Blaine ice palace expands into winter sports wonderland

Ice, ice, ice, everywhere you look. That's what you see when touring the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine.

Since Oct. 1, the Super Rink has expanded from four hockey rinks to eight, making it the largest indoor facility of its kind in the world. The last two opened Dec. 16.

"There's only one other arena in the world with eight rinks, and that's outside Vancouver," said Barclay Kruse, media director of the National Sports Center, which operates the Super Rink. "But they have taken one sheet and converted it to indoor soccer, so we've got them beat."

The official dedication for the addition will be Jan. 19, but nearly a third of the high school girls' hockey teams in the state -- and the fans who follow them -- will get an early chance to visit a special hockey place.

Forty of the state's 127 girls' varsity teams are playing in the Schwan Cup, a far-flung, multi-layered hockey tournament with high school boys' and girls' varsity and JV teams, and youth teams, 160 in all.

The varsity girls' tournament in the Schwan Cup splits teams into five eight-team divisions: Blue, Red, White, Green and Yellow.

Games start Wednesday and all of them will be at the Super Rink except for the five championship games. Those games will be Friday at Ridder Arena, home of the Gophers women's hockey team.

Twenty-four JV teams also will play at the Super Rink, meaning there will be games on all eight rinks at the same time much of the week.

"It's just a tremendous venue for a big tournament," Kruse said. "Teams in tournaments often had to travel to other arenas. But if you play here, you stay here."

Among the girls' hockey teams in the Blue Division, which has the strongest field, are Benilde-St. Margaret's, Cloquet-Esko-Carlton, Coon Rapids and Cretin-Derham Hall, all rated among the top 12 teams in the latest Class 2A state ratings and Blake, ranked the No. 1 team in Class 1A by Let's Play Hockey. The Bears meet Hopkins in the first Blue Division quarterfinal at noon Wednesday.

Remembering Brooks

The original four Olympic-size rinks at the Super Rink were built in 1998 around a raised central viewing and eating hub. Two skybridges connect them to the four new, smaller NHL-size rinks, which run parallel to each other.

A dryland hockey training center named after the late Herb Brooks, and a training area for figure skaters with a dance floor, also will be part of the addition. Work on both is continuing. A Brooks legacy walk and two refrigerated outdoor rinks will be added within the next two years.

"We toyed with the idea of having a Herb Brooks museum, but that did not fit our clientele or Herb, so we came up with an alternative plan," Kruse said. "We will have memorabilia, jerseys, sticks and lots of photos throughout the entire building."

Plenty of room to spread out

More than 2 million visitors, mostly kids, are expected to visit the expanded Super Rink annually -- double the present attendance, Kruse said, but it's not really a big-game venue.

The two biggest rinks -- one of the original four and a new one that Bethel University will use -- seat close to 1,000. Two of the new rinks have room for only several hundred.

"For youth practices and games, that's all you need," Kruse said.

Every rink has four locker rooms and all are well-maintained. A fleet of six Zambonis takes care of that.

Only three high school teams use the rink for home games -- the Irondale boys and girls and the Mounds View boys -- but another seven practice there, ice arena manager Brandon Radeke said. There are also 15 youth associations that buy ice time.

The recent expansion cost $10 million, which was raised from three sources:

• $3 million from the sale of Columbia Arena in Fridley, which will be torn down;

• $3 million in contributions from the building partners, among them the Blaine, Centennial and Forest Lake Youth Hockey Associations, Bethel University and the Herb Brooks Foundation;

• $4 million from the sale of construction bonds by Anoka County, which will be repaid by ice rental revenues.

A place for the kids

And demand seems to be there. All prime-time ice time has been sold through March.

"[The Super Rink] is fantastic for the kids," said Mark Cory, a Centennial C squirts coach. "We get more hours. Especially I got a daughter who skates U8 girls this year, so we expanded the girls' program and we are not having to practice at 6 in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays. You get reasonable ice times and as many practices as you want. ... Kids love going to the Super Rink. It's by far their favorite place to come to practice.

"The other thing is, when you talk to people from other communities who don't have this facility, they are always like, 'Ya, you guys got the Super Rink.' It's a real advantage for Centennial, Blaine and the other [youth] associations."

Radeke concurs.

"With the new rinks, everybody walks in and goes, 'Oh, my gosh,' " Radeke said. "There was a lot of [mis]conception that they didn't think it was going to happen for a long time. ... Now everyone is saying, 'You guys are going to be able to run big tournaments, and we are excited to come and play in those tournaments.' It gives the kids a lot of opportunities, too, especially with the Herb Brooks Foundation running that dryland facility. This is going to be the place to be."

For many hockey teams and the girls' Schwan Cup, it already is.

For more on the Schwan Cup and the Super Rink go to www.nscsports.org

Roman Augustoviz • raugustoviz@startribune.com