Now, we are seeing younger people and children taking part. This year, we are adding classes for advanced players. In South Jersey, ice skating is becoming more popular, what with the number of rinks in the tri-county area of Burlington, Camden and Gloucester. Bob Harkins, general manager of Twin Rinks Ice Sports and Entertainment Center in Pennsauken, says the sport is popular among the youth. Besides public skating, which actually accounts for a very small percentage of business at the center, there are hockey leagues for all ages, hockey camps and clinics, skating lessons and figure skating clubs and clinics, Harkins says.
Parents can also arrange to host birthday parties at the center.
Twin Rinks is just one of four skating centers in the area available for public use. The others are Medford Ice Rink in Medford Township, The Coliseum in Voorhees and Hollydell Ice Arena in Washington Township. Pat Hedenberg, a manager at Hollydell, an arena best-known as the practice facility of the Philadelphia Phantoms, also says that very few people come out to skate in the summer. The arena also has a snack bar, arcade, a pro shop, called the Hockey Locker, and a bleacher area which is usually packed with spectators when the Phantoms take the ice. Hedenberg says that while there can be up to 400 people on the ice during a public skate in the winter, there are only around 40 on a good day in the summer.