As Hurricanes players return, there’s a new place to practice to replace aging ice center
The Carolina Hurricanes’ new practice facility at the Wake Competition Center is open and has passed one major test, it appears.
The Canes’ players like the ice.
“That’s the most important thing to them,” said owner and developer Jeff Ammons in an interview Thursday. “It’s not rocket science, how it works. You just want to be sure the ice is good and consistent every single day.”
For hockey players who will spend a lot of time at the new place, that’s always a chief concern. As for the rest of the 115,000-square-foot facility, all the amenities are there. The Canes’ 12,000 square feet include a weight room, spacious locker room and well-appointed players lounge.
The facility has two NHL-sized sheets of ice and will host college club hockey teams and youth teams. It also will be open to the public for skating — Ammons has bills to pay — as well as open for attending Canes practices and youth games.
“The rink has multiple tenants, and the one we’re very proud of is to have the Hurricanes practice facility here. I think they’re as excited to be here as we are to have them,” Ammons said. “They bring a lot of notoriety and it puts a flag down for who we are and helps brand the whole center. I feel like every aspect has been covered for them.”
It has been almost a year since Ammons joined Canes owner Tom Dundon and Don Waddell, the team’s president and general manager, at a December press conference to formally announce the new center. The target date for its opening was the expected September training camp for the 2020-21 NHL season.
The facility was ready Aug. 1, on time and generally on budget, Ammons said. Because of the coronavirus, the new season may not begin until Jan. 1, with training camps set to open in mid-December. At least, that’s one plan being discussed by the league and players.
Some of the Canes players have drifted back into town and are using the practice facility, including Sebastian Aho and Jaccob Slavin. And Andrei Svechnikov, who has a two-story high likeness towering above the lobby area at the main entrance.
Ammons said he has since shut down Raleigh Center Ice, the Canes’ aging and cramped practice place off Wake Forest Road. The new hockey facility also will host N.C. State and Duke club hockey and the youth hockey teams.
“Everybody identified that Raleigh Center Ice had a real hard life span on it and kind of reached the end of that,” Ammons said.
Ammons said the project, which includes outdoor soccer fields, had a cost estimate of $30 million. It helped that the project received funds from the local hotels/motels and prepared foods tourism tax allocation, he said.
“It serves from little kids all the way up through the professionals,” Ammons said.
The Wake Competition Center, minutes away from PNC Arena and Raleigh-Durham International Airport, sits between Aviation Parkway and Airport Parkway. It also includes volleyball and gymnastics centers and an athletic lab in its complex.
Now, it has a hockey facility.
