ST. CLOUD — On June 9, the Minnesota State Legislature passed an estimated $12.8 million in funding to get a new refrigeration system for the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center’s two ice rinks.
Details of the plans for the renovation are beginning to come together, and also the reality of what the project will entail for
St. Cloud State University.
Cory Portner is the director of the HBNHC.
“The real work begins when the funding is realized and we’ve been entertaining this renovation since I started in 2017,” Portner said. “There’s been year over year where we’ve moved this target forward. It’s great for the funding to come in. But now there’s the sense of now we’ve really got to get things moving because there’s a very tight timeline from the bid to construction to completion.
“The tail end of the (2025-)26 season and the start of the 2026-27 season is going to be really difficult.”
The bidding process for the project has begun.
“There have been some meetings with the architecture design team and the bidding is coming up in October,” Portner said. “Our facilities management team oversees that entire process to make sure they go along the guidelines of the system.”
The arena has its original ice rink cooling system from when the building opened in 1989 and will have its ice rink cooling plant replaced.
The current system uses a R-22 refrigerant that is no longer produced and contributes to the depletion of the ozone layer. It will be replaced with a sustainable ammonia refrigerant, which is the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly refrigerant available today.
Following the work, SCSU’s main and practice rinks will have reduced ice sizes. The main rink will measure 200 by 94 feet, and the practice rink will be 195 by 85 feet. The project also intends to replace dasher boards and shielding to improve player safety, upgrade automatic temperature controls and install new LED lighting in both rinks.
The St. Cloud State women’s hockey team practices on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, at the practice rink at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.
Mick Hatten / St. Cloud LIVE
The project is expected to begin at the end of March and the hopes are that it will be completed before the 2026-27 women’s hockey season begins in September.
The first steps of the project will begin when the seasons for either the SCSU men’s or women’s hockey teams ends. That is when the tearing down of the practice rink will begin.
“We estimate a week ahead on the practice rink while the season is taking place on the main rink,” Portner said. “The university is responsible for removing the dasher boards and the shielding. That’s not included in the project. We’re going to donate those dasher boards to communities so that they don’t go to waste. Right now, we have two communities that are interested and we’re working on the final details. They’ll probably be used in an outdoor area.”
The part of the project that will be difficult is that the refrigeration system needs to be removed and that means some walls will need to come down in order to get it out of the building.
Then the floors of both arenas will need to be dug up to replace the lines and the cooling under the new cement for the floors of the ice sheets.
The Brooks Center is home not only for SCSU’s hockey teams, but also for
hockey team and the St. Cloud Youth Hockey Association uses the facility during the hockey season. The arena also is a home for spring and summer AAA youth hockey events and camps.
Portner said that SCSU is working with groups that typically use the facility in the offseason to find venues in the area that could host their events.
A look at the main rink on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.
Mick Hatten / St. Cloud LIVE
“There’s going to be a little bit of a scramble because we don’t have an ice rink on every corner,” Portner said. “Ice time is limited. We’ve already been maxed out in this area in our peak season. When we look at it from our perspective, the tail end of the (2025-)26 season and the start of the 2026-27 season is going to be really difficult. We’re in the process of trying to help our spring and summer tenants find other arenas within the greater St. Cloud area so that they can host tournaments.
“That stuff is also important to our sport.”
A lot of the project is for things that people will not be able to see when they come to games during the 2026-27 season.
“The tough part is that to get $12.8 million for the project — which is amazing and is a once in a career opportunity to be a part of — it’s really strongly focused on things that a lot of people aren’t going to be able to see,” Portner said. “That breaks my heart because it’s hard to explain to people that this this is the critical infrastructure that keeps the water frozen so that we can have ice. Nobody really sees that. It’s the major mechanical units on the roof that keeps the air cold and keeps the air dry so that we can have the conditions.
“The main components that people will notice will be the lighting and the dasher boards. Going from the (dasher board) systems that we have now to the most modern system — comparable to what you would see in an NHL venue — the goal there is 100% player safety. We have a chance to make that jump and we’re going to make the jump to the best dasher boards we can to maximize player safety. I think parents will notice that. The glass will look different. The impacts will sound different. The kids will definitely notice that. Hopefully we have some things that people will see.
“But this is a project where there is major mechanical updates that just need to happen.”
The lighting in both arenas will also be upgraded.
Curlers practice on the ice at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025.
Lauren Breunig / St. Cloud LIVE
“It’s also one of those things that the university is looking to pursue separately because there’s so many options with lighting in terms of guaranteed energy savings rebates. We can partner with Xcel Energy,” Portner said. “Whether that makes the project or not, I’m not 100% sure. It is slated in, but there’s a potential that we could pursue that separately so that we can make a major investment on the mechanical side.”
The most noticeable changes will be with the practice rink. It will not only be shrunk to an NHL-sized rink, but the plan is to add more substantial bleachers around the rink.
“It’s not part of the construction project,” Portner said. “That doesn’t qualify under the funding. This funding is for major mechanical infrastructure updates. The seating is not considered a necessity. But that area will be 15 feet wider. That will allow us to have a different level of seating for bleachers. That is something the university is going to pursue on its own.
“If you can get 300-400 seats over there, that becomes a game changer for us in terms of how the field of play can be used. It’s not a very inviting place right now (for spectators). Get to an NHL rink is step one. Get bleacher seating for 300-400 — that would be massive. Then we could work on the cosmetics of getting some paint on the wall and pump some life into that space. Then we wouldn’t have so many requests to be on the main rink.”
With the NHL-sized sheet on the practice rink, Portner said that will allow SCSU to make bids on high school section playoff games again.
“It allows us to get back in the mix for some of the district high school stuff that we used to host in the past,” he said. “The advent of playing a whole high school season on an NHL rink and then going to an Olympic size in the most important games of their high school career is not comfortable for some coaches. I think that puts us in the mix for being a draw for section or district games that we haven’t had the opportunity to bid for.”
On the main rink, the subtraction of three feet on either side of the rink will have spectators farther away from the action. That is something that SCSU is looking to address.
“It’s still a little awkward, but we’re looking at things to make those first row seats potentially a little more comfortable,” Portner said.
There will be a tight window for the entire project. The removal of the cooling system cannot begin until the season for both teams finishes. This season, the NCHC will be playing all of its playoff games at the sites of the highest seeds. So SCSU has to be prepared to have ice available through March 21.
If the men’s hockey team were to make it to the Frozen Four — that will be played on April 9-11 in Las Vegas — the university would need to have the ice available.
“We have to take a look at where we’re going to host those programs if they need to continue to practice. Once we start construction, both rinks will be offline,” Portner said. “We have a single compressor for both rinks. So we can’t do one and serve the other.”
A look at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center on the campus of St. Cloud State University.
Andy Rennecke / St. Cloud LIVE