Build it and they will come. Not to a cornfield in Iowa, but to the Inner Harbour to see the synthetic ice-skating rink of dreams.
A portion of the outdoor synthetic-surface rink, that will be a centrepiece of the Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada festivities in Victoria from Jan. 17-20, was pieced together Tuesday in the parking lot behind Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
“We can breathe easier now,” said Heidi Barlow-Lee, director of operations for Victoria’s Hockey Day in Canada.
Barlow-Lee described it as a trial build: “We want to make sure we had all the pieces. It’s like a puzzle.”
It took 10 volunteers about two hours to construct the half rink. The full rink will take about four hours to put together on Jan. 15 at Ship Point.
The rink was trucked up from its manufacturer in Florida and is being stored in a container on the arena parking lot.
Several NHL players skate on a synthetic surface during summers. A worker volunteer was the first to skate on the Victoria surface on Tuesday. Barlow-Lee brought her dad down also to see it but former Victoria Maple Leafs pro and NHLer Bob Barlow didn’t risk donning skates at 88.
“I said, ‘Dad, things have sure changed since you played,’ ” said Barlow-Lee.
The surface is not white but tinged blue.
“It will show better on TV and will reflect the theme of being near the water and harbour,” explained Barlow-Lee.
Being ice-less, a Zamboni is not required for cleaning the surface.
“A squeegee and a sweep is what it takes,” said Barlow-Lee.
The rink will be used during the Hockey Day in Canada week for games featuring Island youth teams and for clinics conducted by B.C. Hockey.
The rink, valued at $100,000, is owned by the Victoria Hockey Legacy Society and answered the question of how to have outdoor skating for the event in Canada’s mildest winter climate. The synthetic skating surface has an expected lifespan of 30 years, 15 years on one side and another 15 on the obverse side. The rink will be shared as a community asset following Hockey Day in Canada with envisioned use such as at future Canada Days.
There will also be three ball hockey rinks constructed adjacent to the artificial ice surface rink to host youth games.
The four-day festival of hockey will conclude with the day-long nationally Sportsnet-broadcast and Ron MacLean-hosted final day on Jan. 20, which will be wrapped around broadcasts of all seven NHL teams in action and also a Victoria Royals versus Kamloops Blazers WHL junior game at 4 p.m. Following the Royals game at the Memorial Centre will be the celebrity Alumni Classic game at 7:30 p.m. featuring the likes of MacLean, Kevin Bieksa, Elliotte Friedman, Wendel Clark, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Lanny McDonald, Darcy Tucker, Kirk McLean, Nathan Lafayette, Brian Burke, Greg Adams and Canucks mascot Fin. Tickets are on sale at the event website.
The budget to host Hockey Day in Canada is $850,000, according to the Victoria legacy society. The province and Destination Greater Victoria are contributing $100,000 each. The City of Victoria is giving $100,000 in cash and another $100,000 in in-kind services such as bleachers and stages for the concerts that are planned as part of the festivities. The rest will come from corporate sponsorships.
