KALAMAZOO, Mich. \u2014 The looming closure of Wings West ice arena is leaving local youth sports organizations and community leaders weighing how the loss will ripple through Kalamazoo\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
Greenleaf Hospitality announced that the facility\u2019s last day of operation will be Sept. 12, following what officials described as a severe failure of the ice plant. The decision forces hockey, figure skating and other groups that relied on the facility to shift elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Discover Kalamazoo CEO Jane Ghosh noted how a post from Wings West already said that about 90% of the programming once held at Wings West will be relocated to Wings Event Center. <\/p>\n
That includes large-scale events already on the books, such as the Michigan High School Athletic Association wrestling tournament, and other statewide competitions.<\/p>\n
This will go on through at least the Spring of 2028. Ghosh believes that will give everyone involved time to put a plan in motion so that no one is financially impacted.<\/p>\n
Discover Kalamazoo, the county\u2019s convention and visitors bureau, also noted that they depend on local sports organizations such as the Kalamazoo Optimist Hockey Association and the Greater Kalamazoo Skating Association to host major tournaments. <\/p>\n
Therefore, having a positive plan in motion is key and at the top of everyone’s list. Ghosh says tournaments attract visitors who fill hotels, restaurants and shops \u2014 bolstering jobs and small businesses across the region.<\/p>\n
While Wings Event Center will serve as a short-term solution, the community will begin to discuss long-term needs. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt all starts with getting the right voices around the table,\u201d Ghosh said. \u201cWe need to understand what the needs are, explore options, and then take it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Ghosh said Discover Kalamazoo is focused on ensuring visitors continue to come to the region whether for sports, business, or leisure to help sustain the county\u2019s restaurants, retail shops and cultural attractions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the short term, this is going to be a challenge,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I\u2019m confident we can come together, and the future for Kalamazoo County is very bright.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KALAMAZOO, Mich. \u2014 The looming closure of Wings West ice arena is leaving local youth sports organizations and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[31075,6195,5,14030,14122,31074,31076,13522,30825],"class_list":{"0":"post-180038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-discover-kalamazoo","9":"tag-economic-impact","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-ice-arena","12":"tag-kalamazoo","13":"tag-local-youth-sports","14":"tag-long-term-needs","15":"tag-sports-community","16":"tag-wings-west"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115143507219299406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}