Mexico inaugurates Olympic ice rink with Panamerican Tournament

Mexico Ice Hockey President Joaquin de la Garma said that Mexico will have its first Olympic ice rink in the month of April, which will help the professionalization of the sport in the country.

"We are starting a project that is well under way, is an ice rink in cooperation with the Universidad Intercontinental (UIC), is an Olympic-sized rink, 60 x 30, which meets all the IIHF requirements, with capacity for 3000-4000 people. We are using the best material, made in Canada, the same used in NHL rinks, with seven locker rooms and a ski center, the first in Mexico. It will be a top-class facility for Mexican hockey.

We will inaugurate on April 7 with a Pan American tournament for men and women, with eight countries, the first ever tournament with teams from America. The idea is to bring world championships, international tournaments and professional teams to play here.We want to offer altitude training camps to NHL teams, that interest them much and host NHL exhibition games."

And there are a number of professional leagues besides the NHL as the American Hockey League and the Central Hockey League, especially the latter which has teams playing in the southern United States, then it is very likely that in the near future we can buy a franchise and position in Monterrey and Mexico City, possibly with six or seven Mexican players in the roster.

The new arena will help also the long-term project to bring the National team to Olympic games: "We were at pre Olympic first round in October in Croatia  and we had really good results, the final second place, not enough to qualify for next round, but very promising for the future" said De La Garma

"We have big hopes also for the women team: we are creating a program for 2018 to try to go to the winter games in Korea and we are working with the team, is a six years project to six years and we are trying to find sponsors and supporters"

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