The community’s arena

The rink is open to the public when practices are not in session, so the arena has become a community staple.

“One of the things that are neat about the arena is that it has impacted so many lives. This is where they’ve learned to skate, and played in high school, college, or even adult league games. It has been a community rink and something people have counted on as always being here,” Cole said.

“It’s also always neat when alumni come back and can reminisce. They’re also excited to see the improvements that have been made, they even notice the small things, because it looks and feels different then when they were here,” Edhlund said.

The Drake Arena has also been a part of many community events, such as the Spartan Cup.

“The Spartan Cup was a tournament held right after Thanksgiving. Four teams would play in Drake, and SPA would usually be in the championship game. It would always draw big crowds, including both students and alumni, and was something all people would always talk about and enjoy. It was also usually the first week of the boy’s hockey season, so it would be a great kickoff to the season,” Cole said.

The Spartan Cup tournament ended around 2012, but many community members and alumni remember the event.

“[One] could say ‘Drake Arena’ and a lot of people don’t even know that it’s associated with SPA. They may remember some events that have happened here that relate to the school, like the Spartan Cup or big hockey games, but the community really just thinks of the arena as ‘Drake,’ not SPA’s ice arena,” Cole said.

Additionally, the Drake Arena was host to a small independent film in 2008 – Killer Movie.

“[The movie] wasn’t very mainstream, but it was still really cool for our community. They shot the movie in the ice arena as well as in Briggs gymnasium. They also had a couple other locations around the Twin Cities. The movie was about a hockey team, so they needed a nice arena and they liked the look of ours so they shot a lot of the movie in here,” Edhlund said.