Owners of Murrayfield Ice Rink have confirmed an eagerly-anticipated opening date for the popular venue.
The attraction closed its doors in 2020 as Scotland entered a national lockdown - throwing its future into uncertainty.
Now bosses have told Edinburgh Live they are aiming to reopen this autumn as the site gets a huge refit.
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Willie Kerr, owner of Murrayfield Ice Rink, said “We are working closely with Sportscotland to reopen the rink, we are hoping to reopen in October but can't say much more on this topic.”
The news comes as Murrayfield Junior Ice Hockey Club took to social media to share their frustrations at the rink remaining closed.
Club bosses posted: “With the season end fast approaching it’s so disappointing that we have still not heard anything concrete about the reopening of Murrayfield Ice Rink. We as a club had hoped by now that there would be some positive news that we could take into the summer and plan for the new season.
“Murrayfield Juniors have been a massive part of the SIHA for a long period of many many years and we hope and pray that we can carry our legacy on in years to come but we need our rink OPEN!
“As far as we are aware, Willie Kerr (the owner of the rink) has still to accept the Sportscotland offer and make the final sign off with the agreed contractors to commence work. We hope this will happen in the near future and the rink will give us an update to confirm this as soon as possible.
“The rink has now been shut for over 2 years. The kids of Murrayfield Juniors have been an absolute credit to our club, playing and training with pride and heart even though we have had no home ice all this time. The Parents/Guardians have travelled the whole country to keep their kids' dreams alive of playing the sport they love and for that we are so grateful.
“We remain positive that some good news will come soon and we get an update that our “Old Barn” will once again be home for our kids.
“Please all those involved find a solution and keep the kids playing hockey here in Edinburgh before it’s too late.”
Allan Ward is the Murrayfield Junior Ice Hockey Club chairperson and has been chasing the reopening of the rink for the club since 2020.
Kids have had to travel to other ice rinks as far as Fife and Dundee to continue their training over the past two years. This has resulted in many parents pulling their children out of ice hockey classes in the city.
Allan is still hopeful that the club will return to Murrayfield, but admits the closure has damaged the team.
He said: “Murrayfield Ice Hockey has a long history of helping produce some of the most talented players in British Ice Hockey and it will mean so much to not just all our members and their families, but the wider hockey community for this to be able to continue for years to come.
“Regrettably, the devastating effect of Murrayfield remaining closed, while all other ice venues re-opened some time ago, means without the repair work starting very soon to be open by the end of the summer will make for a near impossible task of keeping the club alive for all ages of junior players after the summer.
“I have been involved in hockey at Murrayfield for over 33 years and have so many great memories, stories and friendships all born from there. I would hate for the kids coming through now not to gain those lifelong experiences.
“All I ask and want is for Murrayfield Ice Rink to deal with Sport Scotland, take what's on the table and commence the works that are required to re-lay the best ice pad in Britain.
“They need to, not just tell the ice sports community, but show through work commencing that they will be open again very soon."
The last update on the Murrayfield Ice Rink website was in August 2020. It stressed that a soft launch with limited capacity would not be “financially viable”.
Adding that high operating costs may not be worth reopening for limited numbers of skaters that may be wary to return so soon after lockdown.
A petition was launched to save the ice rink after this update announced it was changing its temporary closure to a more permanent “for the foreseeable future”.
On December 10 2020 the Scottish Government announced they would provide £55 million in funds towards sport around Scotland.
Almost £2 million of this sum was assigned to ice rinks and Sportscotland confirmed £284,000 has been allocated to the Edinburgh ice rink.
Murrayfield Ice Rink is set to receive the most amount of money granted to any ice rink in Scotland.
