Uri opens first artificial ice rink for local hockey club

Uri’s first artificial ice rink is due to open in mid-November, giving the EHC Uri hockey club a home venue for training and league games for the first time, SRF reports.

The rink is being built at the Holzboden sports ground in Spiringen. The outdoor facility measures 56 by 26 metres and cost about 1.8 million Swiss francs. It will operate from October to February and also be open to the public for skating.

EHC Uri has been active since 2013, but has had to travel to other cantons for its weekly training sessions. Club president Markus Arnold said that until now the club had never had a proper home and that the travel and inconvenient training times made it difficult to attract new members. He said Uri had probably been the only canton in Switzerland without its own ice rink.

The new facility will allow the club to train twice a week and develop its own junior programme. About 50 children are ready to join, Arnold said. The club has bought equipment for about 20,000 francs and contributed a further 25,000 francs towards construction, an investment he said amounted to around a third of its assets.

The club has about 60 members and plays in the lowest league. It plans to offer free trial sessions and equipment for a fee of 10 francs. Arnold said the club hoped the junior programme would also improve the competitiveness of its first team.

A natural ice rink at the sports ground operated from 2004 to 2024 and was available to the public, but it was not suitable for the club’s training. Warmer winters also made it difficult to operate reliably. After the new rink closes in February, its mat system and boards will be removed and grass planted so the ground can be used for football, volleyball and other sports.