`That's big news,' says operator Jan Heida who will lead the project together with Systabo-manager Chris de Groot and architect Henk Gersen of IAAA Architects in Enschede. Heida used to operate Thialf and is known in the sporting world for winning the world title in the 1973 youth world championship ice skating. De Groot graduated from the UT in the early nineties with a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Science and, since early 2006, is general manager of Systabo. This turn-key business is a subsidiary of the construction venture Volker Wessels from Rijssen, which is the main contractor of the project. The architect Gersen designed the skating rink. Construction and operation are brought together in the BV IJsbaan Twente, which has its own website (www.ijsbaan-twente.nl). A sum of at least 12 million euros is involved in the construction. Nearly every sort of ice sport can be practiced at the rink, even ice-dancing TV shows. The rink will be open 25 weeks a year, from October to late March.
The 400-meter rink will be equipped with a ring for inline speed skaters. The members of UT skating association Skeuvel will be able to skate laps even in the summer. Operator Heida sees the UT with over 7000 students and nearly 3000 employees as an important target group. `It would be even better if we could make a deal with the UT on a collective subscription for its employees and students.'
Heida wants a visitor count of 200.000 a year (leisure, `heavy users,' schools and clinics). `This is impossible without sponsors, we think we need about a hundred. We're busy trying at the moment.' The rink in Enschede should deliver fantastic ice, he says, comparable to that of Thialf, or better. `That's our ambition: that top skaters have their training camp here instead of going to Erfurt.'
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