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As the countdown continues to the opening of online voting in the Kraft Hockeyville USA contest, the Calumet Colosseum will need all the help it can get to beat out the other Midwestern hockey rinks.
The announcement was made during Sunday’s NHL broadcast on NBC, putting the world’s oldest indoor ice arena still in use into the final round.
Calumet Township Supervisor Paul Lehto says there is still more work to be done before Calumet can be named Hockeyville USA. “We’re part way there,” Lehto said. “We have to be one of four now—we have to win the contest amongst the four of us.”
Besides being a historic building, the Calumet Colosseum continues to be at the heart of the community. Lehto says there has not been a lapse in hockey in the 100-plus years the rink has been open. “We’ve had a senior hockey team 90 percent of the time,” Lehto said. “We’ve had junior hockey all that while. We’ve had even semi-pro hockey here and we’ve had girls’ hockey here plus the figure skating and there’s been no break in that. It’s been continuous.”
Online voting opens at 7am on Saturday at
https://www.krafthockeyville.com/ and closes at 11am on Sunday, giving fans only 28 hours to put the Colosseum on top, so Lehto says they will be reaching out to everybody to help with the voting.
Lehto said, “We have a lot of good friends downstate and high school hockey teams that we play on a regular basis—Novi and Brighton and Cranbrook—and we’re actually going to reach out and ask them for help in voting, also.”
Making it to the final four guarantees the Colosseum at least $10,000 for upgrades, but the grand prize of $150,000 would sure come in handy.
“Let’s start with a dehumidifier at $40,000, new heaters over the bleachers—we got a price for that at $40,000. We got a price for upgrading the sound system for $8,000. If we wanted to change the lighting in the rink to LED lighting, that would be another $19,000, and that does not count the ice plant,” said Lehto. “We’re still on Freon-22 like many other ice rinks in the United States, but if you wanted to switch to something else, you’re talking $150,000 to $200,000.
In addition to the upgrades, the winner also gets to host an NHL preseason game this fall, which would be a huge benefit for the community. “It would be publicity all over—most of the hockey world in the United States,” Lehto said, and would bring in a lot of money for the area as people come to visit and see the game.
