Ammonia plant puts Vienna ice rink reopening in doubt

Vienna’s ice sports hall has been closed for months because of its 70-year-old ammonia refrigeration system, and it is not yet clear whether the facility will reopen, ORF reported. Clubs, ice sports athletes and schools are hoping it can return to operation.

The hall was initially expected to close for about a month for the Eurovision Song Contest and then reopen. However, an inspection found that the refrigeration system must be completely overhauled or examined after 70 years, said Hans Gunsam, president of the ice sports hall.

Martin Haindl, who learned to skate at the hall 36 years ago and still plays ice hockey, has launched a petition calling for it to be preserved. It has more than 2,000 supporters. The Austrian Ice Hockey Association also backs the petition.

Every additional ice rink lost will harm ice hockey in Austria in the long term, affecting professional and elite sport as well as young people’s opportunities to exercise, association managing director Alexander Helwig said.

The city says safety is the priority. The ammonia must first be professionally disposed of, a process expected to be completed by the end of August. Only then can the individual components of the system be inspected.

The office of Vienna’s sports councillor Peter Hacker said the system’s precise condition must be established before technical options can be assessed and their economic and climate impacts evaluated. A more detailed cost estimate will only be possible afterwards, it said.

The closure is affecting recreational and elite sport as well as many schools. Public skating has moved to the Eisring Süd ice rink, where up to 170 people skate on summer Tuesdays.

According to Gunsam, around 100,000 people used the hall each year, including about 27,000 kindergarten and school children.