Braemar Arena

[j4241]

A friendly letter to the new(ish) manager at Braemar.

You seem to know almost nothing about hockey, at all, so here are a couple of pointers.

Hockey is not golf. The marginal cost of a golfer playing a hole on a golf course is not zero. Extra swings means extra divots that have to be repaired or at least require time given to the course to heal. Golf courses also attract walk-up business. When traffic on the course is visibly higher, it discourages walk-ons. Hockey divots get repaired by a zamboni now matter how many there are, and there is no walk-up business at hockey rinks (and certainly not while you're running it). Groups playing hockey and staying on the rink after their scheduled end time are not doing the same thing as a foursome playing 27 holes after paying for 18. When you turn the lights off on a group that has skated at Braemar for over 20 years, when the rink is not being used again for several hours, you are creating significant ill-will for yourself. That ill-will is felt by members of the hockey community that are, umm, pretty well plugged into the Edina community. It is also felt by customers who have spent well over $100k at Braemar over the years. You're effectivley a city government bureaucrat, so I don't know if you care about any of this, but hopefully you recognize the risk to your career longevity of pissing off the entire hockey community in Edina. But maybe not, I don't know.

You also seem indifferent to significant maintenance issue that have slid - dangerous parts extruding from boards covered with duct tape unrepaired for weeks, shower heads missing or nonfunctional. The latter may just be a matter of convenience, the former is a safety and liability issue for the rink and city. The lack of hockey knowledge on the staff is also evident - after zamboning, nets with skirts should be left PROPPED AGAINST THE BOARDS (so the skirts don't disrupt ice formation), nets without skirts should be LEFT FLAT ON THE ICE (so the weight is spread across the entire lower portion of the net, and since there are not nets to disrupt ice formation). When staff scrape the ice, they should not skip large areas. Ice quality at Braemar is significantly worse in the last year than it's ever been. West used to be one of the best sheets in the Twin Cities, and it is now decidedly mediocre.

I'd be curious if I'm whistling in the wind, or if others feel the same way.