Open Skate at Northfield's New Arena Runs on a Late-Morning Clock

"There's nothing extravagant about the building, but it's been built the right way," Facilities Manager Jayson Dwelle told KYMN Radio the week before the Hasse Ryt-Way Arena opened. "Every part of this building is more functional, more accessible and more sustainable than our old building."

If you want to test that on skates this Thursday, you need to be at 1900 Cannon Road by late morning. The city calendar lists open skate today, November 12, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. That 90-minute session is about as much public ice as the new arena offers in a weekday. For anyone in Northfield or Dundas who doesn't play hockey, the most useful thing to know about the building is when it's open to you.

Three Windows a Week, All of Them in Daylight

The November schedule follows a simple pattern. Open skate runs Mondays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and Sundays from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Each listing says it is "open to all ages." The November calendar lists no evening public sessions. If you work a standard weekday shift, Sunday early afternoon is the session you can count on.

Here are the remaining November sessions as the city has posted them:

The November 26 session is Thanksgiving. City Hall offices are closed that day and the next, but the open skate listing for Thanksgiving morning keeps the usual Thursday time. If relatives are in town and the turkey isn't due until late afternoon, the 11 a.m. session fits the day.

On cost, the most recent price the city posted came with the October 12 open skate: $5 admission and $5 skate rental. That listing also notes that dates are subject to change. The November listings don't show a separate price, so the October rate is the most recent one on the city's calendar. Before you load the car, check the city's calendar for both the price and the session.

The Rental Counter Is Part of the Design

Rental skates matter more than they seem. With skate rental on site, open skate works for a family that owns no gear, a grandparent visiting for the holidays or a coworker who hasn't skated since grade school. The city's opening announcement lists skate rental among the building's standard features, along with concessions and a pro shop.

The building also has access features the old arena didn't have, including an elevator, a nursing room and accessible seating, KYMN reported. A parent with an infant can come along to a Sunday session and has somewhere to step away. A spectator who can't manage bleacher stairs can still watch a grandchild's first laps. The arena seats 499 people, with standing room beyond that.

The rest of the building serves the teams. There are separate locker rooms for the boys' and girls' varsity and junior varsity teams, rooms for coaches and officials, and a dryland training area. Those spaces show who uses the ice the rest of the week, and they help explain why the public windows sit in the middle of the day.

The Parts You Can Use Without Skates

The new arena has an outdoor walking track and a multipurpose room. The city is already using the building for civic business. The second open house for Northfield's Speed Limit Study was held there on October 28, with the city inviting residents to the arena to review proposed speed limits on city streets.

The art is worth a stop, too. Northfield artist Michael Sweere made three mosaics for the building, showing outdoor skaters and animals. Residents helped make them in public workshops, and the city's Percent for the Arts program paid for them. At the September 16 opening, City Administrator Ben Martig pointed to the mural as a symbol of the whole project, the Northfield News reported.

Some of the sustainability features are easy to spot, and others are behind the walls. The building is LEED Silver certified. It has solar panels, efficient heating and cooling, upgraded refrigeration, high-efficiency lighting and water-saving fixtures. The two you'll actually see on a visit:

• The ice resurfacer is electric. Between sessions, the machine making laps runs on electricity.
• There's EV charging in the lot. The arena has electric-vehicle charging stations, so an hour on the ice can also be an hour of charging.

Why Dundas Paid as Much as Northfield

The building's community-first design follows from how it was paid for. Four kinds of partners split the cost, and each covered a different piece, according to the Northfield News account of the opening:

1. The City of Northfield made a contribution.
2. The City of Dundas matched Northfield's contribution.
3. The Northfield School District helped with ice rates and debt service.
4. The Northfield Hockey Association led private fundraising, which drew more than 150 donors.

Because Dundas matched Northfield's share, residents of the smaller town have the same financial stake in the building. When a family from Dundas drives over to 1900 Cannon Road on a Sunday, they're using a rink their own city helped pay for.

At the ribbon cutting, Martig described the project as a series of trade-offs:

"When you have pretty much everybody saying, 'I'm not happy with everything I got, but we got it done,' that's the sweet spot, and that's how things like this happen."

The building's name comes from its lead sponsor, Glenn Hasse, founder and former president of Northfield-based Ryt-Way Industries. The Northfield News headline spells it "Haase," but the city and KYMN use "Hasse," which matches his name.

The September 16 opening included an exhibition by the Northfield Skate School and a free open skate with players from the Northfield High School boys' and girls' hockey teams. The Northfield News confirmed the celebration went ahead as planned, with a ribbon cutting, figure skating and public skating that evening. Since then, the regular public sessions have moved to the late-morning and Sunday slots in the table above.

What the Old Rink Left Behind

Part of the former Northfield Ice Arena moved to the new site. The city's opening announcement says the old rink boards are being reused for a new outdoor rink on the north side of the new building.

The old arena property has been on a separate track since 2024. On August 5, 2024, the City Council approved selling 3.75 acres, including the old arena building, to private buyers for $1.025 million, KYMN reported. The buyers said they planned an indoor and outdoor private recreation facility. The city kept 1.75 acres along the Cannon River as parkland, and the deal included a 24-month leaseback to the city.

So if your usual skating spot was the riverside rink, it's now at 1900 Cannon Road. Public sessions run at 11 a.m. on Mondays and Thursdays and 12:30 p.m. on Sundays, with skate rental available and a Thanksgiving-morning session this month.

If you're planning a Sunday at the new rink and want to talk about which parts of town make the drive to Cannon Road easy, I'm glad to help. My work is around Northfield and Dundas every week, and questions about these neighborhoods are what I enjoy most. Reach out to Eric Frank whenever it suits you. Let's Connect.