Rinks/Hockey in my town

[Aussie Joe 0]

I thought I might reach out with the story of ice rinks in Melbourne, AUS. and see if some of you could give your opinions on the situation that is at the moment in my home town.

5-8 years ago we had 5 rinks scattered accross the state. Hockey was going quite well and, altough some sections of the state were cut off geographically we maintained a healthy interest. At the present there is but one rink in the state that is well below standard. The boards are croked, there is no perspex whatsoever, there's a corner where we have 2 inchs of ice missing where the Zamboni leaves. Yet we cling to Oakleigh, as she is our last remaining ice rink. Between us we share the rink with Figure skaters, speed skaters etc. Pretty much all ice sports in the state of Victoria are housed under the one rink.

Melbourne Ice opened their season last Sunday, to a packed house and a well earned 2-0 win against Canberra.

There was hope when a new rink was promised by the joint aid of the Victorian State government and ING Finance. This rink's plan begun in 2001, it was promised that by 2005 we would have a dual ice rink facility in a central location of Melbourne. The rink was to be olympic sized and be the home of the Australian Winter Olympic Commitee. It is now 2008 and the project has been on hold and the site left empty. Last weekend I heard word by a tradesperson working on the site that the rink has been canned and replaced by a multilevel car park.

Yet recently (start of 2008) a group called N-Ice has claimed to be the saviour of all things, they claim to be building an olympic sized rink, with boards, glass etc the works! Only catch is its synthetic ice (new wave plastic you skate on with hockey skates etc). I have read the reports about this surface on MSH and have come to the conclusion this is a poor substitute for the real thing.

I beleive Im right to feel peeved about the situation, moreso that the only solution thats out there is plastic under your feet as opposed to real ice. We maybe a fringe nation when it comes to ice sports but it is my beleif the great state of Victoria deserves better. We have been arguably the no.1 state for ice sports for so long, yet it seems so hard to get a rink thats real ice or even upto code. I feel so overwhelmed by it all sometimes as I love the Ice version of our sport so much, what do you all think/would feel if in my shoes?

PS: Sorry for the rant, but the history is an important context builder.

[nemo 0]

hey aussie joe i was just wondering if you play for the melbourne ice, I have a friend who played on the team at one point and is out there right now trying out.

[jeffw 1]

As someone who nearly lost their rink last summer I can empathize with you.

I know it's not ice but maybe an inline rink would be a much more economical solution and an easier sell to the state? Like I said it's not ice but if I had to chose between that and no hockey it'd be a no brainer.

Or maybe you're the guy to organize a group to lobby for the state to get moving on the proposed rink? Tell them it'll be so busy they'll need that and the carpark to handle the volume. B)

[Patrick67 1]

Electric bills for Ice in Melbourne must be through the roof.

On the topic of synthetic ice... avoid it at all costs, inlinehockey is a way better solution than that.

[Zamboni 6]

Hard to imagine a rich nation like Australia can't afford to build proper facilities in all its major cities. Hell, I'm in a town of 110,000 with 10 pads....and neighbouring cities have similar arenas so that is just for our town, not the general area.

Denying kids hockey-that's criminal!

[Aussie Joe 0]

hey aussie joe i was just wondering if you play for the melbourne ice, I have a friend who played on the team at one point and is out there right now trying out.

I don't play for Melb ice, Im a few levels below. If your mates are Kyle and Gabrielle, I trained with them this last Tues night. Great guys and amazing players.

[mrciv 0]

boy i played at oakleigh back in 99 with the jets. i still cant believe theres no glass on the boards yet. i know the rink is small and crappy but at least they could have fixed it up. sad that the inline rink has sportcourt and glass and is also bigger maybe the guys who run puckhandlers r the people who should be running ice hockey in melbourne!!!!

[nemo 0]

hey aussie joe i was just wondering if you play for the melbourne ice, I have a friend who played on the team at one point and is out there right now trying out.

I don't play for Melb ice, Im a few levels below. If your mates are Kyle and Gabrielle, I trained with them this last Tues night. Great guys and amazing players.

Nope not those guys! his name is david ferrari, just got an email from him and he didnt make it cuz hes only out there for a few more weeks (hes originally from melbourne but is out here in calgary for the hockey.)

Sucks about your rink he was telling me all about how crappy it was and I totally thought he was exaggerating about the state of it until I saw some pictures. He said you guys would be getting a new rink but nothing about the surface. Great to hear theres a few levels out there!

[Aussie Joe 0]

boy i played at oakleigh back in 99 with the jets. i still cant believe theres no glass on the boards yet. i know the rink is small and crappy but at least they could have fixed it up. sad that the inline rink has sportcourt and glass and is also bigger maybe the guys who run puckhandlers r the people who should be running ice hockey in melbourne!!!!

If Ross was running ice in Melb it would definately be a better rink and playing experience. The only thing is a small amount of ppl would shy away due to issues with costs. But hey I'd be happy thats for sure.

hey aussie joe i was just wondering if you play for the melbourne ice, I have a friend who played on the team at one point and is out there right now trying out.

I don't play for Melb ice, Im a few levels below. If your mates are Kyle and Gabrielle, I trained with them this last Tues night. Great guys and amazing players.

Nope not those guys! his name is david ferrari, just got an email from him and he didnt make it cuz hes only out there for a few more weeks (hes originally from melbourne but is out here in calgary for the hockey.)

Sucks about your rink he was telling me all about how crappy it was and I totally thought he was exaggerating about the state of it until I saw some pictures. He said you guys would be getting a new rink but nothing about the surface. Great to hear theres a few levels out there!

I trained with David on Tues night. Good physical player, I can see how he'd fit in well with the Canadian system.