DULUTH — The city of Duluth will use up to $200,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act for a temporary ice chiller to maintain the ice sheet at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center Arena — a short-term fix for the rink used by thousands of youth hockey players and figure skaters each year.
After that, DECC officials plan to shift to non-ice events for the arena: conventions, concerts and other sports, according to communications director Lucie Amundsen.
The DECC Arena's ice plant, installed in 1966, was shut down this past spring after a safety assessment. The plant created ice for the DECC's secondary rink — a closure that did not affect Amsoil Arena, home of the University of Minnesota Duluth hockey teams, or the Duluth Curling Club. Both use different ice plants.
The temporary ice chiller gives the arena's users a few years to find, or potentially build, a new facility — time they weren't sure they would have this past March when the ice plant was shut down.
"A lot of people thought [the arena] was going to shut down this year," said Duluth Amateur Hockey Association executive director Bob Nygaard, who called the chiller a "lifeline."
This lifeline hit days before Mayor Emily Larson announced the formation of an indoor athletics venues task force — a group that will be charged with making recommendations about improved or new sports facilities. And there is money available to make it possible: The Minnesota Legislature extended the city's half-percent tourism tax for improvements to athletic facilities.
The city's major hockey tournaments bring in upward of 60 teams each, according to Nygaard, and no indoor rink goes idle. For a while, there was a concern that these would have to be canceled.
A study by the University of Minnesota Duluth's Labovitz School of Business and Economics found that the Duluth Amateur Hockey Association's youth hockey operations account for more than $10 million in local economic impact every year.
