By STEPHANIE HUANG
Utah County’s Olympic events center is almost done.
“We’re going from one ice sheet to two ice sheets, lockers, an indoor soccer field, and the community participates as an Olympic Venue,” said Max Rabner, one of the owners of Seven Peaks.
The facility is located on 110,000 square feet of property donated by Seven Peaks, and has an agreement allowing Seven Peaks to manage the new center. There is a public ice rink, a competition ice rink, and an indoor soccer field. The public ice rink will have 250 seats, the competition rink will have 2,000 permanent seats, and 6,500 temporary seats will be installed for the Olympic Games.
There are eight full size locker rooms, and four smaller auxiliary locker rooms.
“(These locker rooms) are G.I. proof, made out of solid concrete. So when the players come into a locker room frustrated, the concrete should stand the abuse. Hockey is a highly emotional game to say the least,” Rabner said.
Small offices are included in the ice arena and according to Bill Bridges, President and Chief Executive Officer of Seven Peaks, they will be made available to use free of charge to significant groups in the community, such as figure skating groups and youth hockey teams.
Other services that can be offered in the arena include, training areas, storage for gear, and conference rooms.
“We’re creating programs to serve all the citizens of Utah County.” Programs already in the plans, are the “Learn to Skate” classes for all ages,” Bridges said.
“We’re putting together a group of highly skilled and competent instructors,” he said.
And though this facility is geared as an ice facility, it can be used for many other programs. Some other proposed uses of the new arena include inline skating for residents that usually have to commute to Salt Lake City to skate.
According to Rabner, the total cost for this new facility comes to $12.5 million.
Women’s Hockey will be the primary event taking place at the Seven Peaks ice arena for the 2002 Olympics. There are already 12 teams scheduled to compete.
The public ice rink will be ready for dedication November 13 and 14 of this year. The other rink will be completed January 15, 1999.
