Leeds Chiefs set for January 31 home start against Sheffield Steeldogs as opening date for Elland Road rink is confirmed

Rink owners Planet Ice announced on Monday that the rink would open for public skating sessions on Friday, January 31.

After initially stating the Chiefs would step out on home ice at the new venue in a competitive fixture at the beginning of February, the company has now confirmed that the scheduled game against Sheffield Steeldogs on January 31 will be the historic moment Sam Zajac’s team host a game at Elland Road for the first-ever time.

So far in their debut season in the NIHL National division, the Chiefs have been forced to play every single game on the road. The first 10 games were all classed as away fixtures but, since then, ‘home’ games have been staged at other Planet Ice rinks around the country, including Blackburn, Widnes, Peterborough and, just last weekend, Basingstoke.

News of the rink’s opening date is a significant step forward, given that a slated August opening came and went and hopes of opening before Christmas – as was announced last month – have now been put back a further month.

“It’s great to have a date for when we will finally be able to play in the new rink,” said Zajac.

“I’ll admit it has been tough at times so far this season, we’ve had to put in a lot of miles on the road but, as we saw at the weekend in Basingstoke, there is a strong team ethic with this group as we’ve come through a lot of adversity.

“All being well, we’ll be able to start practising out of the rink sometime in the new year, which will make our preparations so much easier for the weekend games.

“This is one of the main reasons we all got involved with the team back at the start of it all –playing out of a brand new rink and bringing hockey to a big city like Leeds.

“Now we know when that will be, we can just use it as another motivating factor to keep pushing for that top eight and make sure we can play some play-off games at Elland Road in out first season.”

Heath Rhodes, Planet Ice’s chief operations officer, admitted the rink had proved a “difficult” project, suffering a number of setbacks which had caused the delayed opening.

‘l am aware the Leeds community have been on a bit of a roller coaster ride waiting for the rink to open and we do appreciate their patience,” said Rhodes.

“I’d also like to extend our thanks to Leeds City Council for their understanding of what has been a difficult project with many setbacks. We are now focused on opening the doors to a permanent ice rink in Leeds from January 31.”

The first day of opening, with the doors scheduled to open at 4pm, will begin with a public skate session, although work will continue to take place at the venue during the following months.

That will mainly centre around the first floor bar area situated at the front of the building which is expected to be completed around April. Food and drink will be available on the ground floor during public skate sessions and Chiefs’ hockey games.