La Crosse could be ice hockey mecca with new two-rink arena

Nonprofit hopes to build facility on old 10-acre Trane site.

La Crosse could become the new youth hockey mecca of Wisconsin.

Hockey is already big in the city, even without much of a facility to play in.

Now, however, a nonprofit group is raising money to build a multi-use ice facility in the center La Crosse on the site of the old Trane plant 6.

Carl Miller, from the La Crosse Area Youth Hockey Association, says they’re working on designs for the interior of the facility, while negotiating a purchase on the 10-acre lot.

The planned facility would have two hockey rinks and a curling rink. 

“It’s not built to be an entertainment center for anything else,” Miller said, “besides a necessity for ice hockey, figure skating, curling – that type of thing.”

The centralized location on that lot near George and St. Andrew streets, Miller believes, is an ideal location and one youth hockey parents will be excited to call, “home ice.”

“Western Wisconsin has had a lot of hockey being played,” Miller said, “but, unfortunately, our poor parents have had to travel 100 percent of the time to (watch their kids) play ice hockey.”

Aside from the two rinks and curling area, Miller hopes to have enough to keep fans off the ice happy within the facility.

“We have to look at the amenities that have to be inside so that the costs isn’t prohibitive and, yet, at the same time, it’s adequate for what we need,” he said.

Miller won’t say yet how much money his group is looking to raise but they’ve got enough now to negotiate a sale of the site.