Salt Lake City Sports Complex
645 S. Guardsman WayThursday was competition day.
L qualified for the US Figure Skating National Solo Dance Finals for the third straight year. This year, the competition was the West Coast Regions turn to host and the event was award to the Intermountain Interclub Association in Salt Lake City, UT
We got really lucky the first year because the competition was in Chicago and we could drive. Last year, it was in Tampa. I wasn’t able to go because I didn’t have enough time off work. This year, I got lucky and found a way I could spend about 20 hours in Salt Lake City, only use two vacation days, and still get back to Kalamazoo for my long shift on Friday.
I flew out of Grand Rapids around 2:30 on Wednesday. Got to Salt Lake around 7:30, stopped at Crown Burgers for dinner then hit the hotel to get some sleep. We were up around 5:30 on Thursday morning. L competed at 8:00 AM and I was back on a flight to Grand Rapids at 5:30.
It was a really long week but totally worth it. L finished on the podium for the first time placing 2nd and bringing home the national silver medal.
The competition was held at the Salt Lake City Sports Complex near the campus of the University of Utah. The complex is on Guardsman Way north of East Sunnyside Avenue. The facility is multipurpose with two Olympic size ice sheets, two Olympic sized pools, and a fitness center. The Complex is run by Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation and was the official training site for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Parking was horrendous. We got to the venue pretty early and found a spot pretty quickly but once we went for lunch and came back, it took 15 minutes. The fitness center and pools were still open to the public and there was construction crews taking up spots. It was freakin’ awful. There was a huge lot on the other side of the venue but that required a University of Utah parking sticker so we weren’t able to park there. I always hate when we show up to these events…big events for us, and the rest of the facility is still open to the public taking up valuable parking space. There wasn’t even any place around it we could go because everything needed a school parking sticker so the only option was to drive in circles and stalk people leaving the venue.
Once inside the building, there is a nice big lobby area where registration was set up. We go to a lot of Solo Dance Events and there is only one that charges us admission. That’s Lake Placid and that’s also an ISU ice dance event. I know we’ve only been to two previous NSD finals but we didn’t pay admission at either of those either. We already gave the club close to $1000 in entry and practice fees and they charged us admission to get in and watch our kids. It was $20/day or $65 for the full event. They must have gotten a lot of backlash for this (as they should have…we had already given then A LOT of money) and ran an online deal which made the tickets half off if you purchased before the competition started. J and I both did that…VERY reluctantly.
There’s a security type desk for the facility just before a set of stairs that leads up to the main rink. Skaters and coaches went one way as they had access to the locker rooms and hallways beneath the rink and parents and spectators went up the stairs to find the seating area.
In another weird thing about this place, the fitness center is actually located out in the open at the top of the stairs. You kind of had to walk through it to get to the seating area. And since the facility was still open to the public, there were people on the machines working out as we were just trying to walk to our seats.
The competition was held on the main rink and despite my annoyance with this place so far, this is a really nice rink and was a really cool space to hold the national finals. The surface is an Olympic size rink and it’s home to the University of Utah ACHA hockey teams. There is seating on three sides for about 2500 people which gives the place a bigger arena type feel than where we usually skate at.
The seating itself is just wooden benches on concrete slabs. Nothing fancy, but again, I liked that there was seating on three of the four sides. We were able to sit on the same side as the judges, which is unusual in figure skating competitions, so we could actually see the front side of the performance instead of seeing the back. I do have to get back to my complaining a little bit because they couldn’t be bothered to take down the netting or the glass. Our club even did that when we hosted Last Chance for Solo Dance at Wings Event Center last month. Looking through the marked up glass is annoying enough but the netting is just dumb.
There is a second rink that is right next to the main rink. There are doorways between the two rinks so you can go back and forth. They had the windows covered with black drapes for some reason but the doors were unlocked. This is where most of the practice ice was happening.
The type of seating here is pretty much the same but it’s much smaller with only two rows of seats running the length of the rink.
There’s a walking track that goes all the way around the main rink. There were signs up saying the track is used for walking and to not block the way but since they were charging admission, I’m not sure anyone was actually using the track to walk. This is also were all the vendors were set up.
There is a concession stand on one side of the rink. It’s built into the wall and had a lot of Utah hockey gear for sale in addition to food.
There wasn’t a lot of food options but it was the typical stuff you’d find at a sporting event. Like most sporting venues now, they’re cashless. They did bring some food trucks in that were parked outside on the curb so there were more food options than just what was available at the concession stand. Had I been there long I absolutely would have taken advantage of the taco truck. There was also a coffee truck, a Kona Ice Truck, and a Crepes truck there the day I was there.
I was only there for a few hours so all I got was a Pepsi. I had tried three different Pepsi bottle machines spread around the rink before this concession stand opened. Two of them wouldn’t take my credit card and the third took it, charged me, then never kicked out the bottle. I paid more for the drink from the concession stand but I really just needed something by that time and I didn’t want to leave and go find a gas station.
L’s skates went great. She was in 6th after the first portion of the event and had her best score of the season in the 2nd portion to finish 2nd and on the podium. My complaining keeps going a bit because the podium wasn’t even decorated when they handed out medals. It was just a black drape with nothing on it. I saw pictures from later in the rink and they had added the logo for the event which made the presentation look nicer. It was just another of those annoying things but isn’t the end of the world. We went outside and took some pictures with the mountains in the background.
The Salt Lake City Sports Complex was a mixed bag for me. Once inside the arena space, I really liked it. I like that it gave the national final a little bit more of a prestige feel with the full arena. I wasn’t wild about some of the other things that I’ve mentioned but it is what it is. The admission fee is the only thing that really pissed me off.
I know everyone is doing their best to make this a memorable experience but sometimes I think some of these clubs that don’t do solo dance the way we do it in Michigan don’t realize how long we actually spend at the rink. It’s all day thing for four straight days. Next year, the Solo Dance Finals are at Wings Event Center so I know things will be different.
I hopped a flight that afternoon and headed home while J and L stayed for her second event on Sunday (which she also finished on the podium in 4th place). I’m so glad I made the trip. I knew L had a shot at the podium and while it was a long week for me, it was so worth it.
SW Michigan Dining 
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