City Council approved a 5 year agreement with Advantage Sports Group LLC for the sale of 200 hours of morning ice annually in December 2019.  In response to the COVID pandemic, Advantage Sports Group LLC wishes to increase their annual ice purchase to 800 hours, and to add a rental space they will use as a coaches room, and a rental space to use as a student classroom, meeting room, gathering and office space. 

The original agreement was scheduled to begin on September 14, 2020 and conclude on February 14, 2025 (barring exercise of the termination clause).  The modified agreement will now begin on September 1, 2020 and conclude on August 31, 2025 (barring exercise of the termination clause).

 Scheduled ice times will be non-prime hours that have not been rented in typical years.  The rental space they will use as a coach’s room has been used for storage of items that can be relocated.  The rental space they will use as a student classroom, meeting room, gathering and office space is the former upstairs conference room and has sat vacant since the first floor conference room project was completed last September. 

There have been extensive discussions and planning efforts exploring the possibility of converting that former upstairs conference room into a dryland training/shooting room for the Shakopee Youth Hockey Association (SYHA).  However, the space is too small, the cost to protect the current configuration too high, and the less expensive alternatives fail to appropriately protect the City’s investment.

On August 17, 2020 City Staff met with Advantage Sports Group LLC along with the Shakopee Youth Hockey Association (SYHA) President to discuss the former upstairs conference room and the positive impact this proposed agreement will have in the development of Shakopee hockey players.  Acknowledging that the upstairs space is better suited for use as a classroom than a hockey puck shooting room, the discussion shifted to alternative spaces that are more appropriate to meet the dryland training/shooting needs and those conversations will continue.   

The agreement modifications positively impact the community by: increasing ice arena revenues; expanding services available to Shakopee citizens interested in hockey; and activating spaces that otherwise remain unused.