WESLEY CHAPEL
Opening day brought 600 doctors, administrators and their families from Florida Hospital. Soon after that, the facility hosted its first junior league game and a collegiate showdown. A few weeks later, 200 kids, ages 4 to 9, participated in national Learn to Play Hockey Day. It was the largest crowd that day among 382 rinks around the country that staged events. As Gordie Zimmermann takes stock of his first months at Florida Hospital Center Ice — a five-rink, 150,500-square-foot, $22.5 million ice sports complex billed as the largest of its kind in the Southeast United States — he does so with awe.
"It's like, wow," said Zimmermann, managing partner at the complex at Interstate 75 and State Route 56 in Wesley Chapel that opened Jan. 21. "It's just been nonstop."
And the jam-packed schedule shows no signs of slowing down. Zimmermann said the complex is on track to host 1.5 million people this year (a number on track with prior estimates), with camps, collegiate competitions and events like Torhs 2Hot4Ice, a national roller hockey tournament scheduled for July.
That event, which will include at least 180 teams, will be three times the size of the Dick's Sporting Goods Tournament of Champions, he said, which brought 53 lacrosse teams to Wesley Chapel last December and generated $3 million for the local economy.
In addition, the facility will soon host a special resident.
"That's a gift from the national team," Zimmermann says, reaching for a red, white and blue jersey in his office.
In May, the U.S. women's national hockey team announced it would make Florida Hospital Center Ice its headquarters this fall as members train for the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
On the heels of that, the facility announced it would also host a high-level training session, the V-Red Prospects Advanced Hockey Camp, in July. The five-day camp has churned out National Hockey League prospects and players over the past 16 years, and until recently operated solely in Canada.
It all amounts to, not so much surprise, but to the fulfillment of a mission for Zimmermann and his staff.
"We had a good handle on what we wanted to do, and kind of just kept going," Zimmermann said. "And now here we are. We never looked back. It's constant forward motion."
And the impact is being felt beyond the ice center.
Diana Grossman's family moved to central Pasco from Orlando in early June so her kids, both competitive figure skaters, could be near Florida Hospital Center Ice. After using similar complexes in Miami and Orlando, and traveling to some in Boston and Utah, it always felt like something was missing, Grossman said. But Florida Hospital Center Ice had it all — Olympic-level coaches, new facilities and a staff that made the place feel like home.
"My kids really fell in love with it," Grossman said. "It felt like the right place for the whole family."
And the Grossmans aren't the only people moving to the area for the ice complex. Brian Steers, a broker with Coast to Coast Realty, said he has sold three homes, totaling more than $1 million, to families moving to be close to coaches at the complex. Shari Klutz, executive director of the skating program, estimated about 20 young skaters have moved to central Pasco just for Center Ice. Even more commute from places like Sarasota or live in hotels while they train, she said.
In addition, several internationally competitive skaters are making the complex their temporary home. Athletes from France, Germany and Switzerland have already practiced there for multiple weeks at a time, with more from England, Italy and Sweden on the way, Klutz said.
Local businesses have also experienced an uptick.
The new Ford's Garage restaurant in Wesley Chapel had one of its best Saturdays on June 3, due mostly to a youth hockey tournament down the road.
"We had people waiting outside before we opened," said bar manager David Rhodes. "We opened to about 50 hockey players."
It's to the point where Rhodes knows that big weekends at Center Ice require him to schedule extra cooks and hosts for days that could push sales up an estimated 20 percent.
At Buffalo Wild Wings, managing partner Marston Slate also said he has to schedule accordingly when he knows a big event is coming up.
Fervor around the ice complex's potential has contributed to a hotel-building boom in recent years.
"The ice rink was definitely a huge reason as to why the hotel was built where it is," said Sherell Hill, director of sales and marketing at the Holiday Inn Express on Cypress Boulevard, next to the ice venue.
That hotel celebrated its grand opening May 22 and already has seen a substantial number of people booking rooms for weekend or weeklong events next door.
A Hilton Garden Inn is under construction on the other side of SR 56. And Zimmermann said he has had conversations with others interested in building hotels in the vicinity.
Florida Hospital Center Ice has had "an incredible impact already," said Hope Allen, president and chief executive officer of the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce.
Allen said the chamber hopes to measure the effect with an economic impact study, which could be done by the end of the year.
Regardless of what the study shows, Allen said the impact on central Pasco and its growing population is already clear. With access to a world-class facility, suddenly there are more opportunities for residents to get out on the ice to try something new or follow a burgeoning passion.
Making ice sports accessible to more people has long been a focus of the Tampa Bay Lightning, too.
As the team has built a hearty professional hockey presence in the Tampa Bay area since it began play in 1992, it also has strived to get more kids on the ice, signing up for teams, camps and competitions.
Florida Hospital Center Ice has greatly advanced that goal, said Jay Feaster, vice president of community hockey development with the Lightning.
"There are not many things you can say are true game-changers, but that one is," Feaster said.
In addition to nearly doubling ice space in the Tampa Bay area for practices, games and competitions, Center Ice has an opportunity to make ice sports more accessible, which means more kids signing up, more tournaments, and maybe one day the area becoming a hotbed of professional talent.
That's one hope with the advanced hockey camp the ice complex just landed: giving local talent the opportunity to grow in Florida. It's an invaluable step to taking homegrown hockey to the next level, said Dave Andreychuk, vice president of community affairs for the Lightning and a former Lightning player.
"This camp coming here is just another example of what this facility will do for this area," Andreychuk said.
Zimmermann sees it, too. When the U.S. women's national team held tryouts in May, he watched from an office that looks out onto the Olympic-sized ice rink. Also watching in the stands was a man and a little girl, maybe 3 years old, Zimmermann said.
When the tryouts finished, athletes circled around and gave the girl high-fives.
That blew Zimmermann away.
Those moments tell him the facility is more than the total of its tournaments, exhibitions and events. It's giving people opportunities and showing them what's possible. That, Zimmermann said, might be his facility's greatest contribution.
"I've been coaching for 20 years and playing since I was 3, and you don't get bored of it," he said. "We have a busy business going on right now, but it has a lot of positives in terms of how you're changing families."
Contact Chris Bowling at cbowling@tampabay.com or (813) 435-7308. Follow @chrismbowling.