Ice hockey showcase a huge success for women's sport

March 25, 2018

CANBERRA.— The ACT Ice Sports Federation today welcomed the successful staging of the opening round of the Australian Women’s Tier 2 ice hockey showcase series representing teams from five states at the Phillip ice rink.

“The success of the weekend series  involving more than 100 women ice hockey players, their coaches, managers and trainers is a testament to the enormous potential for a new community ice sports facility,” federation president Tony Prescott said today.

“Teams from Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and the host Canberra Pirates played more than 20 hours of ice hockey, often before near-full stands of rowdy and vocal supporters.

“A new twin-sheet ice sports rink which is a badly needed community facility in the nation’s capital would provide even better on-ice skill, better media opportunities and a much better spectator experience.

“This series is an excellent opportunity for girls and women to see the world’s fastest team sport being played at some of the highest levels in Canberra, confirming our collective commitment to increasing women’s participation in community sport,” Prescott said.

The Tier 2 women’s showcase is the feeder competition into the Australian Women’s Ice Hockey League, a Tier 1 competition with teams from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.

Murrumbidgee MLA Bec Cody, a former ice hockey player, officially opened the showcase.

“A new national ice sports centre with twin sheets of ice would have community competitions, elite leagues, international figure skating, ice hockey and broomball events making available not only more much-needed ice time, but also an economic windfall for local businesses such as hotels, motels, restaurants, clubs and taxis from the touring teams and competitors.

“A new national ice sports centre would make an annual women’s ice hockey showcase so much more attractive that we’d likely see new teams not only from other states and territories, but also from overseas,” Prescott said.

 “ACT Ice Sports Federation welcomes the visiting players and their fans to Canberra for this great event this past weekend, and we encourage them all to make sure they enjoy the wonderful experiences Canberra has to offer.

“Canberra is the perfect place for these types of tournaments and events, and with a new national ice sports centre, we believe the federation's dream of seeing Canberra as the national home of ice sports is very achievable,” Prescott added.

ACTISF believes a new national ice sports centre project in the most ideal of circumstances could look like this: consultation, planning and design in 2017-18; construction in 2018-19; and an operational facility sometime in 2019-20.

“With the government’s and Active Canberra’s support progressing the options paper, we remain on track,” Prescott said.