The Marketability of DIY Hockey Rinks

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Since the onset of COVID, many schools have begun adding hockey rinks on their property as a way to make their school more unique, attract more students and provide a fun, COVID-friendly outdoor activity for their enrolled students.Just a few local schools that have put up rinks since the beginning of the pandemic are St. Michaels College, UVM, South Burlington HS, Mater Christi elementary/middle school, and others. The hockey rink at Mater Christi School in Burlington, VT has become a trademark for the school, and a showpiece for prospective families looking for a place to send their kids. According to Tim Loescher, in the two years since they have constructed the rink, they have received unsolicited funding to upgrade the size from 85 x 65 feet the first year, to 105 x 65 feet the second year. After two years, they are looking ahead to the 2022-23 season with enough funding to put in a cooling system, providing skateable ice as soon as temperatures dip below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The only thing they have done to market the product is a short article posted to their own website, written by the head of school (see bibliography).

The most recent data concerning number of hockey rinks per state came out unfortunately in 2014, but nevertheless, Rinktime.com found that Vermont has the 2nd most hockey rinks per capita in the USA, behind only Minnesota, at one hockey rink per 34,813 people, for a total of 18 rinks in the state (see map below).

This statistic along with the success of the Mater Christi rink reflects a high local interest in the sport of hockey, and proves that adding a rink to a school has the potential to be an effective marketing strategy. Local colleges and universities that attract students from across the United States could combine their social media accounts as marketing platforms with geographic marketing strategies, to target potential students in states with high hockey rink densities (which naturally correlate to higher interests in the sport) like Minnesota, N. Dakota, Michigan, Wisconsin and even Alaska. 

Should you choose to construct a rink for your small business, school or personal use, the first thing you need to take into consideration when building it is the method by which you are going to construct it. There are plenty of kits that you can custom order from NiceRink, E-Z Ice, and many more brands. These types of rinks all have rounded, plastic boards that fit together like Lego pieces. If you are looking for the most non-technical, user friendly method, this one is the way to go. The biggest downside is cost. According to NiceRink’s website, their small sized rink (24 x 44 feet) will run you $2,225.91. Recently, St. Michael’s College contracted my boss and I to construct a 105 x 85 foot rink using a similar style, and the entire rink took only the two of us under 4 hours to complete, excluding flooding (see picture below).

If the high price is a strong enough deterrent, a wooden rink can be built in a day with one or two people. Generally, my personal rink which is 65 x 32 feet, and plenty big enough to have a 3 vs 3 game, takes half a day to set up with two people, and the most expensive part is the liner, which we order from Nice-Rink. 

To provide some pointers to help you have smooth and seamless rink construction and maintenance, I interviewed Lou Dimasi. Lou won a state championship with Burlington High School, two national championships with Norwich university, was inducted into their hall of fame in 2014, and played professionally in the ECHL. For this article’s purposes however, he organizes the annual Pond Hockey Classic-a 14 rink pond hockey tournament on Colchester bay, sets up the St. Michaels College rink each year, as well as his own personal backyard rink. This is what he had to say when I asked him for some advice on backyard rinks: 

 


“If you have to put stakes in the ground [for lights], get them in around Thanksgiving, ‘cause once it's time to flood the rink the ground is too frozen to put stakes into.

It's so important to have a level ground, because water of course is self-leveling. Your boards may not be high enough to hold the amount of water needed on one end to be skateable on the other.

When you flood the rink you need to start with at least 5 to 6 inches and you need to do it in layers... Flooding all 6 in at one time might work, but it will create huge cracks over time that are tough to maintain. If you flood it in layers 2 inches at a time, it sets up much stronger.

You always need to clear the ice of leaves and debris; one leaf on a sunny day will melt through over an inch of ice and create a bad hole.”


You can view a time lapse video of the fire department flooding the St. Mike’s rink here.


Hopefully this blog has inspired you to add a hockey rink to your property, or if you already have one, to use it to your marketing advantage!




Bibliography:


Background info on Lou Dimasi:

“Lou DiMasi III at Eliteprospects.com.” Eliteprospects.com, 2021. https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/79385/lou-dimasi-iii. 


“Lou Dimasi - Norwich.” Lou Dimasi. Accessed February 2, 2022. https://www.norwichathletics.com/halloffame/Bios/LouDimasi.


Interview with Tim Loescher, Mater Christi School:

Loescher, Peter. Mater Christi Rink Interview With Tim Loescher. Personal, January 30, 2022.


Mater Christi Rink:

Loescher, Timothy. “News: MCS Ice Rink.” Mater Christi School, February 10, 2021. https://mcschool.org/2021/02/news-mcs-ice-rink/.


Interview with Lou Dimasi:

Loescher, Peter. Hockey Rink Interview Lou Dimasi. Personal, February 2, 2022.


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