Three photos courtesy of Google Map.
Photo courtesy of Google Image. Garage door like for the admission. Perhaps it was originally designed for a warehouse or factory.
Skate Hire! They are Skate rentals, Americans, rentals. OK?
This is Rink one with Indigo Blue Roller Court and Red Goals area. Appeared to be full size NHL size.
This is rink two. Smaller, perhaps practice floor for roller hockey and for public skating. You can easily see the RollerCourt. Rink one is to the right of the photo above, beyond the trusses. Noticed the second floor? Those are eating areas. I love the style with the one at the end of this rink two. Hard to see but keep looking for it down below here.
Now you can see it was taken picture from 2nd floor where the nice section of eating area I like. And the view is awesome. They have wooden benches below in the picture. Of course, matching color to the painted floor. All in the same hue of blue. The rails are hockey rails. Lot of rules on the wall. I haven't seen one like this one does. That is because its easier with hockey rails than with cinderblocks.
The snack bar. And you can see some tables with table cloth! Nice! I love the terra cotta tiles. Beautiful floor. Hard to see but the menu is on the wall to the right, right of the door in the picture.
Oh that pie! Yes, you can see that toward the left. Anyway, there you go... the eating area. Maybe a different table cloth would be better. But I love the idea of this. The murals are pretty cool. This space gives a more feeling toward of a coffeeshop than a rink snack bar area.
This is the second eating area. Nicer I think. Because of the way it looks. Same chairs yes, and better table cloth color. My goodness! They have GLASS circle that is on the circle table closest to the photographer here. Not a good idea. All of those tables have them! Circles and Squares too. All of them. Gray carpet.
There it is. This is very section I am talking about. The end wall section. Different tables and chairs. And wood floor as well. With that Deep Red color on the wall. Different ceiling than the rest of the rink. This is truly classy. I love it.
All photos except for photo number 2 to 4 courtesy of Simply Skate Arena. Also photo below of Simply Skate Arena.
All photos except for photo number 2 to 4 courtesy of Simply Skate Arena. Also photo below of Simply Skate Arena.
Simply Skate Arena Chesterton Rd, Eastern Trading Estate, Rotherham, UK
It is not so simple anymore in May 2021 for Simply Skate Arena which is on Chesterton Rd, Eastern Trading Estate, S65 1SU, Rotherham, United Kingdom. Can Her Majesty save the rink? Perhaps not but many wish so because the skaters and community wants to raise funds to help the rink. The rink was popular alright.
It was because of two major factors. COVID lockdowns hurt financially for the lease Simply Skate Arena had and the owner wants to canceled them out. This sounded familiar to me because this is common occurrence with rinks in the United States with COVID or simply not getting enough money from rink owners in the leased buildings. Retail stores make more money these days than the skating rinks and its funny thing because so many retail stores are closing for good because of losing money to internet. Skating rinks cannot go online. You have to have physical rinks to skate and play roller hockey or maybe figure skating, or derby.
That is exactly what Simply Skate Arena is about. True built building that children can skate and they get involved with roller hockey. In fact, Simply Skate Arena has 17, yes, correct, 17 teams! Got to be one of the largest group of teams in a skating rink in the world. Anyone know any bigger, let me know. Normally 1 team per rink. But 17 is quite a number.
This proved roller skating is not dead. Roller hockey is not dead. Its the matter of how businesses are run. The leases, the insurance, the whatnot have affected and this is why they are all closing these days since 1980s. And of course COVID affected.
The rink was opened in 2001 with two rinks. Yes, they have two roller rinks. The main one has 2nd floor viewing! And a large area to watch.
There is a fund raising event organize by skaters and parents in attempt to rescue the rink.
The Interior.
Beautiful arena! Beautiful rinks. Although it has RollerCourt. Both rinks has that and one has Indigo Blue and the other White. The 2nd one appeared to be bigger that it is not shown much in photographs because seemly they focus on smaller rink that even the public skating used there. The blue rink is the larger one. So, this facility has two rinks.
What really awesome and beautiful so unlike a skating rink at all is the snack bar and the eating areas. Yes, there on second floor so you can oversee what they are skating or playing hockey or indoor football (Americans, you call that "soccer" which is really football, ask any footballer from overseas or even expats living in the US, they will tell you. Dead-Rinks does not recognizes the word, "Soccer." Dead-Rinks recognizes Football.)
I love the tiles in the café area and quite interesting that they have table cloths! How charming (in the Late Roger Moore's 007 voice). Of course it was showing class. Oh I love the second floor at one end. I was hoping to have a picture of those lights on upstairs with rest dimmed down. There is one but three girls were in the way. So, I could not photoshop that because they were too close to the camera and too much blocking. So, anyway, it has different style there. Truly warm feeling there because of wood panel on the wall and wooden floor and tables. Nice chairs too. Looked very restaurant like. Perhaps they did have a restaurant after all. And more seating areas on the side.
The menu truly large and this was truly a café, not a snack bar like the American counterparts do have. They have sandwiches, burgers, soups, salads, pies, everything a café normally do have. Hence the table cloths. The café is called Penalty Box Café! Nice catchy name. If rinks in the US listen up, they can name a catchy name and be a café rather than a snack bar. You would draw more people doing this. I see the reviews online and they all are saying positive about the café. So, it works. American rink operators, start thinking about this. This can may survive your rink. Have a separate entry for just those want to eat at any time when the rink is not open and that entry will only lead customers in just for eating and leaving, nothing to do with roller skating. Like Sports-O-Rama did with Bit-O-West did in the 1960s.
Actually they have TWO café counters. One is shown in photo above and another in the Google Images but it has a lot of people in the way and that having said, not a good view of the neat counter and café.
The trusses and trims here and there and on the rails are all Royal Blue-ish with White background and hockey rink rails as well. I really love this interior. Really class. They do have ice rink facility feel for a roller rink at Simply Skate Arena.
The Exterior.
It is a simple but large Medium Navy gray building with Blue trims and nice Royal Blue fence around the property. It is in a tight spot though because of other buildings are right by it. Their signs looked more like billboards rather than a standard sign you find at any places such as a rink, fast food restaurant, or a shopping mall, just to name a few. They normally change the bottom billboard like sign more often than the top which is pretty busy with everything on it like a real billboard or a business card.
The building itself is actually like having 2 sections jointed as one. That is because of the 2nd rink there. And the roof is really two Gables. One larger than the other but same height. But also higher because of the second floor eating area. I am sure they do have snack bar on ground floor as there is for 2nd floor.
The Stats:
Rink one-
Rink Size: N/A. (Possible NHL size of 85' x 200') Floor: Indigo Blue Roller Court. Floor Layout: Tiles, Roller Hockey.
Rink two-
Rink Size: N/A. (smaller) Floor: White Roller Court. Floor Layout: Tiles, Roller Hockey.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A. Demolished: Still standing.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel-Walled Warehouse - like Building. 2 story, two sections jointed together.
Roof: Double Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: (Overall)-- 2001 to May 2021.
Reason for Closure: Owner of building not want to renew lease. The rink business is losing money big time thanks to COVID.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at [email protected]. Thank you.
Sources: Simply Skate Arena PDF; Facebook; The Star (UK); Yelp;
Date of issue: 18 March 2021.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.
It was because of two major factors. COVID lockdowns hurt financially for the lease Simply Skate Arena had and the owner wants to canceled them out. This sounded familiar to me because this is common occurrence with rinks in the United States with COVID or simply not getting enough money from rink owners in the leased buildings. Retail stores make more money these days than the skating rinks and its funny thing because so many retail stores are closing for good because of losing money to internet. Skating rinks cannot go online. You have to have physical rinks to skate and play roller hockey or maybe figure skating, or derby.
That is exactly what Simply Skate Arena is about. True built building that children can skate and they get involved with roller hockey. In fact, Simply Skate Arena has 17, yes, correct, 17 teams! Got to be one of the largest group of teams in a skating rink in the world. Anyone know any bigger, let me know. Normally 1 team per rink. But 17 is quite a number.
This proved roller skating is not dead. Roller hockey is not dead. Its the matter of how businesses are run. The leases, the insurance, the whatnot have affected and this is why they are all closing these days since 1980s. And of course COVID affected.
The rink was opened in 2001 with two rinks. Yes, they have two roller rinks. The main one has 2nd floor viewing! And a large area to watch.
There is a fund raising event organize by skaters and parents in attempt to rescue the rink.
The Interior.
Beautiful arena! Beautiful rinks. Although it has RollerCourt. Both rinks has that and one has Indigo Blue and the other White. The 2nd one appeared to be bigger that it is not shown much in photographs because seemly they focus on smaller rink that even the public skating used there. The blue rink is the larger one. So, this facility has two rinks.
What really awesome and beautiful so unlike a skating rink at all is the snack bar and the eating areas. Yes, there on second floor so you can oversee what they are skating or playing hockey or indoor football (Americans, you call that "soccer" which is really football, ask any footballer from overseas or even expats living in the US, they will tell you. Dead-Rinks does not recognizes the word, "Soccer." Dead-Rinks recognizes Football.)
I love the tiles in the café area and quite interesting that they have table cloths! How charming (in the Late Roger Moore's 007 voice). Of course it was showing class. Oh I love the second floor at one end. I was hoping to have a picture of those lights on upstairs with rest dimmed down. There is one but three girls were in the way. So, I could not photoshop that because they were too close to the camera and too much blocking. So, anyway, it has different style there. Truly warm feeling there because of wood panel on the wall and wooden floor and tables. Nice chairs too. Looked very restaurant like. Perhaps they did have a restaurant after all. And more seating areas on the side.
The menu truly large and this was truly a café, not a snack bar like the American counterparts do have. They have sandwiches, burgers, soups, salads, pies, everything a café normally do have. Hence the table cloths. The café is called Penalty Box Café! Nice catchy name. If rinks in the US listen up, they can name a catchy name and be a café rather than a snack bar. You would draw more people doing this. I see the reviews online and they all are saying positive about the café. So, it works. American rink operators, start thinking about this. This can may survive your rink. Have a separate entry for just those want to eat at any time when the rink is not open and that entry will only lead customers in just for eating and leaving, nothing to do with roller skating. Like Sports-O-Rama did with Bit-O-West did in the 1960s.
Actually they have TWO café counters. One is shown in photo above and another in the Google Images but it has a lot of people in the way and that having said, not a good view of the neat counter and café.
The trusses and trims here and there and on the rails are all Royal Blue-ish with White background and hockey rink rails as well. I really love this interior. Really class. They do have ice rink facility feel for a roller rink at Simply Skate Arena.
The Exterior.
It is a simple but large Medium Navy gray building with Blue trims and nice Royal Blue fence around the property. It is in a tight spot though because of other buildings are right by it. Their signs looked more like billboards rather than a standard sign you find at any places such as a rink, fast food restaurant, or a shopping mall, just to name a few. They normally change the bottom billboard like sign more often than the top which is pretty busy with everything on it like a real billboard or a business card.
The building itself is actually like having 2 sections jointed as one. That is because of the 2nd rink there. And the roof is really two Gables. One larger than the other but same height. But also higher because of the second floor eating area. I am sure they do have snack bar on ground floor as there is for 2nd floor.
The Stats:
Rink one-
Rink Size: N/A. (Possible NHL size of 85' x 200') Floor: Indigo Blue Roller Court. Floor Layout: Tiles, Roller Hockey.
Rink two-
Rink Size: N/A. (smaller) Floor: White Roller Court. Floor Layout: Tiles, Roller Hockey.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A. Demolished: Still standing.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel-Walled Warehouse - like Building. 2 story, two sections jointed together.
Roof: Double Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: (Overall)-- 2001 to May 2021.
Reason for Closure: Owner of building not want to renew lease. The rink business is losing money big time thanks to COVID.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at [email protected]. Thank you.
Sources: Simply Skate Arena PDF; Facebook; The Star (UK); Yelp;
Date of issue: 18 March 2021.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.