ARENA MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Eden Prairie Community Center

Bob Lanzi – Ice & Concession Coordinator

Originally built in 1982, the Eden Prairie Community Center offers services to the community including skating, swimming, room rental, racquetball, fitness classes and fitness center. A second Olympic sized sheet of ice was added in 1993. For many years plans were in place to add on to the Community Center with improved facilities for concessions, a third ice sheet and a gymnasium.

In 2008, the Community Center completed a 9 million dollar renovation and expansion project; adding a third rink, a new fitness center, child care, play structure, up-dated café, gymnasium, additional meeting rooms, expanded parking and a new baseball stadium that serves the entire community.

The Eden Prairie Hockey Association conducted fund raising events and successfully recruited several business sponsors, that raised over 1 million dollars to put towards the project. Seven sponsors were given naming rights for areas in the Community Center, as an acknowledgement of their donation.

Today, three ice arenas at the Community Center provide recreation programs and activities to youth, adults and families in Eden Prairie. The facility is the home ice arena for Eden Prairie High School, Eden Prairie Hockey Association and Eden Prairie Figure Skating Club. The Ice Arena also hosts various city programs including skate lessons, open skate, developmental ice and open hockey. There were several hockey camps and clinics that run in the summer.

 

Bob Lanzi is the Ice & Concession Coordinator at the EPCC. Bob quietly goes about his business for the City of Eden Prairie having been employed in Park & Recreation for 23 years. He has been in this position for 8 ½ years after spending the previous 15 years as the Adult Athletic Coordinator. Ever the sports enthusiast, Bob officed out of the Community Center during his Athletic Coordinator years, always keeping up with the Ice Arena activities while coordinating men’s leagues, broomball etc.

In 2002 Bob was asked to take on new responsibilities as the Ice and Concessions Coordinator which illustrates his value to the EP staff. The move was a natural for Bob and EP as in his spare time he served as ice coordinator for his children’s youth hockey program in a different community.

The past 3 years have been the most enjoyable of his career; watching the dreams of facility expansion come true. “It’s been a pleasure working with a great group of families who finished their hockey careers with States titles at many levels! At EPCC there is always something new & exciting taking place on a weekly basis!”

Bob’s hobbies include: boating, golfing and almost anything sports. He looks forward, like many in the arena business, to an annual spring break trip to somewhere warm.

He is married and has two college age children.

 

EPCC Fun Facts

Ice Rentals

2010 was the third year of having three rinks operational during the school year. Rinks 1-2 were open for eleven months. Rink 3 had seven months of ice related activities and then conducted dry-floor events in April-August.

• Fourteen hockey tournaments in 2010, including nine that are run by the EPHA
• Over 4,700 hours of ice utilized by rental groups, including over 2,000 hours by the EPHA
• The Eden Prairie Hockey Association has over 650 registered skaters
• The Eden Prairie Figure Skating Club has approximately 100 registered skaters

Skating Programs

A variety of ice opportunities is offered, including skate lessons, open skate, adult open skate, developmental ice and open hockey.

• 2,900 hours of ice was used for city-sponsored programs
• Over 18 hours of open skate & 40 hours of developmental ice offered weekly
• Over 900 skate lesson participants in 2010
• Over 5,900 pair of skates rented in 2010
• “Tot Skating” – certified instructor provides a head start before first set of skating lessons
• Tot Hockey – is offered three times weekly
• Over 150 birthday party packages, including 28 ice skating parties were held in 2010
• Annual figure skating “Ice Show”, including three performances & over 130 skaters

 

Dry-Floor Activities

Rink 3 hosts a variety of dry-floor activities including; hockey dry-land for camps/clinics, park & recreation youth programs,consignment sales, home expo, pancake breakfasts, wine tasting, bar mitzvah’s and roller blading events.

Concession Café

As part of the 2008 renovation, the Community Center created an up-dated concession café.

The café provides a variety of healthy deli items as well as traditional concession fare.

We have established partnerships with several local vendors to provide restaurant quality items such as pizza, deli wraps & pasta salad, sub sandwiches, soup/chili, caramel corn and smoothies.

• Over 8,000 coffees, 4,000 hot dogs & 3,500 pretzels sold at the Café in 2010