Ed Robson Arena nearing completion on Colorado College campus
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)-- In just over three months, Colorado College's hockey team will play a game on campus for the first time since 1938.
Crews broke ground on the Ed Robson Arena in February of 2020, and now it's almost ready for opening night.
On Wednesday morning, crews were cleaning the 3,400 seat stadium. All of it needs to be spotless.
"We have to actually come in and wipe down every piece of board, every glass, and from top-down make sure there’s not a spec of dirt on this concrete," said Rick Greene, the senior project manager for Colorado College.
All of the work is to get ready for putting the ice down on Monday.
"You don’t want any dirt or dust in your ice system because every time a blade touches it if there’s dust in there, it doesn’t work," said Greene.
Greene has worked for the College for 20 years and says having a hand in making this arena come to life is a dream come true.
"I get to say that from the very beginning I was part of the design, construction and wrapping it up and opening it. Greatest job ever," said Greene.
The arena is about 90 percent completed, but as Rick's job winds down there's more work to be done.
"Got to get the staff in place, a lot of additional full-time help, and part time help to obviously run this thing, and then diving into the day to day operations of what this place is going to be," said Colin Bailey, the Executive Director for the arena.
Bailey and Greene agree once Robson Arena is complete, it will be an advantage not only to the hockey team, but the college as whole. Beyond hockey, the arena will host community activities.
"It’s going to be a game-changer for this campus to have a facility like this one campus to give it kind of that event game day type of feel. Even if you don’t come to the games you’ll still have that going into the weekend feel. It’s huge for us," said Riley.
Because of COVID-19 there have been delays with getting the outside done, but there will be a ribbon-cutting in September.
The bowl will be ready to go on October 2nd for the Tigers' first exhibition game.
