Ford Ice Center – A NHL Gem

Ford Ice Center – A NHL Gem

Ford Ice Center – An NHL GEM

After about a year of construction, the Ford Ice Center opened in August 2014. Located in Antioch, Tennessee and part of The Global Mall at the Crossings, the Ford Ice Center is much more than a practice center for the Nashville Predators. With two ice rinks, a pro shop, and a plethora of activities and organizations for the public, this new ice rink is a community center for all things hockey, as shown through the wealth of services provided through its first year of operations.

While the Predators only practice at the Ford Ice Center, several other Nashville area teams use it as their main facility. Both rinks in the facility have spectator seating for fans coming to watch the Nashville Jr. Predators or the various club teams utilizing this state of the art facility (550 in the North rink, 300 in the South rink).

The Ford Ice Center is also home to the Scott Hamilton Skating Academy. Founded by the esteemed figure skating champion, this program is aimed at giving skating instruction to students of all ages, and offers both private and group lessons in hockey skating or figure skating styles. They even offer a free first class for students who aren’t quite sure yet if skating is for them, and booster lessons to speed up the learning process for especially excited beginners. Signing up for these lessons is very affordable, even after the initial freebie, and the periodic public skates held at the center are great places for students to show off their new skills.

One of the most interesting things about the Ford Ice Center is the use of a ‘look-up line’ along the boards in both rinks. This 40-inch painted orange line goes the entire way around the boards and gives players who are looking down a warning that they’re getting into a dangerous area, giving them time to adjust their body and raise their head before hitting the boards. Given the frequency and severity of boarding injuries in the NHL in the modern era, look-up lines can serve to increase player awareness of the rink’s danger zones, possibly preventing unfortunate (and potentially serious) injuries during the course of play. Though this hasn’t yet been tried in game arenas at the NHL level, its introduction at the youth level has been gaining ground since its development. The paint doesn’t alter any rules of the game, nor does it interfere with the hash marks, face-off dots, or any on-ice markings in current use. The developers of the look-up line work under the same philosophy as the ‘Heads up, don’t duck!’ campaign that was started in 1995, also aimed at reducing the occurrence of serious head injuries at all levels of hockey. The inclusion of a look-up line in their practice facility shows the Predators to be one of the more forward-thinking clubs in the league.

The NHL has started several initiatives in recent years to increase the availability and popularity of hockey among youth athletes, most notably the ‘Hockey is for Everyone’ campaign aimed at increasing access to the sport for underprivileged youths and young athletes of color. The Nashville Predators have made the Ford Ice Center the home of their ‘Get Out and Learn’ (GOAL) program. This free program demonstrates the team’s commitment to developing youth hockey in the Nashville area, one of the areas of the country you might not expect to find a lot of ice rinks available. Open to both genders, the GOAL program provides student athletes with equipment while they’re learning. The comparatively high cost of equipment involved in playing hockey is one of the major issues young players face, and by providing the equipment the GOAL initiative makes the sport truly available to anyone.

The first year of the Ford Center’s existence was a huge success, both as a practice facility for the Predators and at bringing hockey to the people of Nashville. Adult league hockey involvement in Tennessee has quadrupled since the opening of the Ford Ice Center; as of August 2015, these amateur leagues involved over 600 adult players and 400 youth players. In October of 2015, the Predators developed still another program aimed at bringing skating and hockey to the public. Go Skate is an 8-week program aimed at newcomers to ice skating, open to students of all genders—and completely free. Though Nashville isn’t a city that comes instantly to mind when you think about hockey, these new initiatives that bring hockey to the community are working to change that.