Cambridge May Gain Municpal Skating Rink

Cambridge's young hockey players may soon be able to skate on municipal ice, if their parents can set up a corporation to run a risk for them and other city residents.

The Gore Street Rink has been operating at a loss for several years, parents of hockey players told the Cambridge City Council last night. The Metropolitan District Commission, the state organization that owns other municipal property such as Memorial Drive, currently owns and operates the rink.

The MDC proposal would give the city a long-term lease on the facility. The rink could then be leased to a private corporation which would oversee its daily operations, Joseph L. Ignazio, an official with the Cambridge Youth Hockey Program, said last night.

Ignazio explained that the parents who currently run the hockey program would like to form the Cambridge Sports Arena, Inc., a non-profit organization. The company would run the rink and other sports programs in the city.

"We're shelling out $20,000 a year for our kids to play hockey on other people's ice, and we're getting up at 4 a.m. to drive them there," said Ignazio, the acting vice-president for the new corporation.

"Hockey in the city has been going downhill because of the cost, and it will continue to go downhill unless we can reduce it (by getting a municipal rink)," he added.

Parity

Ignazio said that similar arrangements in cities such as Arlington were working well, and that municipal rinks had actually grossed profits from admission charges, concession stands and rentals.

In addition to ice skating, Ignazio said the rink could be used for roller skating, tennis, bingo games and movie screenings.

City councilors said they supported the idea of the rink. "It would lend great depth to youth sports." Councilor Leonard J. Russell said last night.

City Manager Robert W. Healy said there would be very little cost to the city in setting up the rink, because the MDC would be transferring the facility and the new organization would be running it.