Rodeo Rink opens at Eagle County Fairgrounds: ‘They made a lot of magic happen’
John LaConte/Vail Daily
Dobson Ice Arena Director Jared Biniecki was the first person to touch the ice after the Rodeo Rink, Eagle County’s newest ice sheet, was completed on Nov. 3.
“Today is the first day, and it will probably get used every day from here on out from now until March,” he said.
The rink will see long hours, as well. On its first day of opening, an adult league game was scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m. That will take a lot of pressure off the Eagle Pool and Ice Rink, which was planning to be closed for just 4 hours per day before the new rink’s opening.
The Rodeo Rink came together as a last-minute effort to provide a temporary replacement for Vail’s Dobson Ice Arena, which is undergoing a major renovation.
Towns, nonprofits and private donors were asked to contribute to finding a temporary replacement sheet of ice, and after much consideration, the Rodeo Rink — named for its location near Eagle County’s rodeo arena — emerged as the most viable location. About $800,000 was raised to see to its completion.
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A fast-tracked construction process took place this fall, with many surprised at how quickly it was able to come together.
“Six weeks ago, this was a dirt parking lot,” Biniecki said.
It was completed in time for ice users to have a place to go in time for the upcoming winter season, but when it opened on Monday, Nov. 3, it didn’t feel at all like winter.
“It’s kind of wild that we were able to do this in Eagle, where it still feels like summer,” Biniecki said. “It was 70 degrees today.”
Some of the old equipment from Dobson was repurposed, including the Zamboni machine. Biniecki said a massive effort was required to get it all together.
“They made a lot of magic happen,” he said. “It took a lot of people to donate, a lot of people to fundraise, a lot of volunteers to help set it up. We had volunteers here over the last few weeks putting in the flooring, cleaning everything, doing all that stuff that we couldn’t afford to pay for.”
Biniecki said not all the volunteers were who you might expect to see.
“There were a lot of kids here working really hard,” he said. “There were kids who were putting in eight and 10-hour days.”
