Shenzhen breaks the ice with Olympic-sized skating rink
Shenzhen is set to enter the ice age with the opening of southern China's first Olympic-sized skating rink slated for December. The arena, under construction for more than a year, is being built within City Crossing - an expansive $4 billion complex that will feature a shopping centre, office blocks, five-star hotel, and apartments.
Conglomerate China Resources, which is behind City Crossing, had budgeted about 38 million yuan for the rink, said Ted Wilson, who is overseeing the arena project and will manage it upon its completion.
According to Wilson, it was China Resources' decision to build the arena, taking its cue from the popularity of the skating rinks in Taikoo Shing's City Plaza and Kowloon Tong's Festival Walk, which he has previously managed.
'They wanted it to be the biggest and they wanted it to be the best,' said Wilson.
In addition to basic skating lessons, Wilson hopes to be able to offer classes to the public in other ice activities, such as figure skating and short-track speed skating. The arena would employ about 20 coaches who 'are all national champions' in ice sports, Wilson said. Yang Yang, a short-track speed skating gold medallist in the 2002 Winter Olympics, will occasionally guest coach.
The Shenzhen arena will also be available for use by mainland and Hong Kong athletes. Ice hockey teams from northern China have already expressed interest in training there from the months of April through June - the period when state-owned arenas close, Wilson said.
Among the first Hong Kong athletes to train at the Shenzhen rink will be Special Olympics figure skaters who are due to have their first training session there next January. The arena will waive ice rental charges specially for the group.
Hong Kong sent its first Winter Olympians, a trio of female short-track speed skaters, to the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. 'When they practise before a major competition, they have to get on a plane and fly to northern China,' Wilson noted. 'Anytime they have something to train for, they're welcome to come [to Shenzhen].'
Hong Kongers will have rail access to City Crossing via the KCRC's Lok Ma Chau spur line, which - when completed in December - will provide a direct transfer to the Shenzhen Metro.
Wilson hopes the new rail links will not only entice Hong Kong's professional athletes, but also recreational leagues, such as the ice hockey community, to make the trip north for sporting events.
Rental costs at Hong Kong's ice rinks, billed by some in the sporting community as the highest in the world, are upwards of $2,000 per hour. Rates at the Shenzhen arena would be lower, Wilson said.
He also hopes to set up a dormitory for out-of-town athletes within a China Resources-owned apartment block across the street from City Crossing.
The Shenzhen arena is likely to be viewed as both a blessing and perhaps a slight source of irritation by the local sporting community, which has been trying for years to persuade the government to build an Olympic-sized rink for training and sporting events.
A compromise proposed last year - in which the Home Affairs Bureau offered to provide land for private sector development in Tsueng Kwan O on the agreement that multi-purpose structures containing two Olympic-sized ice surfaces would be built - has also so far failed to yield an arena the sporting community says is much needed in Hong Kong.
Businessman John Crawford and telecom executive Bruce Hicks, have been trying to build the ICE centre - a multi-purpose sporting and entertainment stadium which would include two Olympic-sized ice arenas.
The pair say discussions with local property developers and government branches are continuing. Said Crawford: 'Maybe Hong Kong will get embarrassed that Shenzhen is doing it first, and that will motivate them,'
