The Foothills Park and Recreation District is now running the former Rocky Mountain Roller Hockey Sports Center and has big plans to modify the facility and expand some of its programming.
The newly-named Foothills Fieldhouse, 3606 S. Independence St., is still hosting Rocky Mountain Roller Hockey League games as well as roller derby league bouts and practices, but Foothills Parks and Rec bought the site for $1.4 million in late June is looking at converting a rink to a turf field to open up options.
“The opportunities are endless at this point,” said Foothills recreation program director Barb Butler. “Our gymnasiums have absolutely no time to add additional programming. We’re turning people away from some arena leagues because we can’t accommodate them.”
The facility, Butler said, should help alleviate the strain on some of the other complexes such as its nearby sports arena that serves multiple sports.
The turf conversion could start this fall and be ready by either late this year or early 2017. Foothills is still taking bids on the turf field conversion, but estimates on all improvements to the site are coming in around $200,000, according to Foothills Park and Rec executive director Ron Hopp.
“We want to maximize all the rinks at all times. We don’t think that would diminish the existing uses,” Hopp said.
Rocky Mountain Roller Hockey will continue to lease the site for its leagues. The organization decided to team up with Foothills and sell the district the event center because the hockey group was having to manage it and sell time to outside groups. The league had declared bankruptcy, according to Hopp, and decided to sell the center.
“Because we did become a recreation building, it made sense to merge with Foothills,” said Andy Scinski, former general manager of Rocky Mountain Roller Hockey and new supervisor of the Foothills Field House. “It opens doors for sports we didn’t get into before.”
The sale price was a significant bargain for the rec district as the county had assessed the building at $6.5 million. Hopp said they are hiring some staff to accommodate more activities. Scinski was hired to run the facility and some part-time staff have been brought in to help out.
The evenings are still full with roller hockey league nights and the use from the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls and South Side Derby Dames roller derby clubs. Both Hopp and Scinski said they can accommodate the groups on one rink, while converting the second to field turf.
Hopp said the district plans to keep roller hockey as long as it is viable. The Rocky Mountain Roller Hockey League still has its office on site.
“I think itap great. It allows us to offer some services, programs and a facility we didn’t have before,” Hopp said. “It creates a facility that was not served by the district. We feel very confident it will be a net revenue generator. If we didn’t think that, we would not have considered it.”
Scinski said there had been a decline in youth roller hockey leagues starting around 2010, which hurt the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Roller Hockey League. There are more than 50 adult teams, but Scinksi said he was forced to reach out to other organizations to try to rent out space to make more money. With Foothills in charge, it can oversee outside group rentals while also adding its own programming to fill up time.
“I’m pretty stoked, think it will be a good change for the building,” Scinski said.