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Author Topic: Updates to list of ice rinks within about 100 miles of Washington, DC?  (Read 138 times)

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Offline Query

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    • mgrunes.com
I maintain a bunch of web pages on a non-professional basis, and have let them go far out of date, including this list:

http://alltherinks.com which remaps to http://mgrunes.com/dcicerinks.html
and an overall map:
http://mgrunes.com/dcicerinksmap.html

I plan to update this list over the next year or so, by contacting each rink.

E.g., I recently found out that Tucker Road has re-opened, and that there are rinks in Leesburg & Springfield, VA.

If you know of any rinks that I left out, or that have permanently closed, or anything is wrong, please say so. :) I would love the rink name & city, a phone number or web page. Also whether you have verified it is open, or is expected to open, within the next year or two.

You don't have to give me complete info. But what I try to list is in the NOTES section:

Quote
Facility Name with website link
  Social media page with link
If needed: Note: I have not verified rink is open or will re-open.
If needed: Note: Rink is seasonal; also depends on weather.
If needed: Note: Rink is Seasonal: Open around Christmas
Address with map link
Phone: ?
If not on website: Session schedule (link and/or phone for public, freestyle, dance sessions)
Classes not on rink's website: (link and/or phone)
Non-hockey Club(s): ?

I don't list hockey clubs & sessions because most rinks list them on their own websites.
Many skating clubs offer their own skating sessions and classes, in addition to those offered by rink - I haven't listed those here -- see club's website. Many of these require that you belong to the club.

Thanks!

P.S. Many rinks don't keep their web pages up to date. Some have a social media page they keep more up to date, which I try to list. (Perhaps the web designer owns the site registration, and charges a lot of money to update it. Not unique to ice rinks - many organizations run into that. If they don't pay enough, some web designers let the web page address lapse, remap to a competitor or an inappropriate site.) So call ahead before visiting a rink you haven't recently visited! Also ask whether you must pre-register.

Offline AlbaNY

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If I remember right I’ve skated at Capital Club House while visiting my aunt?  The name and location seem right. 

It’s wonderful seeing how many rinks there are in the area.  What a different situation in Europe. 
One of these days I plan to review every rink I’ve skated in.

Offline Query

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    • mgrunes.com
Not so many as it appears. I'm pretty sure some of the rinks I've listed have disappeared since Covid, or were already gone. And many are seasonal, and are currently closed. Some stadiums are only ice rinks for special events, like professional hockey games.

Fort Dupont and Mount Vernon are closed for construction. Dr. John J. McMullen (Annapolis), said they had no public sessions, and that I could only enter freestyle sessions with a coach! (I'm not certain they meant that the coach had to be with me, but that was my impression.) I'm sure there are others.

I know a lovely lady who lives near Baltimore who skates south of the Beltway. In fact there are a lot of people who are driving hours. And area traffic jams are worsening. Prices went up, and pre-registration requirements often added, to handle Covid-19 health concerns. Covid is being dealt with better now, but concerns, prices and pre-registration remain.

And I included rinks well outside the DC metro area.

(A lot of the pro shops have closed or merged too.)

A lot of sports and recreational facilities closed with Covid, and never re-opened. Others took that time to start reconstruction: ice rinks have a finite lifetime, and some were built before people had learned to deal with frost heave and erosion problems under ice rinks by heating the underlying structure, or used structures that weren't strong enough.

Private ice rinks never were a particularly great business investment. Most sports and recreational facilities need government and/or private subsidy. It's difficult to re-establish those relationships in a short time period, and some sponsors are out of business or in economic trouble.

Global and regional warming don't help.

To what extent have the same things affected rinks outside the U.S.?