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Ice Arena 2002 Annual Report ICE ARENA MISSION STATEMENT: The Elk River Arena and its staff are dedicated to maintaining a safe and clean building while providing unparalleled customer service and programs for all our guests. The friendly staff are committed to making our customer visits to the Arena an enjoyable experience. YEAR IN REVIEW Spring of 2002 had Elk River Boys High School Hockey back at the Excel Center in the State Hockey Tournament; the team took the consolation championship. Arena Programming The arena and city recreation jointly administrate the Breakaway spring and summer hockey leagues. The leagues' mission is to provide a fun learning experience for all players participating in the league while keeping the cost at a minimum expense for each player. This past spring brought in a record number of participants while the fall league had less numbers than anticipated. The Skating Academy, which is also a joint effort between the arena and city recreation, continues to be very popular. The hockey skating lessons that where added last year continue to grow. What makes the Academy strong is the skilled and dedicated instructors as well as the administrative staff that handles the registration. Working together they are highly regarded in the skating community. The program offers skating lessons from beginners who just want to learn the basics to skaters that want to compete either in figure skating competitions or in hockey. The Figure Skating Club is independent from the Skating Academy and is operated by the parents of the club (like Youth Hockey). The Club has given skaters the opportunity to compete at meets. The Club has gone to several meets around the area and has several skaters placing in their category, beating other establishing clubs that are much larger. Ice Hours Ice usage is up to a little under 200 hours. Most of these hours were gained in the spring and summer months. New summer programs from the Skating Academy and U.S.A. Hockey's STP program, accounted for most of this increase. Local hockey groups organize the STP program. Last season Elk River and Anoka hockey held their STP program at the arena. During the regular season (mid-September to mid-March) there are only so many hours of ice to be rented. There are very few, if any, prime time hours available during the regular season; over half of the non prime time hours are being rented at this time. From what I have heard, Rogers will be building a rink in two years. If this holds true we could see a temporary reduction in the number of non-prime time and weekend hours being rented.