The Ice Sheet at Ogden, also known as the Weber County Ice Sheet, is located north of

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

on the campus of

Weber State University Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy and earned its current name in 1991. As of fall 2023, the student population reached 30,536 students, cons ...

Ogden Ogden may refer to: Places Canada *Ogden, Calgary, in Calgary, Alberta *Ogden, Quebec, a small municipality in the Eastern Townships * Ogdensville, British Columbia or Ogden City, alternate names for gold rush-era Seymour Arm, British Columbia *Og ...

. The Ice Sheet opened in 1994 as a recreational training center for

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide #Curling stone, stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take t ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

, and

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, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...

. During the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

the Ice Sheet hosted curling events, a role it is expected to reprise during the

2034 Winter Olympics The 2034 Winter Olympics, officially the XXVII Olympic Winter Games, and branded as Salt Lake City–Utah 2034, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area of Utah, United State ...

. The Ice Sheet is also home to the

Ogden Mustangs The Ogden Mustangs are a junior ice hockey team based in Ogden, Utah. The Mustangs are members of the United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) and play their home games at The Ice Sheet at Ogden. Before joining the USPHL in 2020, the Mustangs ...

, a

junior ice hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from ...

team in the

United States Premier Hockey League The United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) is an American ice hockey league. Founded in 2012, the USPHL has grown to over 60 organizations from across the United States/Canada fielding teams in the National Collegiate Development Conference ...

and Weber State University's men's hockey team. The facility, owned by Weber County, has hosted several World Curling Federation-sanctioned events. The Ice Sheet offers local competitions, public skating, lesson programs, hockey, curling, figure skating and speed skating, ice shows, and includes a pro shop, conference rooms, locker rooms, and an outdoor terrace for meetings.

History

Following the passage of Utah's 1989 Olympic referendum, Ogden City submitted a proposal to the Utah Sports Authority and Utah's Olympic organizers to construct an Olympic-sized practice ice sheet in the city. On September 10, 1990, the Utah Sports Authority selected a site near the

Dee Events Center Dee Events Center is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the Western United States, western United States, located on the campus of Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, Ogden, Utah. The circular, 11,592-seat domed arena, similar in design to many of ...

in Ogden as the site of an Olympic ice sheet, over other locations in downtown

and

Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem, Utah, Orem to the north and Springville, Utah, Springville to the south ...

. The property for the venue would be leased from Weber State University for 50 years at a cost of $1. A groundbreaking ceremony at the start of construction was held December 17, 1992. The facility was to cost $5.9 million, with $3 million coming from the State of Utah (as authorized in the 1989 Olympic referendum), $2 million from Weber County, and the remainder from private donations. Following the venue's completion, a two-day grand opening was held on April 2–3, 1994, which included performances by Olympian Scott Hamilton, and U.S. Champions

Todd Sand Todd Sand (born October 30, 1963) is an American pair skater. With his wife Jenni Meno, he is the 1998 World silver medalist, a two-time World bronze medalist (1995, 1996), and a three-time U.S. national champion (1994–96). With his previou ...

s and Jennifer Moreno. By the time it was completed the price had gone up to $6.2 million, it had seating for 2,000 spectators, and was in size. It was originally designed to be used for practice and preliminary competitions among ice skaters and hockey teams for the 2002 Winter Olympics. It was later decided that the ice sheet would be used for

events, and on May 2, 1999, the ice sheet closed to replace the sand-based floor with a more efficient concrete floor. The sand-based flooring allowed freezing tubes to shift, causing uneven ridges in the ice. The new concrete floor was finished July 1999, and the ice sheet reopened for public use within weeks.

Winter Olympics

The Ice Sheet at Ogden hosted

curling at the 2002 Winter Olympics Curling at the 2002 Winter Olympics took place from February 11 to February 18 in Ogden, Utah. The 2002 Winter Games were the third time that curling was on the Olympic program. Men's Men's tournament Teams * '' Hammy McMillan was repl ...

, which had been first introduced during the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events ...

. The venue held about 2,000 spectators, and 96.7% of tickets were sold, with a total of 40,572 spectators witnessing events at the Ice Sheet. It is slated to again host curling events during the

References

External links

The Ice Sheet at Ogden
– Official website

- Facility profile {{DEFAULTSORT:Ice Sheet Venues of the 2002 Winter Olympics Olympic curling venues Sports venues in Utah Weber State University Curling venues in the United States Sports venues in Ogden, Utah Sports venues completed in 1994 Curling in Utah 1994 establishments in Utah Ice hockey venues in Utah College ice hockey venues in the United States