MORGANTOWN — Pucks will drop at Mylan Park in 2025.
That’s the goal.
Mylan Park Foundation President Ron Justice told The Dominion Post construction on a $15 million-to-$17 million ice arena will begin in the coming months.
“Our goal right now is to start construction sometime in the fall and be completed in hopes of getting into that 2025 schedule,” he said. “We know that they start sometime around September, October, so that’s the goal.”
Core drilling has been conducted in lower Mylan Park in the open area that runs alongside the multi-purpose field.
“Right now, what we’ve got programmed is one sheet of ice and the locker rooms that would support that; then the surrounding areas, which would be for things like skate rentals and stuff like that. It’s not going to be two sheets of ice. I know that,” Justice said.
“What we’re working through right now is what kind of seating capacity we’re going to have and how many locker rooms will be included. It’s really just looking at how much it’s going to cost to build all those things out.”
Specific facility details and funding particulars will be included in a press release tentatively planned for mid-August.
Mylan Park’s hockey plans were made public in February 2023, when BOPARC scuttled plans for a $15 million overhaul of the Morgantown Ice Arena in the face of soaring costs and pushback from the hockey community over the scope of the improvements.
BOPARC’s decision to drop the project came with a joint announcement that Mylan Park would explore the construction of a facility to better-serve competitive hockey while BOPARC focused on community use.
And that’s what’s happening.
This will be the last year the Morgantown Ice Arena will support competitive hockey.
It will open in August as usual but close a month early, in February, as BOPARC prepares for a scaled-back project expected to be in the $3 million-to-$4 million price range.
The opening phase of work will begin in the spring and address three major components — the building’s roof and the mechanical heart of the facility, its chiller and dehumidification unit.
Starting in 2025, the Morgantown Ice Arena will be open for community use from October to February, making Mylan Park’s construction schedule critical for the local hockey community.
“We think we can make that deadline,” Justice said.
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