News Article: NHL & Penguins cancel Hockeyville game at Rostraver Ice Garden

[Harv]

Said the place isn't equipped for NHL players. Go figure.

https://www.nhl.com/penguins/news/belle-vernon-rostraver-kraft-hockeyville-announcement/c-290570346

Click to read more...

 

[Winger for Hire]

I have a coworker on the Mon Valley hockey board and he was saying when the voting was going on that there was no way an NHL game was happening there. Between the boards, parking, locker room, and just the space it wasn't gonna happen.

 

[steelcityassault]

I said the same thing when they won, someone will die if Ryan Reaves finishes a check on those boards of pure concrete

 

[steelcityassault]

I have a coworker on the Mon Valley hockey board and he was saying when the voting was going on that there was no way an NHL game was happening there. Between the boards, parking, locker room, and just the space it wasn't gonna happen.

Any word on how we can grab tickets?

 

[Beauner]

Any word on how we can grab tickets?

what's the point now?

 

[Smoke]

what's the point now?

The game is still happening, but at a different venue.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Rostraver is a dump anyway, I don't know why they agreed on it in the first place. At least with Johnstown, they had an ECHL team there at one point. Mon Valley has like 1 failing amateur team, like 2 high school teams and a roof that collapsed in the winter like 5 years ago.

 

[td_ice]

Shame on those involved in the whole process for not vetting the place before inclusion in the contest.

 

[Harv]

Shame on those involved in the whole process for not vetting the place before inclusion in the contest.

Exactly.

Who the hell thought that place could handle the demands of an NHL game? Those locker rooms can hardly hold bantam teams let alone NHL ones.

 

[Beauner]

The game is still happening, but at a different venue.

I can go see NHLers at UPMC basically every week during the season. Not really that special

Rostraver is a dump anyway, I don't know why they agreed on it in the first place. At least with Johnstown, they had an ECHL team there at one point. Mon Valley has like 1 failing amateur team, like 2 high school teams and a roof that collapsed in the winter like 5 years ago.

Hey now, they had a Federal League team...for like a year...whatever the Federal League is

Shame on those involved in the whole process for not vetting the place before inclusion in the contest.

yeah you'd kinda think they would know that Rostraver couldn't handle a game before voting even started

 

[SomeDude]

As a Pens fan, I'm glad. That place is a dump and as said by anyone who has played there, those boards are a nightmare getting hit into. Literally concrete behind them. I had a feeling they wouldn't be able to pull it off. They should have figured that out before they made it into the finals, though. Pretty disappointing for a lot of people in the community.

Also, pretty dumb they're doing it in Cranberry. I would have just awarded it to the runner up and let the Pens still do their practice and whatever for Rostraver. The whole idea is to see NHL players in a local small town rink...not where they practice 3 times a week already.

 

[steelcityassault]

The whole idea is to see NHL players in a local small town rink...not where they practice 3 times a week already.

Agreed.. even Ice Castle would have been cool

 

[buzzworthy]

Move it to Johnstown, dammit!

 

[Empoleon8771]

Hey now, they had a Federal League team...for like a year...whatever the Federal League is

From watching clips of the Federal League on youtube for like 10 minutes, I'm like 90% positive an ACHA D1 team could be competitive in that league

Actually, that might not be that incorrect. That Federal League team that existed for a year drafted local guys from ACHA D3 teams (Pitt-Greensburg, Pitt-Johnstown and CCAC).

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Sadly this is in no way, shape, or form surprising.

It's a shame, but that place is a dump.

 

[Jacob]

Worst rink I ever played at was Hess. We had to change in the locker room in shifts it was so small. The boards bowed outwards like a barrel.

 

[The Old Master]

Worst rink I ever played at was Hess. We had to change in the locker room in shifts it was so small. The boards bowed outwards like a barrel.

got nothing on great southern (Bridgeville) real brick walls (cement blocks) square corners, ice stalagmites to go with the holes in the ice, falling celling parts, and a good layer of fog. for starters.
edit; can't say any thing bad about the dressing rooms......because there wasn't any.

 

[Retrocity]

So from it sounds like, they still get the $150K for upgrades. Has anyone seen what the plan/timeline is for the renovations and if they would've made the rink acceptable when completed?

 

[madinsomniac]

The NHL loves to shove its foot in its own mouth huh?

 

[Clare2904]

Hold the game AFTER the renovations. Hardly ****ing rocket science

 

[steelcityassault]

Hold the game AFTER the renovations. Hardly ****ing rocket science

The 150k is hardly enough to even tear the concrete boards down, let alone put new ones up I guess.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Hold the game AFTER the renovations. Hardly ****ing rocket science

$150k isn't nearly enough to fix all of the Ice Gardens' woes. It's a bandage that'll keep it up and running a few more years, nothing more and nothing less.

I'd rather have a ****** arena than a closed arena for general purpose, but the thought of the NHL playing so much as a pre-season game there was laughable.

 

[Clare2904]

Then they need to revisit the rules on accepting bids from communities.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

They need to seriously up the prize money. $150k is about the cost of a 30 second advertisement for an average prime time network show (dwarfed by the major players, but in line with your Kevin Can Wait and 2 Broke Girls levels of garbage), yet it's the grand prize for an entire marketing campaign here. Frankly it makes Kraft look cheap.

 

[Winger for Hire]

Then they need to revisit the rules on accepting bids from communities.

I just think they need to change up the details for the game. I don't think it cheapens the contest if the game isn't played in the winning arena. Frankly a lot of arenas that should be winning this contest won't be able to hold an NHL game (with the teams, press, throngs of fans, NBC crew and staff, etc). This contest, IMO, isn't here to make a "meh" rink into a "WOW" rink. It's to help a local rink get back on its feet and off the brink of closure. The Ice Gardens was most likely pouring money into a couple difference avenues to band-aide things like ice making, zamboni, general maintance, locker room upkeep and having $150k (and hopefully some more with some donations and such) to really shore up 2 or 3 of those areas will allow them to save that money and, hopefully, have more money and less worries to be able to shore up other areas (boards, cosmetics, bleachers).

The Ice Gardens is exactly the kind of rink this contest was begging for. On the verge of disappearing within a couple of years had is not gotten a $150k cash infusion. I hope that somehow they help out the Ice Gardens by donating the proceeds of the game (concessions, merch, 50/50, whatever) to the Ice Gardens to help it out even more.

While it sucks to not have the game there and the prize money isn't enough to really elevate the rink, having a free $150k is certainly going to keep another Western PA rink from closing in the near future.