Also, rinks don't always cost millions to build. They're mostly empty space. Maybe a mill and a half?
We had a local hockey team build a rink for $400K (after someone donated an empty lumber yard as a facility).
$400,000 is VERY cheap for an indoor rink. Even the Laurel, MD curling rink, which is much smaller than NHL size, and has low ceilings, together with the fluorescent lighting the low ceilings (and lack of hockey pucks) those ceilings made possible, and mostly isn't strong enough for ice skating, without its own bathrooms, cost about $1,000,000 to build, on top of the land lease cost, a number of years ago.
Describe the $400,000 ice rink. Indoor/outdoor, size, seating, borders, how finished...
Was the hockey team rink a full indoor NHL-size rink, with fancy seating for 1400 (not as much seating as many NHL arenas, but very nice looking), locker rooms, shower facilities, at least one party room, as SoBe advertises?
Also, look at the pictures:
https://fiestarancho.sclv.com/Entertainment/SoBe-Ice-Arena (look at slide show)
https://www.vegas.com/attractions/off-the-strip/ice-arena https://www.facebook.com/sobeicearena/ https://fiestarancho.sclv.com/Entertainment/SoBe-Ice-ArenaFancy Glassed in entrance and glassed areas on the bottom floor, seating on a second floor, big air handling ducts, high ceilings, arc lights.
Also - casinos like to make stuff look ritzy. I'm not sure that always means well made, but looking ritzy still costs money. So does meeting building codes for as many people as are on the hockey teams + 1400 spectators. It doesn't look like a lumber yard.
Finally, they are in Vegas, a desert climate, not Northern Virginia.
So I'm pretty sure SoBe was not $400,000.
(Though they show an Olympia ice surfacer, which I believe to be cheaper than a Zamboni.)