'They built a Taj Mahal' -- A look at Great Park Ice, the Ducks' new practice facility
Sophia Aguilar
Published Apr 07, 2026
IRVINE, Calif. – The wealthy couple with the ambitious idea imagined long ago was beaming. The man to execute the vision was beaming. The project manager to deliver the grand plan was beaming.
Great Park Ice was glistening in its celebratory opening last Thursday, with dozens and dozens of men and women with their power lunch attire on listening during an outdoor ceremony as platitudes were dished out to developers, architects, builders, CEOs, board members and city officials. And the owners themselves.
Advertisement
But this was about what was going on inside the massive facility that could prove to be a game changer for ice hockey and figure skating in the Golden State. Girls and boys performing double and triple axels on one rink. The Jr. Ducks and Jr. Kings playing one another. Leisurely maneuvers by those with no goal in mind other than the pure enjoyment of being out on a fresh sheet.
These were the simpler reasons why a 280,000 square-foot facility with three rinks to NHL specifications and one to Olympic standards was built on the western edge of the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, a site that’s steadily been transformed into a giant community gathering place for the athletically and recreational inclined.
“When I arrived here this morning, I saw the smiling faces of children and their parents,” Michael Schulman, the CEO of the Anaheim Ducks who manages the business ventures of team owners Henry and Susan Samueli, told the assembled crowd. “Figure skaters and hockey players alike. Memories are being created that will last a lifetime. That’s why we built Great Park Ice and we hope you enjoy it for years to come.”
Make no mistake, the $110-million ice palace has its full share of bells and whistles.
As the new official training facility of the Ducks, it will be a regular spot for practices that will be open to the public. They will have 20,000 square feet to work with, five times the size of the space they’ve had at Anaheim Ice – the original Frank Gehry-designed building that opened in 1995 and is part of The Rinks chain of skating centers the Samuelis own throughout Orange County, southeastern Los Angeles and northern San Diego.
The club’s first official event is expected to be an annual development camp after the NHL draft in June and a rookie camp similar to the six-team version in Las Vegas last fall is already scheduled for early September.
Advertisement
Within that space are amenities they couldn’t have imagined, either at Anaheim Ice or their home arena, the 26-year-old Honda Center. A theater-style, 30-seat video room. Walk-in jacuzzi. Sauna. Full-size kitchen. And there are the requisite offices and meeting rooms, along with a new locker room and state-of-the-art weight training space. (Among the intriguing elements is a perch overlooking what’s called Rink 3, ostensibly for Bob Murray when he returns to focus on his primary role as general manager).
Even their working area within Honda Center is just 5,000 square feet.
“I think the Ducks are going to love this facility when they see it,” said Henry Samueli, who bought the team in 2005. “The practice locker rooms and the training rooms for them, everything about it is world class. I don’t know if there’s another one like it in the country. … It’s going to be an attraction for players to want to come to be an Anaheim Duck just so that they can use this as their practice facility. We’re excited for the team to see this and get out there and start skating.”
There is an unmistakable Ducks connection, with the team’s stylized webbed-D logo present throughout. The color orange – a secondary one used by the team that also is an ode to Orange County – is accentuated in entrance areas to the four rinks and the building’s exterior. But their space occupies just one two-story corner.
The Samuelis long intended for Great Park Ice to be a modern spot for both children and adults. A team store has been stocked and opened, while a pro shop and 120-seat restaurant to sit between Rink 1 and Rink 2 is in the process of being built. The four sheets of ice have been in operation since December, fulfilling what the owners and those involved with hockey in the area have long said is a critical need. Sitting areas abound – with the acreage for many more – through a wide lobby that runs the length of the building. An upstairs concourse allows patrons to watch the action on each of the four rinks.
Advertisement
Want to host a birthday party? There are rooms for that. Want to watch locals in a competitive curling league? Head over to Rink 1 on Thursday nights. Want to strap on some blades for the first time? There are 1,000 pairs for rental.
“When I see the families coming here and the kids coming here, it’s so exciting that we have something like this to offer them in Orange County,” Susan Samueli said. “It’s so hard to get ice time and now we’re giving that availability to the kids that want to skate. It’s phenomenal.”
Schulman pointed to details that were necessary. An ample amount of bathrooms for women and men. Twenty-five locker rooms, with six set aside for teams in the wildly popular Anaheim High School Hockey League. A weight room for community usage, which Art Trottier said is 7,000 square feet in size.
Schulman and Trottier were among the officials who visited such newer NHL-related practice facilities in greater Chicago, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Montreal and others. Ultimately, bigger and better was part of the vision.
“We went to a bunch of different people,” said Trottier, Great Park vice president and the construction’s overseer. “I toured a bunch of facilities around the United States. All the kind of newer ones. Went back east and looked at all those and put everything together. We think we built just a great community rink.
“It’s really a community rink. It’s for the figure skaters and the hockey players. That’s how it was designed and how it was laid out.”
Figure skating was a target area for a major part of the 13 ½-acre project. A separate section of Great Park Ice contains a ballet room and another space to hold a spinning apparatus. There is also space for dry-land training, which can be used by all athletes.
The attention to detail was what impressed Mitch Moyer, senior director of U.S. Figure Skating High Performance. The Samuelis “didn’t spare expense” when it came to providing what skaters needed for a “first class” place, which the federation sees as a training center on the level of what exists in Colorado Springs, Colo. Within the Southern California area, high-level skaters often had to head up to Lake Arrowhead in the mountains.
Advertisement
It has already attracted internationally recognized coaches Rafael Arutyunyan and Frank Carroll. Arutyunyan is the facility’s new head coach of high performance. On Thursday, former Olympian and world champion Todd Eldredge was on the ice working out with talented hopefuls.
“They didn’t just ‘build it and they will come,’” Moyer said. “They built a Taj Mahal. Everything, all the little details. They wanted to make sure they got it right. We’ve been talking to Art for a while as they were building it. It’s just so exciting to see the whole place come to fruition. And it certainly exceeds the expectations that I had come in.”
Scott Riewald, who is in charge of U.S. Olympic Committee Winter Sports High Performance, was just as effusive in his praise.
“You look around and it’s spectacular to see,” Riewald said. “Visually it’s spectacular. I think that’s going to be the initial thing that hits people. But I think the real ‘wow’ factor is going to come from the opportunity that an athlete who maybe has never skated before can step onto the ice, look across the ice or look at the sheet next to them and see Olympics and world championship-caliber athletes training in the same facility. And that’s where I think you’re going to see that wow factor.
“People’s eyes light up. Kids realize that ‘wow, I’m actually on the ice with an Olympian and I’m doing the same things that they are.’ That’s awesome. Because it inspires America. Those opportunities to bring the public in, rubbing elbows with the Olympians who have already made it.”
The centerpiece, though, is the 2,500-seat FivePoint Arena. Schulman pointed out its usage this weekend for the ADHSHL championships. In April, the USA Girls Tier I National Championships pay a visit. The hope is that the arena, which has sections of individual seating between the blue lines and behind one net, will be filled for tournaments that the Ducks and their junior program can and will host.
In December, Henry Samueli took to the ice that he once envisioned being in south Orange County more than a decade ago. Growing the game in the region has been a central part of the legacy the family wanted to create as the Ducks’ owners. He didn’t have a hockey background – his fortune came as co-founder of Broadcom Corp., an Irvine-based semiconductor company – and did not know how to skate. And he was challenged to do so by Tim Ryan, CEO of Anaheim Arena Management, which runs Honda Center, at the Great Park groundbreaking two years ago.
Advertisement
“He said, ‘Henry, you need to be the first person to skate on this rink,’” Samueli said. “I said, ‘Oh really.’ Could I learn to skate in two years? I took the challenge. Started going out there and skating every couple of weeks. And over the last couple of years, I learned how to skate. Not well, but I learned enough.
“So I actually was the first person to skate on this rink. And it was quite a feeling. It was really pretty special to put that blade down, knowing it was the first blade to cross that piece of ice and fulfilling that dream that we had so many years ago. Pretty exciting.”
Andrew Ference played for four NHL teams over 17 seasons. Retired since 2016, Ference now works with the league as its first director of social impact, growth and fan development. He has also had a long and deep interest in environmentalism, having become a voice for conservation and green business practices. His first major project was in 2007, when he spearheaded the NHLPA’s Carbon Neutral Challenge.
And Ference is eager to see rinks new and old employ practices that will use less water and converse energy in order to save on operational costs. As he put it, it’s moving away “from the reputation of hockey rinks being a massive energy drain.” Great Park left him impressed, particularly with its goal of running completely on recycled water.
“The efficiencies that we used to think of as nice-to-dos are now just kind of business as usual because it just makes economic sense, right?” Ference said. “A lot of the sustainability and the technology around sustainability is just – now it’s environmental and economical. We’re in a good spot. We have a lot of leaders within the space. All of our California teams have been involved with fuel cell technology. The Honda Center, they have the Bloom Energy.
“A lot of our innovations and stuff, California teams are leading the way. We’re up at the Kings to look at the system they have in place with dehumidification and lowering their energy costs at Staples Center. Stuff that they’re pushing the envelope of. What can we do to do better? That’s the space that our newly developed department is really trying to be more involved in.”
But also, there were trappings that left a longtime defenseman, one who played and practiced in rinks across North America, envious of the glistening ice palace the Ducks, the city of Irvine and the greater region will call theirs. Teams in Original Six cities, he said, should take note of what’s being done in a growing non-traditional hockey hotbed.
Advertisement
“Honestly, there is that sense of jealousy,” Ference said. “You come back in and you’re like ‘Damn.’ Once you get on the ice, ice is ice. Really, within the confines of the boards, you just play the game.
“I’ve played in some pretty dumpy places and have great memories because you’re just playing the game. But this is pretty special. To have this in your community. Four sheets. It’s neat.”
(Top photo of Great Park Ice: Eric Stephens/The Athletic)
