Ice Box Set to Get $11 Million Expansion

For those Penn Hockey fans out there, here’s something you will like to hear. Penn’s hockey home, the Ice Box, is set to get a $11 Million Expansion. In an interview with Pat McMahon, the former president for 30 years, founding officer, and now a board member at the Ice Box, he relayed, “If we [the Ice Box crew] can meet the schedule that we are on, it should be finished by June or July of 2025.” He also said, “We should break ground in the Spring of 2024.”

This 11 million dollar expansion has been titled “CheapSkate,” a play on words that encapsulates the mission of the Ice Box which is to get kids on the ice as cheaply as possible. This isn’t cheap by any means, but it is a need according to McMahon, “we were asked to consider [building a third rink] after the closing of both Howard Park’s and Merrifield’s hockey rinks… That all created some ice usage problems and that is what caused the need for the third rink.”

At the moment the Ice Box can only run one rink year-round because that is the only one that is insulated. When asked about the differences between the third rink and the other two McMahon told us, “This third rink will be a mirror of the second rink in the sense that it is insulated. Because it is insulated it will run year-round, which is a huge deal to have two rinks open year-round for summer camps.” He also talked about it being it used as a “cold gym” for other schools that could use it. This is big for schools that can’t do anything for gym class on hot days at the beginning and end of the school year.

You may ask, “I really like ice skating and other non-hockey ice events, will I be able to use this third rink?” Well, according to McMahon, “It will be open for anything that you could want. Broomball, Figure Skating, and maybe even curling.” This third rink is incredible for not only hockey but ice sports in general.