There is a health and safety notice pinned to the wall beside Britain’s only skeleton and bobsleigh push-start track on the outskirts of the University of Bath. “Not to be used in icy conditions.”
The gently irony of that notice is not lost on Team GB. Since the 140m concrete track was first installed in 2002, it has contributed to nine medals in the Winter Olympics, including two golds in Milano Cortina.
Build it and they will come. According to a recent BBC news report the Bath facility has received thousands of inquires for potential use after Matt Weston and Tabitha Stoecker won the mixed team skeleton gold last Sunday, adding to Weston’s individual gold two days before.
The Winter Olympics is not rocket science, and while ice and snow is generally a prerequisite, there is always room for some vision beyond that. Still some countries make it harder than others.
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At age 29, Cormac Comerford qualified for his first Winter Olympics in Alpine skiing – 21 years after first trying out on the dry slopes of Kilternan, still the only such dedicated facility of its type in the country.
Dublin is also the only European capital city without a permanent ice rink, and even if most Winter Olympics events only come on to our radar once every four years, for many people the country’s enduring lack of any proper winter sports infrastructure remains galling.
Not that Dermot Rigley had all of this in mind, five years ago, when he began exploring the idea of building a first dedicated indoor ice arena in Dublin. Rigley had a much bigger and broader vision – seeing not just a gap in Irish winter sports potential, but more like a gaping hole.
With a background in the commercial side of sport, including with RTÉ and PRO14 rugby, Rigley also knew there was no point in pursuing his idea unless it was financially sound, plus had the full support of the people who wanted it most.
Five years on, the private consortium Prime Arena Holdings, with Rigley as CEO, has acquired an three-hectare (eight acres) site in Cherrywood in south county Dublin, adjacent to the M50, with plans for a €190 million development that will house two full-sized Olympic ice rinks, with 6,000 seats, and a 1,500-capacity conference space.
Central to the Prime Arena will be Dublin’s first professional ice hockey franchise, inspired by the successful model of the Belfast Giants, but beyond that there’s obvious potential to positively influence the future of Ireland’s Winter Olympics prospects.
“The very first conversation I had around this was, ‘would an ice hockey team work in Dublin?’, because that’s already working in Belfast,” says Rigley, who speaks about the project with a softly evangelical zeal.
“Then we started to look at what is required for a professional ice hockey team, such as the need for two ice rinks, because you don’t want to be training on the main arena the whole time. That was one of the first things the Belfast ice hockey arena said to us.
“Once we saw the need for two ice rinks, we reached out to the Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI), the Irish Ice Hockey Association (IIHA), and unbeknown to us, they’d already done some analysis on this.
“So it all started from that ice hockey perspective, then grew from there into a multipurpose facility. Because there’s a lot of downtime as well, and you need to make sure it’s sustainable. Which is why all these other entertainment functions are put in.
“But regardless of this project, whenever the Winter Olympics roll around people are always captivated. And yes, that is part of the DNA of what we’re trying to do here, with this vision. Because we know it works elsewhere, and once the public get a flavour for it, they will always jump on board.”
Prime Arena Holdings first went public with the project in April of last year, with high-profile investors that included music promoter and MCD founder Denis Desmond, Setanta and Premier Sports founder Mickey O’Rourke, and tech investor and Hostelworld co-founder Tom Kennedy. Founders of public affairs firm Hume Brophy, John Hume and Eoin Brophy, are also on board, as is financier Helen Work.
Since then, they’ve got the backing of employers’ group Ibec, the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, and the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, among others, and Rigley is confident that securing the hockey franchise is only a matter of time.
“We’ve been working closely with the Elite Ice Hockey League [Britain’s 10-team professional league], and they want a Dublin team. They’re expansionists anyway, are looking at other territories. So there’s big enthusiasm for a Dublin team, from both a league and players perspective.
“Two hours up the road in Belfast, they sell out every weekend, and they sell more merchandise than any other ice hockey team in Europe. They’re doing an incredible job there.
“One of our owners is Mickey O’Rourke, of Premier Sports, who also owns the Glasgow Clan ice hockey team [and is chairman of Shelbourne FC]. We also have some current and ex-NHL players who have invested, so we know there’s massive enthusiasm on that front to help Dublin get this franchise.”
Beyond the well-worn Field of Dreams tagline, the Prime Arena – with naming rights also part of the broader vision – is already unique in being a private consortium with wider public considerations in mind.
“We are treating this as a legacy project,” says Rigley. “It’s a once in a lifetime chance really for a private consortium to come in and do something like this, and something these sporting federations have been screaming for, to increase participation.
“An ice rink is for all ages, but particularly for younger people, and for young females. And that’s really important. We see that every Christmas with some of the pop-up ice rinks, and I know that’s only leisurely, but that’s why we have the support of the Olympic Federation and other sporting organisations on this.
“And we’ve got their design input, and demand input. We want to make sure we don’t over-promise on this, with what we’re trying to achieve, so that everyone gets fair access. We also envisage school and university ice hockey leagues, so for young fans who are watching, now there is a facility, and a pathway, to get there.”
When fully functional as a sport-music-entertainment conference facility, the Prime Arena could generate €298 million annually for the Irish economy, according to an independent estimate from the DCU Business School.
Rigley says they are currently “knee-deep” in the planning process, about to sign off on a 50 per cent concept design, for submission this summer. They’ve already invested north of €5 million, the site at Cherrywood a Special Designated Zone (SDZ) under the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (DLR) County Council plans.
“DLR have been brilliant in identifying some suitable sites, and that’s how we landed in Cherrywood, which is easily accessible.
“We’ve a lot of people come with us this far, starting in 2021, and of course we’re taking nothing for granted when it comes to planning. It’s going through all the regular channels, but an SDZ can make for a more efficient process. If all goes to plan, we might have site permission within 12 months, and if that happens, we’ll turn the first sod in 2027.
“But fingers crossed, it really is one of those cases where, if you build it, they will come.”
