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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
The thing about street hockey is that you can pretty much play it anywhere — the street, a tennis court, a park or a paved parking lot.
But street hockey can also be a gateway sport plus a marketing tool to sell the much more expensive ice hockey sport and a way to get urban kids interested in a sport that has traditionally — by the NHL’s own admission — not done a very good job at marketing its product to poor kids, minority communities and city settings.
So, the Vegas Golden Knights worked with the city of Las Vegas and the NHL to create a street hockey experience at Lorenzi Park at 3333 West Washington Avenue — a very different setting than the Golden Knights’ base in upscale suburban Summerlin.
LVSportsBiz.com photographer Hugh Byrne Thursday morning attended the ribbon-cutting at what they called, “VGK Ball Hockey Rink at Lorenzi Park.” The VGK hope to plant the seed of hockey in a demographic that has been traditionally ignored.
Knights team president Kerry Bubolz along with NHL and city representatives held the hype event at 10AM. Students from nearly Twin Lakes Elementary School were enlisted for a ball hockey clinic held by former original Golden Knights player Deryk Engelland, who has become the team’s community ambassador.
Here are the features of the ball hockey rink:
- The total cost is around $250,000. The NHL contributed approximately $60k and VGK Foundation covered the rest.
- VGK has committed to maintaining the rink for the next five years. The city will not have any financial responsibilities for it.
- The VGK have purchased 30 portable padded boards that will be used around the rink. By going with portable boards, it makes it more of a multi-use space, and also gives options for hockey programming – for example, the boards could be configured into two smaller spaces to run different drills or accommodate different ages at the same time.
The Knights rolled out their mascot, cheerleaders and drummers.
It’s common for NHL teams in sunbelt markets to build street hockey and ice hockey rinks to grow a sport that been historically plagued by not appealing to diverse communities. The league is trying to change that. After all, those are future potential game-paying fans.