DULUTH — After months of uncertainty, Duluth Entertainment Convention Center leadership hopes a corporate partnership can alleviate some of the area’s winter ice shortage.
The 2025-26 winter was intended to be the last with an ice sheet maintained in the DECC Arena. When the rink's ice plant was retired for safety reasons in 2023,
a temporary chiller was used to keep ice in the arena through 2025-26
. After that, the plan was for the DECC Arena to be converted into a facility only for conventions and events.
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However, without a new rink coming online in Duluth since the ice plant was retired, both the Duluth Amateur Hockey Association and Duluth Figure Skating Club were concerned. Both clubs use the rink for winter practices, as well as two of their biggest events — the Icebreakers Invitational and the Northland figure-skating competition.
Duluth Entertainment Convention Center executive Dan Hartman announced Thursday DECC board members had approved an effort to lease the naming rights for the DECC Arena in hopes of defraying the annual cost of operating the DECC Arena as an ice rink.
A series of listening sessions held over the summer brought forward both concerns and...