Thread: Review of new AHC of Corona from Saturday

So I started my new league at AHC on Saturday afternoon and here are a few of my thoughts on the new place.

First off, as far as the league itself started off, I was very upset to get our first game notice on Thursaday night. Basically with 24 hours notice we were only able to get five skaters and a goalie together. I'd figure that with months to get things together there could be at least a 1 week notice. Anyways, after most people probably hadn't skated in the past 3 moths or so, we were allowed a whole 60 seconds of warmup. So me being the goalie, I was allowed to get in a whole 2 warmup shots. I'm not sure what the big hurry was on Saturday because games were only scheduled to around 7 or 8. When it came to actual gameplay everything went pretty well, the refs let us play and from a goalie's viewpoints the rink felt fine(we played on rink 2). The only thing that kinda sucked was that there is only 1 scoreboard at the south end of each rink, so in the second half I had the clock behind me and couldn't always turn around to count off penalties. I'm not sure if this is the permanent set-up or if they're going to put in more scoreboards later.

The actual facility is still a work in progress. There are no seats of any kind anywhere, so my wife and newborn probably won't be coming out this season. The paint was still pretty fresh and the locker room doors had no handles. The locker rooms were also missing stick racks for Saturdays games. The pro shop and seating look to be a few seasons away, and I don't see how anyone will be able to watch a game on the far rink without having to stand next to the glass the whole time. There is no room for an kind of seating as far as I can see, and even if they build the mezzanine seating, you'd have to watch a game on the far rink by looking over the near rink. I also found the front door area a little hard to manuver through with goalie equipment as the front desk is to your immediate right when you walk in and there was a logjam of people right in front, although this could be blamed on people registering. I have to say that the working air conditioning was awesome. There were times at the old place that I thought I would pass out from the lack of air, but after Saturdays game I felt pretty good after not getting any warm-up and not playing siince last September.

Overall, I was just really happy to be playing again. The biggest negative was the lack of notice for the start of the season, but that was a problem in Anaheim also. It should be pretty interesting in the next few seasons to see how the facility develops and what the influence of the Ducks partnership has on the place. I hope the rest of you who play there this week have a good time.

thanks for the review! I'm playing on wed. Can't wait to see it...

yeah i 2nd that review

Scheduling is a bitch. I agree that it very well can be done further in advance after the leagues are established, but when you have teams/players signing up right until the last minute its harder to create a schedule then have to go back and rearrange everything then renotice all the players. Its a risk all of us take until someone comes up with a better plan. Also, sadly because all of the management had their hands full being very hands on with the reconstruct making sure the rink was actually operable for a Saturday open, some minor things fell by the wayside. Im still amazed how Murchison got that whole thing through planning so fast. Im just thankful to have a rink there for us to play at before April.

Originally Posted by Unruely35

Scheduling is a bitch. I agree that it very well can be done further in advance after the leagues are established, but when you have teams/players signing up right until the last minute its harder to create a schedule then have to go back and rearrange everything then renotice all the players. Its a risk all of us take until someone comes up with a better plan. Also, sadly because all of the management had their hands full being very hands on with the reconstruct making sure the rink was actually operable for a Saturday open, some minor things fell by the wayside. Im still amazed how Murchison got that whole thing through planning so fast. Im just thankful to have a rink there for us to play at before April.

I am also most thankful about just having a place to play, but as far as the scheduling goes, this had been a problem before. Thankfully, we won with five players and hopefully this won't be a problem in the future. I have to say that the online registration is a nice new feature.

I agree with you, it is a pain in the ass. I guess I am just more forgiving about it THIS season with everything else going on. I was there last Thursday and watching Ben B run around holding a measuring tape like a chicken with his head cut off trying to get stuff done made me pity them a little.

Originally Posted by Unruely35

Scheduling is a bitch. ...

I'm curious about inline rinks: when there aren't games scheduled, are the surfaces open for sticktime? And if so, what do they charge for that? ... I mean, since there are no huge ice plant costs associated with running them, and I can't imagine they have 'public skates' (people can do that in their own neighborhood), seems to me you ought to be able to get sticktime virtually whenever you want it.

TSC charges for stick time on the inline rink.

Anyone know how much smaller the rinks are? Ben told me that they'd be a bit smaller, can anyone tell me if it was noticable?