“We will be entering the final phase of the construction of the rink” said Ferenc Zelevics, the president of the Szombathelyi Pingvinek. “The building will be fully closed soon, so the remaining construction will be completed inside and will be protected by the weather. He next step will be getting the ice ready and also completing the air system in the building as well as the lighting along with the rest of the technical areas. We are about 60%-70% complete with the construction.
According to the original plans there is only a very minor delay in the construction. The reasons as just because of the paper work with regards to the TAO. The arena still needs to complete the pavement around the outside of the area and the outside utilities, along with heat was already mentioned.
In Szombathely they wanted to have a full size rink at 60x30 meters, the arena will not only play host to hockey, but also be the home for the local short track speed skating, figure skating and curling as well. The goals is to have all ice sports to have access to the best facilities possible.
The ice rink will have seven locker rooms and one public locker room. The arena will sit 500, however when the arena was being designed the idea of expanding or adding additional seats were kept in mind, The facility could easily be expanded to 1000 people.
The rink will be able to be used for tournaments for various age groups. Hockey training camps and short track speed skating events can all be held here. The fans have not been forgotten in designing the building as a proper snack area will also be available.
The club president said that there has been a need for a proper ice rink in Vas County, where winter sports are very popular, however the proper infrastructure was not in place.
“Every year in Szombathely we teach about 450 preschoolers how to skate, which is a good base to select hockey players from. I remember when people from the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation visited us and were surprised by the need for a real rink. We have 70 youth players and about 20-25 senior players. We have teams in the U8, U10, U12 and U14 with our senior team playing in the Hungarian third division.”
There were times in the past when the team would start the season off with 40 players and at the end of the season only have 21 players left, compared to the 70 sounds great. What has helped us with retaining the players has been the roller hockey rink that was built in 2015, this helped the interest continue once the regular season was over.
Currently there are 6 coaches working with the youth teams of the Szombathelyi Pingvinek and there is one skating coach. Of these coaches two of them are in the process of getting their A-level coaching license.
