Swonder Ice Arena is an arena and recreational sport facility in

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

. It features two

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

size sheets of ice for

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are m ...

, and open skating. One sheet of ice is open all year. Sound and light, designed with the technology used at the 2002 Olympics, are in use when the skaters skate. Leagues for hockey from beginner to adult also take place year round. On the second level there is a 10,000-square-foot workout facility with a running/walking track.

History

The current Swonder Ice Arena opened in October 2002 and replaced the older Swonder Ice Rink. Current

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

for spectators is 1,500 - approximately 1,000 in the primary (west) rink and approximately 500 in the secondary (east) rink. Swonder was formerly the home of a professional minor league

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

team, the

Evansville IceMen The Evansville IceMen were a minor league ice hockey team in the ECHL in Evansville, Indiana. The franchise was originally a member of the United Hockey League before it merged into the Central Hockey League in 2010. The franchise has won four po ...

of the

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

, which moved to the new Ford Center in 2011 while continuing to practice at Swonder. Swonder was also home to the

Rollergirls of Southern Indiana The Rollergirls of Southern Indiana was a women's flat-track roller derby league in Evansville, Indiana started by Kristen Wood and Jesse Wilkins, and was a member in the North Central Region of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association. The Ro ...

from 2007 to 2012 and local high school and youth hockey teams also compete throughout the winter. In January 2012, the Evansville Rage of the

Continental Indoor Football League The Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) was an indoor football league based along the Midwestern United States region that played nine seasons from 2006 to 2014. It began play in April 2006 as the Great Lakes Indoor Football League (GLIF ...

moved to Swonder due to large ticket requests. Swonder is also home to the local Indiana State High School Hockey League team, the Evansville Thunder. In 2010, Swonder formed the first theatre on ice team in Indiana. River City Ice Theatre competed at the 2012 U.S. Figure Skating Theater on Ice National Competition in Strongsville, OH where they received a second place award out of 37 teams for best original theme/story. In 2012, River City Ice Theatre was adopted by the Greater Evansville Figure Skating Club and became a 501(c)3 organization. From 2015 to 2019, the junior ice hockey team, the Evansville Jr. Thunderbolts of the

North American 3 Hockey League The North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) is an American Tier III junior ice hockey league that consists of teams from Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New Yo ...

, played home games at Swonder.

External links

Official Swonder Ice Arena website
{{Evansville, Indiana Indoor arenas in Indiana Indoor ice hockey venues in the United States Sports venues in Evansville, Indiana Ice hockey venues in Indiana

History

See also

External links