Sponsor needed for outdoor rink
The largest outdoor ice rink in Southern California might be in downtown Santa Monica this winter, but the group behind the big freeze says it needs to find a major sponsor with some cold cash in the next eight days.
With a self-imposed deadline of Oct. 4, the group behind the project is scrambling to raise the second half of the funding needed and said Thursday that even if it doesn’t happen this year, the rink will definitely be in town next year. If successful, it would become an annual event.
If everything falls into place, the rink would be open to the public for five weeks starting Nov. 28 and cost $10 per hour, with skate rentals costing $3. It would be in a lot at Santa Monica Boulevard and Second Street and feature the world’s first-ever fiber optics display embedded in the ice.
“The ice just explodes with color,” said Todd Fraser, who is working with world champion figure skaters Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner to bring a Rockefeller Center-style holiday feel to Santa Monica. He declined to say how much the temporary ice rink would cost. “All the elements are there for success, but unfortunately the money’s not, right now.”
As part of the “Skate with the Stars” project, celebrity skaters would take to the ice each Sunday, and the proceeds would go to charity.
Bleachers and a large video screen would be set up around the rink. Though it would be covered by a tent in case of rain, the rink would be open-air the rest of the time, with a series of electric-and generator-powered holding plates keeping the surface frozen. The rink would be open from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. and be available for private parties.
The grand opening would coincide with downtown’s holiday-themed marketing push called “Winterlit” and be a huge boost to local merchants, said an official with the Bayside District Corp., the nonprofit group that helps City Hall run the Third Street Promenade and the rest of the downtown shopping district.
“We’re trying to put all the ducks in a row,” said Kathleen Rawson, executive director of the Bayside District Corp. “Not everything is finalized, but the plans are big and exciting.”
“Not everything is finalized, but the plans are big and exciting.” — — KATHLEEN RAWSON Executive director, Bayside District Corp
Winterlit includes five weeks of activities downtown, starting Nov. 28 with a full day of music, entertainment and celebrity guests. A “Surfing Santa” will cruise the Promenade before setting up his post at Santa Monica Place, KOST 103.5 will be hosting music in center court and, at 4 p.m., the skies will be pumped full of artificial snow.
Also part of the Winterlit installation are towering, 22-foot illuminated trees and faux icebergs which will stay up through the first week of January. All told, the promotion will cost about $100,000, said Rawson, adding that various partnerships have made the marketing push relatively inexpensive.
Santa Monica Place is also preparing for the busy holiday shopping season and plans to set up a 30-foot tree, hold a menorah lighting on Hanukkah weekend, show holiday short movies every Tuesday in December, and feature an ongoing light show on the exterior of the mall.
But for now, organizers say the ice rink is still in question. Many businesses that want to sponsor it can’t until next year, because this year’s holiday funding is already budgeted elsewhere, organizers said. Still, no company is being overlooked — from soup sellers and clothes outlets to food and music companies. Gardner, who grew up in Los Angeles and lives in Marina Del Rey, said he’s eager to make the rink a reality.
“I go to the Third Street Promenade a lot,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Wow, right up the street I can go (to skate).’ It’s kind of unique having a rink in Santa Monica, where there are beaches and palm trees, but it’s a great holiday thing, I think, for the community.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 26, 2003. Read the original PDF.