of there. Have 20 skaters =$200+ add in the coaches part. He is making more on them than Hockey. Add in the fact that an outside Assoc. made a contract for the at least $185, he is going where he makes the most money. If you are bocking at paying 185 he just went with someone that would pay. Supply and demand, limited supply high demand. Same as guys going to online stores when they don't like their LHS prices. Heck he probably figured that you would stay where you were skating, if no one approached him to contract for the ice.

[Chadd 916]

That's why you alwys get things in writing as soon as possible.