When the Scheels IcePlex opened more than a decade ago at the Sanford Sports Complex, everything in the building was a must-have because of budget constraints.
Largely funded privately, the ice center “had no nice-to-haves or creature comforts,” said Joe Zueger, who led the effort to build the rink that opened in late 2014 and now serves as a director.
“Demand has been steadily increasing, and now we’re at that point where year to year the utilization is pretty consistent and reliable.”
Regular users of the facility’s three sheets of ice include the Sioux Falls Youth Hockey Association, Sioux Falls Figure Skating Club and Sioux Falls Power Hockey, along with Sioux Falls Curling Club, SD Selects Hockey and various adult leagues.
The positive activity and growth in ice sports participation has allowed for some of the amenities that didn’t make the cut a decade ago to move forward now.
An estimated $3.5 million two-story expansion is starting construction, bringing varsity locker rooms for boys’ and girls’ Sioux Falls Youth Hockey players, along with office space, storage and conference rooms, plus a dedicated space to sell spirit wear.
An upper-level open space will be used for everything from an open gym for stretching and yoga to an area for larger meetings.
A synthetic ice area will serve as a space for practicing puck skills, stick handling, passing and shooting.
The upper level of the new addition will lead to a viewing area overlooking the north rink.
Participation in youth hockey has grown from about 400 participants when the IcePlex opened to more than 800 today.
“Friends got friends involved, and it seems like more hockey people are moving to town from Minnesota or other areas,” said Derek Berg, who just finished his second term on the Sioux Falls Youth Hockey Association board of directors, where he served as director of development. He has a 14-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter who play hockey.
Parents who played hockey now see “their second generation are still playing hockey, and a lot of coaches are former Flyers players,” he said. “We average 4 to 5 percent increase every year.”
The city’s hockey scene has grown steadily, he said, pointing to milestones such as the Sioux Falls Stampede coming to town in 1999, the Scheels IcePlex opening and Augustana University bringing Division I men’s hockey to the Midco Arena.
But while the hockey association has grown, “we don’t have a space to call our own,” Berg said. “This will give us a home.”
The locker rooms, two for boys and one for girls, will give varsity players an amenity to aspire to — a space where they can leave their gear in a dedicated locker — along with access to showers to clean up after they skate.
“Leaving your gear at the rink would be the ultimate,” Berg said, adding that the new workout area and shooting lanes help keep more of the program in-house at the rink.
“A lot of our development has happened off campus, and we can actually become more of what we call rink rats even in the summer,” he said. “Right now, my kid spends three or four hours at the rink and has two hours of downtime between sessions, so this is a place to go and train and hang out and really build the team aspect.”
Conference rooms also can double as spaces for birthday parties.
“We got rewarded for keeping our debt load low 10 years, and we’re in a position to be able to do some expansion and add these non-ice amenities,” Zueger said.
The expansion is funded as a partnership between the Ice Sports Association and Sioux Falls Youth Hockey Association. The youth association is closing in on its $1.5 million share, with about $350,000 left to go.
“For the first time in the 50-year history of youth hockey, they went out and raised over $1 million on their own,” Zueger said. “They organized themselves, they put a committee together and really appealed to members and the business community. To their credit, they put the project on their back.”
There is still a sponsorship available for naming rights on the front of the building as well as sponsorships for part of the gym and each locker stall.
The new addition “will totally change the curb appeal” of the building “while adding very useful amenities,” he added.
Participants in the youth hockey program are excited for it, Berg said.
“We’re just trying to take it to the next level, where we have potentially DI athletes coming out of it and moving on to other AAA programs,” he said. “It’s happening already, but this will push it to the next step, and for the kids that want that, we will have facilities for them to use.”
Gil Haugan Construction is beginning work on the 12,000-square-foot project. It’s expected to take seven to eight months to complete.
