Arena’s fate doomed by increasing costs, declining use

In March 2023, the Minnehaha Academy Board of Trustees made the official decision to remove the ice arena located at the lower school campus. While the rink has had many renovations over the years, it has been a part of Minnehaha since the 1960s. To this day, numerous Minnehaha sports teams hold practices at the arena, and use its facilities. Minnehaha Academy President Donna Harris weighed in on the decision to remove the ice arena, and how the space will be used moving forward. 

“I will have been here for 15 years in July, and I can say that every year I’ve been here, there have been discussions around the long term sustainability of the ice arena,” said Harris. 

When the Board of Trustees conducted the strategic plan for Minnehaha facilities moving forward, part of the plan was to determine the viability of maintaining the space as a hockey arena. The lack of hockey players that currently attend Minnehaha had a large impact on the decision to discontinue the use of the space as a hockey arena.

 “Our numbers in terms of students participating in hockey has really declined,” said Harris, “This year we only had three boys and one girl signed up to play.” 

Currently, an agreement on when to remove the ice arena hasn’t been reached. The space is still being used for various different things, and is commonly being rented out to others.

“Initially, there was a thought that we might [remove it] sooner, but it makes sense to use it for right now,” said Harris.

It’s safe to assume that more information on the ice arena is soon to come, but for right now it will continue to be used for the near future.