As a Minnesota native, there’s nothing I enjoy doing more in my spare time than heading over to the hockey rink to relieve some stress. While Van Cleve Park is a nice, free option during the cold months, Mariucci Arena offers a slightly more extended skating season.
The rink is open to the public on weekdays from 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. With that said, when there is an event in the building, open skate often closes.
If Mariucci were to extend open skate’s hours of operation during hockey’s off-season, the program could generate more revenue.
However, in order for this to happen, there would need to be some form of advertising or promotion. Before I told many of my friends, they didn’t even know that Mariucci offered open skate at all. This is unfortunate, because in addition to being a lot of fun, skating also acts as a great stress reliever.
Handing out promotional material, advertising at Coffman Union and speaking out on social media would all be effective ways to spread the word out about an extended open skate program. In addition, if the program generated more money, this could go toward reducing the biannual “stadium fee,” which the school currently charges every student.
If the school were to offer free skating during finals week, more students would become aware of Mariucci’s wonderful open skate program and take advantage of one of the many untapped resources here on campus.
Whether or not the program gets longer hours, I encourage students to head over to Mariucci this season in order to reduce stress during the term’s final weeks.
Maddie Eaton welcomes comments at [email protected].
