AUBURN — The city will raffle off the first hour of skating at the new Norway Savings Bank Arena when it opens next weekend and the final hour of skating at the Ingersoll Ice Arena before it closes.
It’s all part of three days of celebration scheduled to kick off Nov. 15, said Josh MacDonald, ice arena general manager for the city.
“We have the ice down now at Norway Savings Bank Arena, but we’re not ready to skate on it,” MacDonald said. “We have to wait a few days for it to cure and to test it to make sure it’s ready. But when it is, we have a full slate of events to celebrate.”
MacDonald said crews have finished painting sponsor logos on the ice and the boards are in place. The first rink in the new arena should be ready next week, along with the main rink bleachers, the locker rooms and the arena lobby.
The second rink and second-floor mezzanine should be finished early in December.
MacDonald said the city is selling two commemorative coins at Ingersoll Arena at 48 Pettengill Park. One commemorates the opening of the new Turner Street arena on Nov. 15; the second commemorates the closing of Ingersoll on Nov. 17.
Each coin counts as an entry into a raffle for the hour of ice time at one of the arenas. The winner of the Norway Savings Bank Arena raffle will have the ice reserved for himself or herself and 29 friends for the first hour of the arena’s operation, scheduled for 5 p.m. Nov. 15.
They can do anything they want, MacDonald said: schedule a pickup hockey game, a public skate or an ice-dancing party.
Winner of the Ingersoll raffle will get to use the final hour at that arena’s ice beginning at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 17.
MacDonald said the city has scheduled a slate of activities at both arenas between Nov. 15 and 17. They include a teen dance Friday night, youth hockey games and a skills clinic Saturday morning and a public session Saturday afternoon at the new arena.
Sunday will be devoted to the closing of Ingersoll, with final youth and pickup hockey games and the final community skate scheduled for 2 p.m. That culminates an effort to pack the ice at Ingersoll at 4:15 p.m.
“We want to get as many people on the surface as we can and take a panoramic photo,” MacDonald said. “That will be followed immediately by the last hour on the arena. After that, we shut the chillers down, pull the ice and get them ready to be moved.”
Crews will begin removing the Ingersoll boards and other equipment and relocating them to the new arena’s second ice surface on Nov. 18. That second ice surface is scheduled to open Dec. 6.
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- A panographic look at the ice on the main rink at Norway Saving Bank Arena in Auburn. The rink opened for skating and hockey on Nov. 15.
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