Tasmanian ice hockey fans have been delivered good news and bad news on the future of an audacious bid to join the expanding Australian Ice Hockey League.
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Building an Olympic-sized hockey rink has proven the stumbling block towards adding to the current eight franchises based along the eastern seaboard.
Tasmanian ice hockey promoter Tony Moldenhauer has been the visionary looking at sites around Burnie, Devonport and Launceston over the past 18 months.
Moldenhauer has found a backer in-principle with Ice Rinks Adelaide to build a multi-purpose ice hockey arena in the state.
But the project would not start for “probably two to three years”, ensuring entry of a Tasmanian side could be in 2020.
The AIHL are looking at prioritising a new team out of Queensland by 2018 first.
“They’re going to revisit the plan once they finalise a rink in Adelaide, so we would be looking at somewhere around the 2020 mark,” Moldenhauer said.
“They’re focusing of getting their rinks built first and then they’ll look at building in Tasmania after that.”
The cost of a similar 4,000-seat facility was estimated to be around $30 million.
Moldenhauer first had discussions last year with Burnie City council, who were enthusiastic supporters of his plans to reinvigorate a former paper mill site.
But council went cold on tipping in ratepayers’ funds towards the facility that would have included two rinks and a rock-climbing wall.
Moldenhauer said he has also been forced to rule out possible existing venues in Launceston.
A short-term option considered was the Silverdome at Prospect.
“You could have put in a seasonal link, but that’s probably not going to work quite how they’re currently run,” Moldenhauer said.
“I can’t picture them cutting up the beautiful timber floor to put a rink in and still put a floor over the top (for other sports).
“The more I look into it and I have spent months investigating all the options that are available around the world, every option came back at a greater and greater expense.”
Time and cost behind installing a 60m x 30m portable ice pad for a rink was another sticking point.
He had priced hiring a portable pad at about $1 million per year.
“It’s only off the radar purely because of the amount of time that is required to train for these players,” Moldenhauer said.
“If you don’t have a proper facility to train, you certainly can’t be competitive.”
Australia only currently has 22 active ice rinks and remains an unknown for cautious investors.
Moldenhauer also said the semi-professional AIHL are not into financing ice rinks for new franchises.
“From my perspective, there’s no sense in taking it any further with the AIHL until we’ve got a facility,” he said.