IIHF Ice Rink Guide

EVER THOUGHT OF BUILDING AN ICE RINK?

The rink is the key to all hockey development
In the beginning, ice hockey had its definite limits. It could only be played in places where you had natural ice from December until at the latest March. And those were the long seasons! This is why North America, Scandinavia, the former Soviet Union and a handful of other countries had an early jump in this game. Today, the International Ice Hockey Federation has 70 national member federations. Some of the countries with hockey programs and leagues include the United Arab Emirates, Israel, South Africa, Australia and Singapore. In the United States, there is high level ice hockey played in cities like Los Angeles, Tampa and Dallas. The reason, of course, is rinks with artificial ice. Only some ten years ago, ice hockey in some of the places mentioned above was a good joke. Not anymore. Rinks with artificial ice can be built anywhere, even in the desert or south of the equator.

The problems associated with building artificial ice rinks could be summarized in these two questions:
1. How do we start ?
2. Isn’t it far too expensive ?

In order to show communities all over the planet that an ice rink is not one of the seventh wonders of the world, the IIHF decided to put a group of experts together to create a rink manual. The goal of the manual is to help communities and hockey enthusiasts to build ice rinks in their neighborhoods, at reasonable costs. This manual targets ice hockey clubs with an ambition to build a community rink, the decision makers within communities or municipalities, and construction entrepreneurs. As the President of the International Ice Hockey Federation I am proud to present this manual: “Ever thought of building an ice rink”? This is the first manual of its kind in regards to ice rinks.

IHF ICE RINK GUIDE

The IIHF Ice Rink Guide gives extensive information about building and maintaining an ice rink, business plans and dimensions needed for ice hockey and other ice sports. The publication is aimed at any place and any country in the world from nations that just started developing ice sports to the bigger IIHF member national associations. In addition to the digital version of the guide, downloads are available for examples of schedules, business plans and to calculate it according to the own financial situation.