The Meramec thread made me think.

When I'm at different rinks or with different dads you hear bleak projections on different rinks.
The one near and dear to my heart is Brentwood. It's been around 30 years, it was home to the Blues for awhile. Now some genius alderman instead of repairing it wants to tear it down and put up a fitness center, so his name can be on a plaque.

Any comments on the State of St. Louis Ice ??

We need some ice where kids can play hockey after school (stick & puck) and work on their skating without running into a bunch of people at a birthday party tooling around with walkers.

You gotta luv the rinks with Stick and Puck from 1:30 - 2:30
thanks, that helps.

Believe it or not the rinks all have budgets and have to pay their bills. The community rinks have to balance providing public skating hours with making more by selling the ice. If you think providing hours of stick and puck is profitable, why don't you build a rink, operate that way and see how long you can stay open. Not only that, 25 kids and 25 pucks on the ice, unsupervised is an accident waiting to happen. Most rinks offer stick and puck when they aren't able to sell the ice time. Selling the ice is more profitable, safer, and provides a first layer of insurance by the users.

maybe 10:10 would prefer his son's practice time be switch to 1:30 on a Tuesday to free up time in the evening for stick n puck

Ice in St. Louis is among the cheapest in the nation.

But Ice time is still 230/hour even at a crap hole like fenton.

It will suck if Brentwood closes. There are already shortages of ice.

We need all the rinks we have, even the crappy ones.

Any idea how Affton does it?
Was it just because they did it at the right time?

How much did it cost St Pete to build their double rink?
could it have been done like Affton with private money in todays dollars?

The Affton Association payed 1.4 million for that crap hole in Fenton. Not long after they bought it they had to stick several hundred more thousand in it as the compressor system had to be replaced. They outbid the Kirkwood association and did whatever it took to get a close rink. Then they said what do we have to do keep those hours rented and have done it. I am not from affton, but people thought they were crazy to have almost two million tied up in that dump. Now their association is the strongest going.

Affton is a one of a kind in the st louis area. Their building are owned by the organization (ie...not a government entity or a privately held business). Get yourself volunters, build your self a rink, hire kids to the run the rink and then don't look for a profit (and as a non-profit, ignore taxes) and you will be on your way.

You can criticize Affton all you like but they still have the cheapest rates in the area. Teams don't have to drive all over the city to get ice for practices. They might not be the greatest rinks but they are 2 nice sheets of ice. You don't have to worry about the kids getting hurt with unsafe ice conditions. You might have to deal with overzealous parents and coaches but where don't you have that?

Fenton is not a nice sheet of ice. Affton is good sheet.

Had a game tonight at Meramec. Ice was terrible, and the
Z apparently froze up so the game was delayed. I know we
need all the ice we can get but, that place is a joke.

south county is a joke

south county is fun, when the condensation builds on the roof and it rains yellow water leaving yellow dot/mini piles all over the ice.

Not impressed with how most Affton parents act.
However
I am very jealous of their rink situation. A few Rocket dads have said we should build our own rink like Affton. But, it's all talk. I've always thought that would be great if someone wanted to pick up the ball. I'm fortunate that I only have one son to drive to any of 5 different rinks. Rockets have lost more than a few families to CHA because they can take both sons or all three sons to one rink instead of 3 sons 3 rinks.

Our ice status is, if I analyze this correctly, is second worst behind Meramec. We have 2 great rinks Webster and Creve Coeur. After that Brentwood could go under, south county could go under, and Cahokia is just well.... Cahokia.

Actually, you are not analyzing things correctly at all. The Rockets have exclusive use of Creve Couer and the Webster Rink. They also have a lot of ice at Brentwood (not closed yet), South County, some Mills, Cahokia and Shaw Park...of course the outside rinks suck.


The rockets problems are not with their ice situation, that is a good thing.

South County is crappy. It is rumored to close every year and with budget shortfalls may actually close after this season.

10:03- can you give us your expert opinion on what is really wrong with the Rockets? Give us your best O'Reilly "no spin" on the topic, we can't wait to hear it.

Mass exodus to the Valley followed ex officers and confidantes Walters, Brickman, and crew. They profess the grass is greener in the valley and have steered many to the land of big egos, poor coaching, and an ass kicken regularly by Affton CS. Stats do not tell a lie. Poor choice.

what about the empty east side rink. one sheet is always empty when we have been there for a game.

the Fenton facility is the crap hole, the ice actually is not that bad. I would rather have time on that rink than SOCO or The Fart Tank. Those patches are like mine fields, one wrong step and BOOM.

I'd still like to know how the cash flow at Affton works for other clubs to replicate.

I think Affton has done a fabulous job with Fenton. It's not a palace by any means, however, they fixed the ceiling, the lighting seems much better, and the humidity where you couldn't see through the glass seems to be fixed. As long as the ice is good and the boys are safe the rest is a very minor inconvenience. Hell the NHL'rs played on frozen ponds they didn't need fancy locker rooms or comfortable bleachers they just wanted to play.

Can someone clear up one rumor I heard. I remember hearing that there was a structural problem in Fenton that the frozen ground had moved the concrete support for the steel columns and if they ever melted the ice it could cause big problems. True, False, exaggerated ?

Mr. Jost is to be thanked for the Affton rink. Who can we thank for the Fenton rink?

The only rocket exodus was for aaa or cs. Walters didn't waste his breath recruiting average players, only kids he thought would help his sons teams.

I'm new to youth hockey.
I've heard the name Jost and understand they are an established big time hockey family.

Mentioned above Mr. Jost deserves our thanks, which I don't doubt. But, what exactly is the thanks regarding the Affton rink for? Did he write a check, raise money, put up the building, organize and lead? It's my understanding that CHA has a fund started to get their own facilities should the other clubs start getting a "building fund" established?

huh?