It was about 10 years ago that I wrote an editorial that made it into the Dayton Daily news about why Kettering shouldn’t give up on it’s ice rink. “Confessions of a rink rat” [1] ran in 2015. Here we are in 2024, and Kettering has still not made the necessary investments in the rink that were required by law- upgrading their ice refrigeration system to use new, EPA approved refrigerant [2], or even basic necessities like keeping the hockey score board operating (old style lighting elements would get stuck- making it unclear if it was a 2, 4, 6, 8 or H minutes left in the period). They did finally upgrade lighting from old sodium vapor lights to modern LED’s which are way more efficient and brighter, but not much else has been done.
Now, they are once again floating the $15M figure to “keep the rink going” claiming it needs a new roof too- and some other mysterious improvements to keep it going- all while claiming it loses money.
The reality is, if this region got it’s act together- and got rid of the overhead of the 30 banana republics that divvy up this community (and that’s just in Montgomery County- never mind the clusterducks in Greene County) along maplines drawn before we even had automobiles- and this was mostly farmland, we could have visionary efficient government that put creating great community assets together ahead of their own petty paltry paychecks.
Why isn’t Metroparks in charge of all parks and recreation facilities across the entire region? Aren’t they supposed to be the recreation experts?
Instead of digging into why Kettering should or shouldn’t make the investment into updating Kettering Recreation Ice Arena, let’s talk about the ice situation in Montgomery County. Since Hara Arena got walloped by the tornado after already amassing a giant county tax bill- we lost the only double rink in the region. It used to host the Silver Sticks tournament which was an economic engine for a few weekends a year- much like Hamvention, the Big Hoopla, Hamvention, Winterguard International and the Air Show.
What’s left is Kettering Rec and a private rink, South Metro Sports [3], down by the Dayton General Airport and Austin Landing. Next closest rinks is the old Hobart Arena in Troy [4]– and the relatively new rink, the Chiller [5] in Springfield. Oh, and Metroparks hosts a dinky rink downtown at Riverscape [6] global warming permitting.
Supposedly a group has started to build a 3 rink complex at the former Towne Mall in Middletown [7], which would be a major draw for tournaments, but, may be a bit too far to support our community.
Not much ice to support an entire metro area of half-a-million people. And, here’s the thing, when it comes to the basic economy of ice rinks, due to the peak hours after school and weekends, in order to really be cost effective- you need a minimum of 2 sheets of ice to break even. It costs about the same to staff, and the Zamboni and chillers get better payback on their costs- with more sheets of ice. Not only that, but, with more opportunities to have public sessions and learn to skate, you engage more people to feed the hockey and figure skating pipeline.
This is critical to programs like Academy Hockey [8], a 501c3 non-profit run by retired Brigadier General Greg Gutterman, who has a program where all kids under 8 can learn to skate and play hockey absolutely free (including ice time and equipment). He knows that without a good pipeline, his high school program, Beavercreek High School, will struggle to have talent. But let’s talk about the real elephant in the room- Gutterman, like about half the guys who play in my Huff-n-Puff hockey league, are here because of the major employer and economic engine in our region- Wright Patterson Air Force base.
We’ve got guys like Gutt from Minnesota, or Howie who’s over 70 and still playing goalie- who was a B-1 Bomber navigator. WPAFB has it’s own hockey club- that plays at KRC on Friday mornings. Out of the 38K people who work here- quite a few come from communities where hockey is big. Would they want to come here if there were no rinks? Well, is that a question we want to find out?
I’m putting out calls to people to treat the retention and possible expansion of KRC, as an economic development essential for our region. I’m calling on major hockey fans to join me in figuring out a way to have the rinks we need- without having to depend on the City of Kettering to carry the load by themselves.
Current users include the Wright State Club Hockey team, the University of Dayton Club Hockey team, Beavercreek, Alter, Centerville, Kettering high schools, the Stealth youth hockey organization, figure skating clubs, and a few others including my league, Huff-n-Puff.
What I’d ultimately like to see is have it either donated to Metroparks or to a non-profit, which will be responsible for upgrading it, maintaining it and managing it for the good of the region. I’ll be asking major institutions to support it- in the same way they support Culture Works and the Arts Alliance as an essential quality of life amenity for our region. And most of all, I’ll be talking what our community leaders should be talking about funding- instead of flying taxi companies run by billionaires asking for a handout [9]– providing places for our kids to do things that are positive, safe, character building, healthy and fun so that we can build and keep the social capital that is essential for any community to thrive.
Because, life without hockey, for this guy, is not life. Just like basketball courts without functioning rims and nets is unacceptable [10], a community without ice rinks isn’t really a community for all.
Here’s my song for the post. Save the rink. By David Esrati
Great observations, David.
Think of how much racist migrant criminals steal from us. Drop in the bucket for them to pay for something like this instead of our money being stolen by them. Double the taxes on the dirty butts who get a better life by invading a community they didn’t build? Just an idea.
Judging by that little racist tirade Snookie just engaged in, he must not want to join the ice hockey team and play with “them” and “dirty butts”, whoever that may be.
Define “them” and “dirty butts” for us, would ya, Snookie?
It sounds like Snookie is calling Kettering taxpayers names here – the people who will pay for ice house capital improvements. Can the City of Kettering rely on Snookie to open his wallet and support community park and recreation programming and infrastructure?
What’s that, Snookie? I didn’t hear you. No solutions to offer or just here for the bitchin’? He must be another Fox swilling, no delivering, GOP MAGA loser….