Northland Ice Rinks Open Up with Social Distancing Guidelines

Organizers were meticulous in their planning, creating social distancing guidelines, all the way down to how athletes should enter and leave the building.

DULUTH, Minn. – It’s the three words we’ve been waiting to hear for the past three months: rinks are open. This week, hockey rinks across the Northland held soft openings, including the Essentia Duluth Heritage Center.

Organizers were meticulous in their planning, creating social distancing guidelines, all the way down to how athletes should enter and leave the building. Rules will be fluid though and can change at anytime as they find better ways of keeping skaters safe.

“This morning, we found a couple things that we needed to work on and add to it so we knew that this was going to happen, that we would have to meet and see what are missing that we didn’t think about. Mostly the touches and trying to eliminate touches, opening of doors and that type of thing so they can just walk right through and no one is having to share handles and that type of thing,” general manager Shari Olson said.

The Heritage Center will be hosting a few camps for most of the summer, while high school teams will be on the ice beginning next week.

Mars Lakeview Arena also opened up on Monday. Most of their resources have been put into cleaning down all areas of the rink when the ice is cleared. They do ask that those who look for ice time, especially the hockey teams, to understand if routines have to be done differently with the new social distancing guidelines.

“Not having a locker room is going to be a lot different. It’s kind of going to be a throwback to the squirt days where you showed up to the rink ready to go and all you had to do was throw on your skates. Be patient with us. We’re not trying to be necessarily the enforcers and want to be rude to you. But if you are breaking a rule, we may approach you and ask you to do something a little different,” arena manager Steven Ruud said.

Staff also say things like entering and exiting the rink will be different as well, which is detailed with a video created by the rink.