Centre Ice Arena

• 1600 Chartwell Drive
• Traverse City, MI 49696
• (231) 933-7465
• Website

I left Mackinaw City around 3 PM on Thursday and raced back to Grand Rapids. My plan was to drop my company vehicle off at the Grand Rapids office and J was going to pick me up. L had a figure skating competition in Traverse City and since I had Friday off, I was going to try to go with them.

I got back to the office just before 6:30, unloaded my stuff and loaded up J’s car. We headed towards a cheap hotel in Traverse City for the weekend. All told, I spent about 6 1/2 driving between Mackinaw City and Traverse City instead of the two hour trip it should have been because I didn’t want to take the company car there.

We got up early on Friday morning for L’s first day of competition. She had practice scheduled for 7:30 AM and her first event was right around 9 AM.

The ice rink for this weekend was Centre Ice Arena on the southeast side of Traverse City.

Centre Ice Arena is on Chartwell Drive in East Bay Township. The setting is pretty unique. You turn off of Hammond Road in to what feels like a neighborhood. There are a few other businesses but it’s also a subdivision on a narrow surface street. All of a sudden, you come to this giant arena that also hosts the Detroit Red Wings training camp.

L and I were at this rink for the Cherry Classic last year. J was sick so she had to stay home. This was her first time here and she was really impressed by this rink.

When you walk in, you kind of come in to this dark, dank public area between the two rinks. There’s not much here but it’s mostly used for open skate and as a participant access to both of the rinks.

There are two rinks at Centre Ice. The smaller rink, David’s Rink, is off to the left when you walk in.

The larger rink, and the one used for Red Wings training camp, is Molon Rink.

L spent pretty much all of the first day on Molon Rink. She had one event in David’s Rink.

The Molon Rink has more seating, a mezzanine section, and a Red Wings suite overlooking the ice. The first day we were there, it was really cold, but on Saturday, they turned the overhead heaters on and it was really comfortable. There is a press box above the scorer’s box but other than that, this could look like any other rink L skates on for these competitions.

We spent more time in David’s Rink last year and on the second day of competition this year. The rink is a little smaller but it still has pretty decent metal stands and heaters which make sitting there all day a little more comfortable.

The upstairs lobby is more of the public area and the space between the two rinks is pretty large. There was a lot of room to spread out and, as is the case at a lot of these competitions, plenty of room for parents to work in between their kid’s events.

As for food…well…there is a concession stand, but again this year, it wasn’t open. They had complimentary coffee and a single box of donuts each morning but that was it. There’s not much around the rink either so you have to go pretty far away to get something to eat.

There are some vending machines on the lower level but they’re cash only. None of them, that I saw, took credit cards so even that wasn’t really an option because…do people really still carry singles?

L had a pretty successful weekend and we love this competition. It’s not the biggest one we go to but Centre Ice Arena is really great and, you know, we’re in Traverse City for a couple of nights. This competition wasn’t originally on her coaches schedule but she eventually decided to add it. It’s just a couple of weeks after the Ann Arbor competition but hopefully this becomes a permanent one for us.