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History
Established in 2007, the Metro Sports Foundation was derived from an idea based on community need. The Metro Sports Foundation is privileged to assist the Urban Plains Center and future Tournament Facility in achieving its place in the region as the primary, world-class indoor ice and sporting facility for youth.
It began in December of 2005, when a local voice published an article outlining the ongoing need for better hockey facilities and ice time in our community. Space and time was at a premium for both practices and games.
At that time and still today, the Fargo Coliseum serves as the home game venue for both Fargo North High School and Fargo South High School boys' and girls' hockey teams as well as serving as the practice facility for Fargo North. The Fargo-Moorhead Jets, a North American Hockey League (NAHL) team was also playing and practicing at the Coliseum.
The newly approved Davies High School was on the horizon and would need at least one sheet of ice. Shanley High School planned to move their hockey games from Moorhead facilities back to Fargo. It was clear our kids' teams were running out of ice availability and activities space without solutions for the future. There were also other challenges.
The Coliseum has been a staple for multiple public and youth activities for the past four decades. According to the Fargo Park District, its owner, the years of use now warrant renovations costing upwards of $8 million. This issue was compounded by a $4 million need from the Fargo School District to build a sheet of ice at the future Davies High School. These expenses would fall to the public through taxes if a better solution didn't present itself.
Other arenas are available, but there are also more teams such as the youth programs of the Angels, Raiders, Flyers and All-City which compound the scheduling complexities. Fargo South uses the majority of ice time at Sports Arena for their practices, leaving only the Teamsters Ice Arena, Sunmart Arena and the newest of the Park District's facilities, the Southwest Youth Ice Arena, for our current and expanding youth programs. The result was young skaters practicing their sport at very early hours of the day or quite late into evening.
The lack of updated or new athletic facilities limited seating for fans and family, representing a significant barrier to hosting additional regional and national athletic tournaments, and capped the expansion of programs for all youth and adult sporting activities.
The solution was facilitated by Ace Brandt as he heard the call for greater and additional ice hockey facilities. Fortunately, he was at the same time looking for a way to launch his vision of a place to foster community growth and involvement. Brandt not only wanted to build a state of the art hockey facility which could be primarily for our youth, high school and junior teams, but a development which would also stimulate economic growth and activities for our area.
With this vision, Metro Sports Foundation was created in a partnership with the Park District, school districts, youth programs and the community to build a facility which would solve the problems of space, and eliminate the need for tax dollars for the project, while also lending a significant positive image and economic impact to Fargo-Moorhead.
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