O.C. Skaters Have Wealth of Frozen Assets
Ice hockey in Orange County used to be an exercise in sleep deprivation. With only one sheet of ice serving the area in the early 1990s, people were pushed to bleary-eyed extremes.
Imagine this: Your teenager’s game at Ice Capades Chalet in Costa Mesa starts at 11:30 p.m. Saturday and ends a couple of hours before a 3:30 a.m. practice for your 4-year-old.
That’s right, toddlers scooting around the ice in the wee hours of the morning.
The situation was hardest on adults, said Ron White, who lived through it as a parent and coach. “When the game was over at about 1 o’clock,” he said, “I’d literally snooze in the parking lot waiting for my wife to bring my younger son to the rink.”
These days, Orange County hockey enthusiasts have it much better. Instead of one ice rink, there are now seven with the opening Friday of Irvine Ice Arena. Two facilities have two sheets of ice under the same roof.
It’s an embarrassment of icy riches in the land of the Endless Summer.
The rapid growth locally mirrors a nationwide building boom, which has seen about 200 rinks open in the last three years, according to Peter Martell, executive director of the Illinois-based Ice Skating Institute.
But could Orange County also be a bellwether of a bust? Martell said there is no such evidence nationally--rink construction companies and equipment suppliers still report strong business. Even so, Martell said, the industry is a bit wary.
“It’s probably boomed more than it should have in reality,” said White, who opened Glacial Garden in Anaheim in 1992.
“But that’s usually what happens when you take a look at the leisure sport industry, where one bowling alley opens and it’s followed by seven more.”
White, however, is bullish for the future and plans to open another rink in Foothill Ranch in the fall of 1999. If supply has outpaced demand, he’s betting it will eventually catch up.
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Hockey participation, he points out, is still growing rapidly, and the Winter Olympics, this month in Nagano, Japan, should only bolster that trend and also help build rinks’ other core clientele: figure and recreational skaters.
It was hockey, though, that fueled the local rink building boom, which has been gathering momentum since the sport got a boost in the Southland Aug. 9, 1988, the day the Kings acquired Wayne Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers. Five years later, after the Great One led the Kings to their first Stanley Cup finals, the Walt Disney Co. brought the National Hockey League to Orange County by creating the Mighty Ducks.
By that time, White had already opened Glacial Garden in a 30-year-old warehouse in Anaheim. That was followed by rinks in Huntington Beach, Aliso Viejo, Disney’s facility in Anaheim and, in 1996, Westminster.
The rinks have been taking advantage of the rapid growth in participation. Figures for the county are unavailable but statewide growth has been phenomenal. From 1990-91 to 1995-96, the number of youth and adult teams registered by USA Hockey increased 384%, more than twice the national rate.
But in Orange County, the addition of new venues outpaced the explosive participation growth and rinks started to cut into each other’s business.
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“It’s more than just the number of rinks,” said Rod Gunn, owner of Surf City Skate Zone in Huntington Beach. “It’s that so many have come on so fast. It’s hurt everyone.”
White of Glacial Garden agrees: “The number of rinks probably has surpassed the current demand for every rink to be as busy as they were three years ago.
“Someone that is coming in last could be really swimming upstream.”
Such competition is a new experience for many rink professionals, at least the ones who have moved here from areas with well established winter sport traditions.
In Canada and much of the Midwestern and Northeastern United States, ice rinks are public recreation facilities, run by city employees and volunteer coaches.
“Here it’s big bucks,” said Dominique Beaudoin, a former meatpacker and youth coach from Montreal who is now director of hockey at Surf City Skate Zone. “It’s a salary and that’s all you do.
“Here in Orange County, you’ve got a rink across the street and he’s doing the same things as you and you have to get the people in. In Canada, you don’t have any competition.”
There wasn’t much money in the hockey business either, which is why Beaudoin and others moved. Fred Nelson, who runs the hockey program at the Aliso Viejo Ice Palace, moved from North Dakota eight years ago.
“There’s a mentality in North Dakota where you don’t generally accept pay because you do it for the good of the game,” Nelson said. “Here the market is different.”
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It’s a market full of parents with enough disposable income to pay $1 a minute for one-on-one lessons with a coach. “In Detroit,” says Jeff Turcotte, the hockey director at the Westminster Ice Palace, “there’s no one who is going to pay for private lessons.”
Ice time is also expensive--it costs about $250 to rent a rink for an hour. Here’s what that means for one family, the Santanas of Yorba Linda: the monthly bill is $175 for 9-year-old Ryan to play center for the Westminster Wave, which practices twice and plays one game each week.
Add to that costs to purchase skates, helmet, stick, gloves and other equipment and travel--the Wave have already played in tournaments in Colorado and Michigan this season and will go to Quebec in March.
The total is significant but worth it, said Ryan’s mother, Gina. Her son has fallen in love with the game, usually playing six days a week.
“These kids are in awesome shape. My son’s P.E. teacher says he can’t believe it,” she said. “He told me the other day that he uses him as an example.”
Ryan and his teammates just know the sport is a blast.
“It’s just really fun, “ said left wing Nick Gross of Laguna Beach, “because you get to go really fast.”
White of Glacial Garden said hockey has it over other youth sports because the entire team is involved in the action. “There are no right fielders in hockey,” White said. “It’s a lot like soccer where everybody can touch the ball. In this game, it’s even a little better because everybody gets to try to score.”
Friday, Irvine Ice Arena entered the fray. Construction delays pushed the opening of the $3-million facility back three months, but its operators remain confident about its future.
Designed to look like a large red barn, the Irvine rink offers the typical features--pro shop, pizza restaurant, hockey and figure skating instruction and public skating sessions--with a twist. A full-size fitness center overlooks the ice.
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“Moms on the treadmills can watch while little Johnny’s skating below,” said Stephen J. Coonan, president of the arena. “We think the concept is really going to work. It’s unique to Irvine.”
Already the arena has signed up 1,100 members--about 295 specifically for hockey--and is bracing for more. Nearby there are two popular roller hockey facilities--one owned by Gretzky--but Irvine Ice Arena officials don’t see them as competition.
“I think we end up feeding off them because everyone plays roller hockey around here,” said Steve Benson, director of operations. “It’s inexpensive compared to ice but then they start wanting to do the real thing and they end up putting on ice skates.”
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It’ll Cost You
Outfitting a youth ice hockey player can be expensive.Here’s an a la carte look at what you might pay:
Skates $100 and more
Helmet $75*
Stick with blade $20-60**
Mouth guard $2-15
Gloves $20-100
Sweater $15-200
Shin guards $20 and more
Garter belt $8-10
Socks $10-20
Athletic supporter and cup $10-20
Shoulder pads $20-100
Pants $30-90
Elbow pads $15-75
Minimum total $345
* Including cage required for children; $90 including full-face clear shield ** Replacement blades $12-$25
Source: Irvine Ice Arena
Fresh Ice
Irvine Ice Arena is the latest such rink to open in Orange County. It has the normal amenities such as hockey and skating instruction, public sessions, video arcade, pro shop and a pizza restaurant. A 3,000-square-foot fitness center overlooks the 85-foot by 200-foot ice surface.
Irvine Ice Arena
3400 Michelson Drive, Irvine
(714) 262-0907
https://www.irvineice.com
Public sessions
Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-noon; 2-5 p.m.
Saturday-Sunday, 1-3:30 p.m.
Thursday-Saturday evenings, 7:30-9:30 p.m.
Admission: $8
Skate rentals: $2.50
Other Orange County rinks
Aliso Viejo Ice Palace
9 Journey
Aliso Viejo
(714) 643-9648
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Disney Ice
300 W. Lincoln Ave.
Anaheim
(714) 535-7465
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Glacial Garden Ice Arena
1000 E. Cerritos Ave.
Anaheim
(714) 502-9185
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Ice Chalet-Costa Mesa
2701 Harbor Blvd.
Costa Mesa
(714) 979-8880
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Surf City Skate Zone
16091 Gothard St.
Huntington Beach
(714) 842-9143
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Westminster Ice Palace
13071 Springdale Blvd.
Westminster
(714) 899-7900
Source: Individual rinks; Researched by MARTIN BECK/Los Angeles Times