Dearborn Ice Skating Center

• 14900 Ford Road
• Dearborn, MI 48126
• (313) 943-4098
• Website

Figure skating doesn’t take a break in our house.  

The solo season is almost done (B has one more competition in Midland in a couple of weeks) but now the synchronized skating season is starting up.   

Our club decided to go to a competition before the one we host at the end of November so our teams will hopefully be more prepared on “home ice.”   

That competition was the 3rd Annual Chuck Cope Synchronized Skating Competition in Dearborn this past weekend.   

This competition was held at the Dearborn Ice Skating Center….or DISC…on Ford Road to the east of Greenfield Road in Dearborn.   The Dearborn Parks and Rec owned arena was built in the early 1970’s as the single rink Ford Woods Ice Arena.   It was added on to in the mid-90′ with a second smaller rink.   The building is on the very busy Ford Road which makes it a little difficult to get in to but the Michigan lefts make it a bit easier.   Parking was an issue this weekend because part of the lot was tore up and unusable.   On top of that, once you would go down an aisle, you had to back all the way up if there was no room because the other end was blocked off by construction.   Annoying but not the end of the world.  

Synchronized skating events are always chaos because there are so many people. Each team is made up of teams from 8-20 skaters and those skaters usually have at least 2 people in the stands with them. Space is always at a premium no matter which rink you’re at.

This competition is still pretty new and there are not a lot of teams so that helped.

The lobby is the connection between the two rinks. It’s a long hallway that runs the length of the building. It’s pretty open space, which is helpful when there’s a lot of people, with a little bit of seating along the wall that separates the lobby from the ice rink. This is also where the information desk, concession stand, and pro shop are.

Since this is supposed to be a food blog, let’s start with food. There is a concession stand that was open and boy was it a good thing that it was. The kids and J got on to the bus at 5:30 AM…before Starbucks opens…and were limited on snacks. L had asked me for a bagel. I didn’t see one on the menu, but I’m blind. She went to get some candy later and saw it so she got herself a toasted bagel with cream cheese. B was having a minor meltdown after he competed because he was hungry. I quickly grabbed him some popcorn, a bag of Skittles and a Gatorade.

There are two rinks in The DISC. The original rink is the oldest. It’s a 1500 seat NHL sized rink. This ice sheet is known as the Adray Arena, named after local businessman Mike Adray. When it was just one rink, the Ford Woods Ice Arena was renamed the Mike Adray Sports Arena in 1981. When the second rink was built, the name stayed with this sheet of ice while the whole complex was renamed The DISC. This is the arena the competition took place in.

The seating starts at level of the dasher boards so you do have to go up a short flight of stairs to get to the bleachers. The seats are permanent concrete stands with a seating bench bolted to it. I didn’t see any ADA accessibility coming from the main lobby but I’m sure it has to be there somewhere. There are some benches along the wall behind the goals and there were a few people with walkers that just chose to sit there.

This is the home rink for the Crystallettes which has been one of the best synchro teams in the country. They’ve represented the United States at the World Championships on a few occasions. The banners from all their successes hang on the wall over the entrance.

The second rink is also an NHL sized rink but there isn’t much seating. This one is used mostly for lower level hockey games and in this case, it was used as a warm up rink for the teams. This rink is the Kilpatrick Arena named after William Kilpatrick who was the longtime recreation director for the Dearborn Recreation Commission.

Right outside the Kilpatrick Arena is The Skate Shop. It’s open by appointment and they have hockey and figure skating accessories and offer skate sharpening for both. This is also where you’d get rental skates for public skate sessions through the walk up window next to the main entrance.

It was not the greatest of days for our synchro teams. B’s team did the best finishing 2nd out of 4 teams….and they looked really good for it being so early in the season. L’s team…well, we just won’t talk about it. It was not good…and they got torn to shreds by the judges in the critique session later in the day….but that’s what they needed. We chose to do this competition for that reason. Now they know what they need to work on and it’s time to step up as our home competition, Kick-Off Classic is just a few weeks away.

The Dearborn Ice Skating Center is pretty much what I expect from an ice rink in Michigan. There’s not a lot of extra to it but it’s a nice place to compete. J and L were there a few years ago for a singles competition but I wasn’t able to go. As long as my kids stay in synchro, I’m sure this will be a yearly stop for us now.