With Rink Side Sports scheduled to close its doors in April, users of the facility say Gurnee will not just lose an ice rink, but a whole community. Attorney and hockey mom Amy Mennecke hopes to prevent that from happening.
“The parents are willing to do anything,” Mennecke said. She and other hockey parents are part of a grass-roots movement called Gurnee’s One Goal and are trying to find a way to keep the rink open.
The owners of Rink Side, which is located in Gurnee Mills, made an announcement via social media this week that it would close April 15.
“Unfortunately, in the last couple of months, Rink Side has seen catastrophic failures in virtually all of its operating systems,” reads a statement posted on Facebook this week by Tilt Studio at Rink Side Sports.
The post also stated the rink has operated at a loss for the last three years. Attempts to reach Rink Side’s owners, Texas-based Nickels & Dimes Inc., were not successful on Wednesday.
Rink Side has a hockey league, hockey and ice skating lessons, and clinics. Mennecke says that hundreds of young hockey players and ice skaters, and the community which has formed around them, will suffer if the rink closes.
“We’re not really sure where to go,” Mennecke said. She said the best option would be the RecPlex in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. However, according to Mennecke, the RecPlex cannot absorb the hockey league. She added that it has offered to place kids on teams, but has limited spots.
“Most of the kids will not be placed on a team,” she said. “We would have to scramble and find other teams to take us.”
Ideally, Mennecke said, Gurnee would buy the facility, possibly with the help of a private investor. She said the hockey parents would be willing to raise money toward this and thinks a fundraiser could net more than $100,000.
However, Mayor Kristina Kovarik said this is not possible.
“The village is not in the recreation business,” Kovarik said. “We can’t just go in and take somebody else’s property.”
Kovarik said that Nickels & Dimes is very successful, and the arcade and games side of the Gurnee location will remain open, just not the ice rink. She added the company is current in its lease and has the right to make its business decision.
Rink Side opened on the north side of Gurnee Mills near Entry G in August 1999, boasting an NHL-size ice rink and an arcade with more than 100 virtual reality and video games.
Mennecke said she believes the arcade gets most of its business from siblings of hockey players and won’t do well once it is closed.
“Their video game section is going to die on the vine,” Mennecke said, echoing an email she sent to Nickels & Dimes earlier this week.
Local schools use Rink Side as well, including Warren Township High School. Athletic Director Mark Pos said Warren’s hockey teams will be looking for a new place to play.
“Our boys and girls program does play and practice at Rink Side,” Pos stated in an email. “Since it has been less than week since we all got the news, locations for future practices and games will be discussed over the next month.”
Mennecke said the parents’ group has talked with the Chicago Blackhawks to try to raise awareness and to solicit help in finding a buyer for the rink.
Mennecke added that her daughter and son both learned to skate at Rink Side. She said parents of hockey players are very dedicated and would spend a lot of money at the facility if the rink were kept open.
“All of us parents, we’re kind of freaks about the hockey thing,” she said. “There’s a fortune to be made.”
Mary McIntyre is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
