National Sports Center Blog

Skating show skaters span four generations

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

The NSC Skating School at the Schwan Super Rink is getting ready for our annual ice show this weekend. Performances of the show, themed "Hooray for Hollywood," are scheduled for 7:00pm on Friday, May 2; and 2:00 and 7:00pm on Saturday, May 3.

Jane Schaber, our skating school director, tipped me off to a unique pair of skaters in the show. Bev Eberhard, who lives in Fridley and will only say she's in her 70's, will skate along with her great grand daughter Haylee Zellner. Haylee, who lives in Ham Lake, proudly admits her age: 6.

The four generation span of the two skaters, if not unique, must be highly unusual in the youngish world of figure skating.

In addition to performing together this weekend, Bev and Haylee have competed in the same competitions, and are always there to cheer each other on.

If you're interested in seeing our cast of thousands -- all right, a hundred or so -- skate this weekend, tickets are available at the door for $6.00 for adults 17 and over, $5.00 for children 5-16, and ages 4 and under are free.

Stick It to Cancer hockey tournament goes pink

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

Last night, in the dark of the night, the Schwan Super Rink went pink.

Thanks to a generous sponsorship from Farmers Insurance, the Schwan Super Rink's maintenance crew applied pink paint to the six sheets of ice that will be used for this weekend's Stick It to Cancer hockey tournament. The Stick It tournament, which starts tonight, April 18 and runs through Sunday April 20, is a women's and girls' tournament. It benefits breast cancer research by donating proceeds to the University of Minnesota Cancer Research Center.

Last year's tournament donated $45,000 to the cause, and organizers Jackie Olson and Sanya Sandahl expect to break the record this year -- with a boost from the pink ice.

Headed up by SSR Ice Operations Manager Brandon Radeke and Arena Director Pete Carlson, our dedicated crew started at 11pm and worked straight through the night. They put the finishing touches on the final sheet at about 6am.

Here are some technical details about how they did it.

The paint spraying machine was borrowed from the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul. You may not know this, but ice can be painted just like any surface. After mixing red and white paint to make a pink tint, Radeke drove the sprayer around the ice, and laid down a pink tint on top of the regular ice surface. The paint takes only a couple minutes to dry. Once the paint was dry, workers sprayed water on top of the pink paint to build up about 1/8-inch of ice to protect the paint from the Zamboni shaving.

What's produced is a striking visual. The pink ice surface is stunning; the tint reflects off the arena ceiling and the air seems to glow pink. Photos don't do it justice. And if you see it first hand you'll notice that the pink shade varies slightly from rink to rink, the result of the SSR crew applying some artistic license. Either that or lack of sleep!

There are 96 teams playing in the Stick It Tournament. Most of the players know about the pink ice, but we're guessing many spectators will be caught by surprise. We're expecting more than a few gasps.

And on Sunday night, after the last championship trophy is awarded, the Zambonis will take the ice, shave off that top 1/8-inch, and the Schwan Super Rink will fade back to white.

Tinklenberg video talks about creation of the NSC

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

You find the most interesting things on YouTube.

I was checking that popular video-posting website today to make sure our most recent edition of NSCtv was posted correctly. (We're posting NSCtv both on the NSC's website and also on YouTube. So yes, it was work related!)

As any YouTube addict knows, one of the powerful and intriguing things about YouTube is the list of "Related Videos" that pops up just to the right of the video you're viewing. If you click on the April 17 edition of NSCtv, you'll find a related video that shows Elwyn Tinklenberg reminiscing about the creation of the National Sports Center in 1990. Tinklenberg was the mayor of Blaine at the time the NSC was built, and he is currently running for U.S. Congress from Minnesota's 6th district. This video was posted on his campaign website. El lives just a couple miles from the NSC, and he's still a frequent visitor to our campus for various different events.

It's a nice little video, only 2:17 long, with some interesting historical context, and also some talk about what Schwan's USA CUP meant to a city that back then didn't see many international visitors. Check it out by clicking here.

El has always been a big supporter of the NSC, and this video shows his pride in the leadership role he took to help facilitate our original construction.

Spring is here, so field rebuilding underway

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

If you're reading this from warmer climes that Minnesota, this has been the winter that seemingly will never end. And if you live in Minnesota, you know what I'm talking about. Every time we think spring is here, the temperatures drop and the snow flies again. In fact, just a week ago, we were facing blizzard warnings. In the end, the storm tracked just to the north of the NSC, but we did get two days of slushy snow, wind and below-freezing temperatures.

But four days ago, suddenly, the temperatures climbed into the 50's, then 60's, and now we think that, finally, spring has sprung.

With the ground thawing, it means is that we now can begin to work on conditioning our outdoor turf fields in earnest. This year we will be rehabilitating four fields on the north side of our campus -- M1, M2, I1 and I3. Two days ago we started regrading the fields. Irrigation will be added, soil correction made to eliminate holes and crevices, and new seed planted and sod layed.

Photo: Graders are moving dirt as part of the rebuilding project on fields M1, M2, I1 and I3.

"This year we are trying to be more proactive about turf care, doing all the little things to make our fields as safe as possible," said the NSC's Director of Turf Maintenance Neil Ladd. "In addition to the four fields under major reconstruction, we're working hard on all our other fields, doing what we call 'cultural practices' -- fertilizing, top-dressing, airification, and overseeding."

Ladd expects the four rebuilt fields will be ready for play by Schwan's USA CUP, July 11.