Hockey Group Hopes to Bring New Rink to Erie
There are currently three hockey rinks in Erie County, which are JMC Ice Arena, Mercyhurst Ice Center and Erie Insurance Arena.
But a local group is hoping to change that.
On Wednesday, members of the Erie Hockey LLC shared their plans to bring a brand new dual pad ice rink to Erie.
"We're looking to have two ice pads within the same facility and house some other things within there, but have a lot of synergy within the hockey community,” said Erie Hockey LLC President Dave Hinz. “Be it a fitness center, a restaurant, a pro shop, all of those sorts of things."
Last May, after serving the community for years, the Ice Center of Erie closed its doors. It's now an indoor sports facility called Turf Zone. According to Hinz, the need for another rink is great.
“We're really challenged with as far as ice time goes currently,” said Hinz. “A new facility like this can really help bring events from outside the area that we were not able to host."
Erie Sports Commission Events Director Mark Jeanneret agrees.
“I think with Ice going out of business, I think it just identified a need that has been bubbling under in this community for a long time," said Jeanneret. "I think a twin pad facility, if they can get this off the ground, from an Erie Sports Commission standpoint, we support it 100 percent."
The next step for the group is to obtain funding for the project.
They plan to host two more public information sessions.
