2014 US Nationals

[Rochelle]

"If" Indianapolis could get their act together and bid on Nationals and "If" World Arena ice stil exists, then it would be an easy 3 block walk between arena and 2 more sheets of ice.
Hey, I can still hope, can't I?

The ifs are the issue. But it's great that Indianapolis is a desired city to bid/host it!

Where are the rinks you are talking about? The Pan Am Plaza rinks are OK for practices. The Bankers Life Fieldhouse (where the Pacers play) is where the Indiana Ice minor league hockey team is supposed to play next year. It would be awesome!

The Pan Am Plaza rinks (actually called the Indiana/World Skating Academy... not the World Arena), is still the home to Indy Challenge. The logistics are fabulous in Indianapolis for such sporting events. The I/WSA 2-rink facility (not the nicest, but hey, it gets the job done for Indy Challenge and ice is FAR FAR FAR better in January) is only two blocks from The Bankers Life Fieldhouse. There are plenty of hotels within a 5 block walk of both facilities. The mall is directly between the two, there are dozens of places to eat within 5 blocks, plenty of parking, and those flying in don't even need to rent a car due to the $7 round-trip express shuttle to/from the nice new airport.

Unfortunately, a Nationals in Indianapolis just isn't on the radar anytime soon. The amount of skaters in our metro area is perhaps 1/3 of what it was just 20 years ago. The sizes of the clubs now makes it difficult to pull off their own local competitions easily, and as a result no one seems to have the energy to do pursue something so large at this time. Our non-skating city volunteers are great about getting behind huge events like the Super Bowl, NCAA, and various motor sports... but our skating community would have to be 100% behind it, and I'm certain we'll all stretched too thin at the moment for something so big.

Check back in another decade or so. And of course, by then, the I/WSA rink may have found a new home in a far less convenient location. The owners of the building the rink is in (I/WSA simply rents, and does not own) have been trying unsuccessfully to sell the place for many years (7-10+ years, I think)... but the parking garage attached to the building is in such disrepair, that the structure can't really support a mega- or even modest hotel/commercial/residential building... so no one is really interested in the high-priced downtown property in this economy, and I'll be shocked at this rate if it ever sells.

[flying~camel]

USFS just announced that SC of Boston will host 2014 Nationals.

http://www.usfsa.org/Story.asp?id=48163&type=media

[genevieve]

closing this thread as there is a new one for the official location