ZAMBONI FOR DICKIES
There will be ice at the new Dickies Arena, well, sometimes.
The Fort Worth City Council, at its Tuesday meeting, approved an agreement with Multipurpose Arena Fort Worth doing business as Trail Drive Management Corp for the annual amount of $10 to lease Zamboni equipment. The agreement runs through Oct. 31, 2023.
Multipurpose Arena Fort Worth d/b/a/ Trail Drive Management Corp. leases and operates Dickies Arena from the City. The company has requested the lease of two city-owned Zambonis, which are machines used for ice resurfacing associated with, among other things, ice skating shows and ice hockey games, for use at various events it anticipates will be held at the Arena.
The equipment was purchased by the City in the late 1990s for ice hockey games and ice shows that were held at the Fort Worth Convention Center and the Will Rogers Memorial Center. Since 2014, the equipment has not been utilized and has been in storage.
Because this transaction will benefit the City and its residents and hopefully help increase visitorship and tourism, the city is leasing the equipment for the low price.
“We will host ice events from time to time, including events like ‘Disney on Ice,'” Dickies Arena President and General Manager Matt Homan said.
However, before hockey fans get their hopes up, Homan said there are no plans to bring another minor league hockey team to Fort Worth. The city was a hotbed for minor league hockey for years, highlighted by the Fort Worth Fire winning a Central Hockey League championship in the late 1990s, and the Fort Worth Brahmas making several playoff appearances in the Western Professional Hockey League and Central Hockey League in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
At a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of Fort Worth, Dallas Stars President Brad Alberts said the team hopes to hold its preseason training camp in Dickies Arena in the future.
District 7 Councilman and May Pro Tem Dennis Shingleton’s office released a response they received concerning a possible return of minor league hockey. It said they were a hockey schedule would not work well with the annual Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo schedule, which is held in January of each year and now at the new arena.
