To Design a Hockey Rink

[rohllie 0]

Next year i want to design a Rec center for a school project, and i'm going to include a hockey rink as the main focus. Most likely, i will have 2 ices, one NHL/NCAA legal size and one Olympic size.

I was just wondering if you guys had any ideas or tips that i could use, such as Penalty Box and Player bench position, effective placing of locker rooms, comfortable locker room size, comfortable bench size, etc.

Or even outside appeal to travelers.

I'm only in my second year of travel hockey and have not seen many other rinks, and even fewer good ones, so i figured i could get some help from some more seasoned veterans.

Thank you much for any suggestions.

[w0ahitsm3 0]

Since your going to want to have two sheets of ice, prolly best to keep the ice resurfacers central to the rinks. Then you only have one garage to house them.

[Aussie Joe 0]

The IIHF has a fantastic model on how to build a rink. Hopefully it maybe some use to you...

IIHF "Arena Manual"

[rohllie 0]

Since your going to want to have two sheets of ice, prolly best to keep the ice resurfacers central to the rinks. Then you only have one garage to house them.

I was actually considering that. More cost-effective and easier to maintain

[biff44 0]

An ice rink is an ice rink! What stands out in my mind about the memorable ones are things like:

1) Excellent sound system--nothing worse than booming/echoing tunes at each faceoff

2) Plastic benches! Who in their right mind every thought up aluminum heat sinks benches????

3) Some funky stuff. I saw a great little rink in Laconia NH where it was basically disco night during some junior games! They had strobe lights, whirling mirrored balls, collored lights. It sounds hockey, but for a small junior crowd it really added a lot of zip. They also did community TV access of the games, which in turn spawned community interest in coming to the games.

4) A bar! There is nothing better than a cold frosty one while you are watching some pee wee game in the middle of winter! A little decent food would not hurt either! At least burgers/pizza, breakfast sandwiches, etc.

5) Practice areas for players. It would take almost nothing to have a small (1/4 size) shooting area with real ice IF you designed it in when you were doing the 2 sheets. That way you can get a lot of skating/shooting instruction going--might create the next bobby orr!

6) A nice big entrance lobby. There is a new rink in Haverhill MA where the rinks are nothing to talk about, but there is a nice big friendly open lobby area. During each break, everybody files out, and starts talking to one another out there!

7) There has to be some heating somewhere! I know it costs a lot, but if you want community involvement/buying tickets, they can not be freezing their tushes off.

8) Good ventilation/desicators for the locker rooms. Any day now there will be a 60 minutes report coming about the various molds and bacteria found at the local ice rink! All you have to do is keep it dry!

9) Enough parking for tournaments.

10) A big screen tv in the lobby! You do not want people having to chose between watching a patriots football game or a stanley cup final and their kids hockey game! Let them wander in and out.

11) WiFi access. Charge a buck or two if you must. But it is a shame that moms and dad's have to sit there and watch johnny skate in practice every day and all they can read is the latest Hockey journal. Make it possible for them to get some work done, and the interest in hockey will increase.

12) Make sure there is cell phone access! A lot of rinks simply do not have any! They make the walls and roof out of metal and the signal doe snot get thru! If you must build it that way, have a passive repeater antenna inside somewhere.

[Cheesehead 0]

Have the locker rooms in a hallway between both sheets of ice. You would want Probably 8 locker rooms. A pro shop is a must also. Put it off to a side, but still in the lobby

[rohllie 0]

how big is a comfortable locker room for 16-20 adults?

[Gummer12 134]

It can never be too big. Also,

STORAGE!!!!

Concessions, and rink supplies, and office supplies...Need Storage for Everything... also an Employee locker room/break room is never a bad idea. Being able to keep my gear here at the rink is a Godsend. That way if a team is ever short, esp in net, I can quick throw my shit on, and game is saved.

[SuperMan3 1]

Make one sheet Olympic sized

[mattzilla 0]

my local rink forgot referee change rooms...

[joshy207 15]

Skip the Olympic ice. It was a trend here in Michigan about 10-15 years ago, but I haven't seen any new Olympic sheets go up in at least 7-8 years. They're larger, so you're looking at using more water, electricity, and Zamboni/Olympia fuel. And what for? The figure skaters might like it, but not too many hockey teams/players do anymore.

Spacious locker rooms. They don't have to be enormous, but 18-20 adults (midgets, HS, college, Jrs) should be able to change without touching each other. Also, more than 2 shower heads.

The single most important thing though, is to have great ice. Might mean a little extra equipment--dehumidifiers, ventilation, maintenance tools--but the single biggest bitch you'll hear about arenas is "the ice sucks". You can put a fancy building around a crappy sheet of ice, but in the end, it's still just a turd. On the other hand, some of the best ice is inside ugly buildings.

[RadioGaGa 162]

Also, more than 2 shower heads.

I agree...and make sure the water pressure/temp is decent. We've got a rink here. From the DAY IT OPENED the shower\s have sucked either way too hot...or freezing cold. very rarely a decent temp. In a shower with 4 shower head...invariably 1 or 2 of them done' work at all...or trickle for 5 seconds then shut off....

[ramensandwich 1]

penalty boxes on opposite side of the rink from the benches, just like a real NHL arena.

[D3nZ 0]

Maybe you should visit or research different 2 rink arenas that already been built and maybe talk to the arena managers to the arenas you visit and he will probably tell you the things he would like to do different with the place. Having had a course in sport facilities the major focuses these days are: storage, fan and player friendly facilities with lots of room for seeting either on either the players bench, in the stands or in the rooms. These days environment friendly and sustainable facilities are highly regarded. Also make it accessible for people with dissabilities. These days people like one stop arenas where they can eat, relax and shop so if you don't put in a hockey shop, you could make it real close to a mall. Cause like they say location, location, location is very important for your clientel, a good project would likely justify why you want to put the arena there. Look around and see if there is a need for that type of arena in that city area.

[Bender 0]

1) Excellent sound system--nothing worse than booming/echoing tunes at each faceoff

That's not so much to do with the speakers themselves, as the acoustics of the building/area that they are in, you oculd have one of the best sound systems going, but if the acoustics of the room arn't any good, it's just a waste of money.

[biff44 0]

1) Excellent sound system--nothing worse than booming/echoing tunes at each faceoff

That's not so much to do with the speakers themselves, as the acoustics of the building/area that they are in, you oculd have one of the best sound systems going, but if the acoustics of the room arn't any good, it's just a waste of money.

They have special speakers that mitigate the echos. Look like a really long tube hung horizontally from the ceiling. There are also DSP processors that could be used with multiple speakers to cancel echo. In other words, hire a professional sound engineer to do the audio, not your cousin Frank!

Of course, if all you do is hang some junk speakers in the middle of the rink and expect that is going to work, there is no way to correct for that!

[Bender 0]

1) Excellent sound system--nothing worse than booming/echoing tunes at each faceoff

That's not so much to do with the speakers themselves, as the acoustics of the building/area that they are in, you oculd have one of the best sound systems going, but if the acoustics of the room arn't any good, it's just a waste of money.

They have special speakers that mitigate the echos. Look like a really long tube hung horizontally from the ceiling. There are also DSP processors that could be used with multiple speakers to cancel echo. In other words, hire a professional sound engineer to do the audio, not your cousin Frank!

Of course, if all you do is hang some junk speakers in the middle of the rink and expect that is going to work, there is no way to correct for that!

Or just plant some B&O's under and around all of the stands :lol:

[rohllie 0]

Maybe you should visit or research different 2 rink arenas that already been built and maybe talk to the arena managers to the arenas you visit and he will probably tell you the things he would like to do different with the place.

I was thinking of doing that, actually. I have a connection to an NHL rink manager or two.

[Chadd 916]

Not sure if it was mentioned but a problem I've seen in the various rink designs around here.

Players have to exit the locker rooms through the people who just watched their games. Not a problem for beer league games but some of the high school rivalries around here get a little crazy. Hand in hand with that is the fact that teams have to exit the locker room areas via the same hallway. I've seen a number of fights in the hallway to the locker rooms over the years, mostly in adult leagues.

At a minimum, players should have the ability to exit the rink without walking through the middle of the lobby (and various fans) with their bags.

[Monty22 833]

Wide hallways are doorways that accomadate hockey bags. Automatic doors are nice as well. Skate friendly bathrooms are also key.

[Bender 0]

Since you're already planning to have 2 ice rinks in it, why not toss in an inline rink as well? :P

[Balmer15 0]

or make one an inline rink, one ice. only been in one like that and it was set up like a shambles. dont make the place a maze for people who've never been there before, make sure you have plenty of signs!and you can never have enough toilets imo.

[interpathway 9]

Skate friendly bathrooms are also key.

at one of my local arenas they forgot to place the mats infront of the concession stand. so instead of fixing the problem they just laid down a strips barely two feet wide. not a huge problem for the players, but with all the public skates going on and few to any of public skating patrons knowing of how wood or concrete effects the edges on steel, you might end up having to sharpen countless rental skates. every inch of the floors MUST be covered

[Langenbrunner15 0]

Not sure if it was mentioned but a problem I've seen in the various rink designs around here.

Players have to exit the locker rooms through the people who just watched their games. Not a problem for beer league games but some of the high school rivalries around here get a little crazy. Hand in hand with that is the fact that teams have to exit the locker room areas via the same hallway. I've seen a number of fights in the hallway to the locker rooms over the years, mostly in adult leagues.

At a minimum, players should have the ability to exit the rink without walking through the middle of the lobby (and various fans) with their bags.

Wish all rinks were designed like that.

[regularjoe 1]

Akin to batting cages, set up shooting cages for dryland shooting. I'm thinking Rapid Fire but I'm sure a homegrown solution would serve just as well (and save $$$).