Passing of an era?

[Ironhorse]

Okay, I'll warn you I'm going to be rambling here. For the last year and a half, I've found myself thrust into the world of ice skating and ice hockey. Before that, I would go to the occasional Fresno Falcons game, and watch it on TV if the San Jose Sharks were playing. That was about it. But then....... my grand daughter became interested in Figure Skating and from there, my grandson got involved in Ice Hockey with the Jr. Fresno Falcons Mites at the Gateway Ice Rink. Things went along well for several months, then the upheaval over the possible closing of the rink started. So, now they have gotten a reprieve for a year (supposedly), but the question is still out there. I know it's being worked on, either find a buyer for the current rink, or find a builder for a new one. In the meantime, I am becoming something of a connoiseur (sp?) of town ice rinks. I haven't been to a lot, but then there aren't a lot of them out there. The City of Stockton's is in a beautiful park, and is owned by the city. There it stops. It's kind of a miserable little run down rink. Fresno's is okay, but could be so much better. San Jose has a nice rink. San Francisco has an absolutely beautiful city owned rink at Yerba Buena Gardens. Very impressive, and just, well beautiful. http://www.yerbabuenagardens.com/ here's the link to the park it's in, complete with creative learning center for the kids, an antique carousel that's in a glassed in roundhouse, a small bowling alley and lots more. Definitely the best one I've seen. Then a few weeks ago, I went to Berkeley. The reason we are going to all these rinks is that the kids ice hockey team plays other cities teams. When we got to Berkeley, we found that it is an old rink, built in the 50's if I recall correctly, and the day we were there was the last day it's doors would be open. Inside, you could see the signs of wear and tear, peeling paint, marked up walls, dark and old fashioned seating. But then you looked around and saw it's history in the warm room. They had pictures and stories about it up on the walls, like Peggy Flemming started skating there, and the 1980 Olympic Hockey Team practiced there, and several other big things like that. I thought, how sad that a place with that much history was closing, for good. Not enough parking, I'm sure not up to code in several areas, and not in a "good" part of town, as a lot of the rinks aren't. There were a lot of laughs and good times the day we were there, and even though the game was over late, there was a long line of skaters going in for public session when the tournament was over. You could see sadness in the peoples faces, kids and adults that this would be the last time they would skate there. I know there aren't many rinks around anymore, Fresno's, Bakersfield, Stockton and Stockton are the ones closest to our area I believe. It may be there are others, I just haven't been there yet. We'll be going to Bakersfield soon to play them, they were here last weekend scoping out the competition, LOL, and were going to schedule a tournament. My grand daughter lives for her figure skating, she hasn't done as much traveling as her brother to skate, but that will change soon. She'll be going to a skating camp this summer for a week in L.A. and a competition in San Jose next month. Right now, they are at the rink about 6 days a week, sometimes more than once a day, and soon it may be 7 days. Which is why I find myself involved with it, taking them to lessons when Mom and Dad can't. Both are great sports, can be done year round even though they're though of as "winter sports" and the kids get lots of exercise and 'discipline'. They're expected to keep up their grades, eat right, keep their tempers, practice, etc., and it's drilled in by coaches and parents. I hope the sport is going through a phase of re-building rather than shutting down aging ice rinks, it would be a shame if the kids lost this venue for sports. The Fresno Falcons practice frequently at the ice rink, and you should see the kids faces light up when the "big boys" stop and talk to them and encourage them or give them hints. Some former Falcons help with coaching, and they really get involved with the kids groups. I know my two grandkids have gotten to skate with the Fresno Falcons at several games at the Save Mart Center and Selland Arena when they skated there. Oh yeah, the kids are 8 and 6 1/2 years old. What was the point of all this, I don't know really, just thinking out loud. I know there are kids there who are from Coarsegold and Oakhurst, Fresno, Clovis, Visalia and other cities who skate as often as they can get there too.

[Yosemite_Wolf]

oh im soooo for the keeping of the rink open. Looks like last I heard.. .the owner was gonna keep it open til he could find an owner! Lets hope he does!!!!! The Fresno Falcons ROCK!!

(and I didnt say that just for Kim.. I love Hockey... comes from my Dad!)

[Ironhorse]

Yes, he said he'll give it a year..................but I think his asking price is too high. Even at the 4 million he offered it to the City of Fresno. It needs a lot of work, and the equipment he says is worth 2 mill is used and some needs work. One of the zambonies is up on blocks, I've been told it doesn't work. I know at one point he had gotten approval to build a second rink behind the existing one, which would have been nice. Practices and public skating wouldn't get canceled when there are tournaments, etc. I think the rink needs more open hours, among other things, LOL. If it closes, the Falcons might leave because they wouldn't have a place to practice, unless/until they could get their own rink built. I think it's a great sport for kids to do, and it is year round. And there are a lot of people who use that rink. This last weekend, the Mites sponsored their tournament with San Francisco. The Fresno Mites had 18 - 22 team members there. (It was hard to count them, those kids don't stand still!) The San Francisco team only had 6 kids show up. There was a game scheduled for Sat night and Sun morning. In order for the kids to play and not have to cancel, Fresno Falcon Mites took turns playing on the San Francisco team! And they played just as hard for San Francisco as they did for their own team. It was great to watch, now that's sportsmanship! The Falcons had a silent auction at one of their games recently. They had jerseys, hockey sticks and other stuff that they auctioned off. All the proceeds went to the Jr. Falcons. The Figure Skaters were invited to the Disney On Ice performance (free tickets) and got to skate with the performers before the show too.

[Yosemite_Wolf]

Thats why the Fresno Falcons ROCK. They care about their community.. yet they dont even come from Fresno! gotta love our Falcons!!!!!

[Kim]

Ironhorse, try not to stress too much. The owners of the Falcons are committed to keeping the team in Fresno (although better attendance at the playoffs this season would help) and in keeping all 3 clubs downtown. I'm a Booster club board member, and I haven't heard anything definitive, but the common thread around is that there will be ice in Fresno after Gateway closes.

[Ironhorse]

That's what they keep saying "There will be ice, somewhere". I'm sure there will be, too many people are committed to seeing it done in the kids clubs and the Falcons. I guess where I was in my mind when I wrote this was the one rink in Berkeley closing and how run down some of the others are. It would be so sad and awful to see that happen in Fresno. If people haven't gone there, they should check into the hours and public skating sessions and go. No problems with fights and such there, kids have fun and it's great seeing parents teaching the tiny ones how to skate. Plus the great coaches for private lessons and hockey lessons and the clubs and teams. If people keep going, there WILL be ice in Fresno. If they get discouraged and drift away, well.......................... On May 5th from 4-7 pm, there will be a figure skating program. If you have someone who is interested in learning, drop by and let them see. All skill levels will be there and the kids have fun. Who knows, you may have a future Wayne Gretzky or Peggy Flemming lurking in your home!

[Kim]

I love watching the littles skate when we're at Gateway and when they come skate during the breaks at the games. Especially now that I skate. It's really hard.
I suspect that we may have open ice at Selland on time for the 08-09 season. If it doesn't look promising, watch for me and my sign circling Chukchansi. They're a Falcons corporate sponsor, and they make enough money in a year to buy some ice. Indian kids need to skate too, right? ;)

[Ironhorse]

Yup, they sure do! The City did seem receptive, at the council meeting where the closure of the rink was discussed, to maybe opening Selland in the event Gateway closed before any other options were available. For the Falcons, the club skating and public skating. My daughter-in-law is on the skate club board and the liason for the hockey club since she has one in both. She and my son help out a lot with chuck a puck at Save Mart center, so at least we'll keep hearing the news, hopefully, LOL. If we hear anything, we can exchange information. I just don't want to see happen to our area what happened in Berkeley. When I read the stuff about Peggy Flemming and the Olympic Team training there, that really made it sad that it closed. That and that they had no backup plan or option, except to go to other cities now.