New Arena Plans for USHL DM Buccaneers

[JMCx4]

From: The Des Moines (IA) Register > Money > Business

Des Moines Buccaneers hockey team moving to new 3,500-seat arena at Merle Hay Mall

KIM NORVELL | DES MOINES REGISTER | 7:00 am CST November 19, 2020

The Des Moines Buccaneers hockey team plans to move out of its aging facility on Hickman Road — where the team has played since its founding 40 years ago — and into a new home at Merle Hay Mall.

The vacant Younkers department store there will be converted to house a 3,500-seat arena, as well as three rinks with bleacher seating for practices and tournaments. A 150-room hotel is slated as part of the new development, which sits on the west side of the shopping center at 3800 Merle Hay Road. ...

For the Buccaneers, the move is a chance to create a new fan experience, with upgraded public address systems, lighting and seating options, including club level and on-ice suites, in a new facility that will also better suit the players, said team president Nate Teut.

Those upgrades were not feasible or financially possible in the aging Buccaneer Arena, which opened 60 years ago at 7200 Hickman Road in Urbandale, particularly after its roof suffered major damage in this August's derecho. ...


Read & See more at: Des Moines Buccaneers hockey team moving to new arena at Merle Hay Mall

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[kij]

I will say this, a similar plan was done in Mason City, Iowa for the North Iowa Bulls. The rink is just odd fitting in a converted department store. Small locker rooms, choppy ice, a still unfinished (not even started) hotel development. It appears they are using the same state program in Des Moines as Mason City.

The positives are obviously a brand new arena, multiple sheets, love to see it. Hope Drake/Grandview/Des Moines University start up a club program with the new facility going up. Exciting times.

That posting is vague, is it 3 rinks and the big arena or 3 rinks including the arena?

 

[JMCx4]

... That posting is vague, is it 3 rinks and the big arena or 3 rinks including the arena?

"The vacant Younkers department store there will be converted to house a 3,500-seat arena, as well as three rinks with bleacher seating for practices and tournaments." Seems pretty clear to me that it'll be 1 + 3 rinks.

 

[JMCx4]

Interesting background story re. the Bucs' original home ice, courtesy of DMCityView.com ...

... The building that is now known as Buccaneer Arena opened 60 years ago. Back then, the Des Moines Buccaneers didn’t exist. Instead, the venue housed minor league professional franchises, but by the late 1970s, the rink was vacant and struggling to attract another team.

At this same time, the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey squad stopped through for a one-game exhibition versus the St. Louis Blues of the NHL. The young Olympians were led by Head Coach Herb Brooks and were gearing up for what arguably became the greatest upset in modern sports history — defeating the Soviet super-team at Lake Placid and eventually winning the gold medal.

While in Des Moines, it was Brooks who first suggested to rink officials that a junior hockey team might be the right fit to occupy the space.

The hockey people in Des Moines listened, and the legendary coach’s advice eventually brought about four decades of Bucs hockey at what would become known informally as “The Madhouse on Hickman” in Urbandale. ...

 

[GareFan18]

I love seeing this. A creative way to use dying retail facilities.
I know in the KC suburbs they looked at some of the vacant big box retail facilities to retro fit into a rink and found them ill-fitting. Many have pillars throughout the structure making it difficult to fit a 200'x85' sheet of ice and unobstructed bleachers.

 

[JMCx4]

Late, but latest news on progress toward the Buccaneers' new home @ the Merle Hay site ... Des Moines Register: Des Moines soccer stadium, Merle Hay hockey arena in line for $50 million in state funds

... The award to the mall is $3.5 million short of the backers' request. But Merle Hay Investors CEO Liz Holland told the Des Moines Register she was pleased. The Buccaneers hope to start playing at the new arena by next year. ...

At Merle Hay Mall, a building vacated when the mall's Younkers department store closed in 2018 would be transformed into the hockey arena. A Kohl's store near the former Younkers building will be moving to a new space under construction on the Merle Hay Road side of the mall, making way for a hotel also envisioned as part of the arena project.

The arena would include a weight room, offices and classrooms for the Des Moines Buccaneers, a junior league hockey team for boys 16 to 20 who take high school and college-level classes while trying to make it to the pros. The team currently plays in the aging Buccaneer Arena on Hickman Road in Urbandale.

In addition to the main rink with seating for 3,500, the new arena would house three other rinks, a potential lure for youth tournaments. Including the hotel, developers expect the project to cost $121 million. ...

 

[JMCx4]

Digging up this old thread for groundbreaking news from the DM Register ...

Merle Hay Mall celebrates groundbreaking for new Des Moines Buccaneers arena

Tyler Jett
Des Moines Register
Published 5:14 p.m. CT
May 18, 2022

... elected officials from Des Moines, Urbandale and Polk County gathered in the parking lot outside the store building, shoveling a big pile of ceremonial dirt to celebrate a planned transformation.

A state board has awarded Urbandale $26.5 million to turn the old store into a 3,500-seat arena for the Des Moines Buccaneers junior hockey team. The project, which also will receive an as-yet-undetermined amount of money from the city, is key to the mall's rejuvenation, officials with the team and the mall said Wednesday. ...

Michael Devlin, part owner of the Buccaneers, said developers should begin work on the building next month. The team hopes to move in by next October, the start of the 2023-24 season. ...


Read more at:

Merle Hay Mall celebrates groundbreaking for new Des Moines Buccaneers arena

'Today is a red-letter day' said Liz Holland of Merle Hay Investors, who has been working to expand the aging mall's offerings

www.desmoinesregister.com

 

[JMCx4]

And now the downside of Des Moines junior hockey ...

The Register: Des Moines Buccaneers ask for fundraising extension for Merle Hay Mall arena as costs rise

WHO13.com: New USHL commissioner addresses Buccaneer Arena situation

 

[JMCx4]

The Buccaneers' circus gained a new sideshow early this month ...

Yahoo!Finance/Des Moines Register (4 August 2023): Facing lawsuit, Des Moines Buccaneers could shelve Merle Hay Mall hockey arena plan