Anchorage's hockey community moves to take over its own arenas for $10 a year

For more than half a century, Ben Boeke and Dempsey Anderson have been the home ice of organized hockey in Anchorage. On June 23, the Assembly will decide whether to hand the keys to the people who have always filled them.

The administration is asking the Assembly to award management of both city arenas to Anchorage Community Ice Management — ACIM — a newly formed nonprofit subsidiary of the Anchorage Hockey Association. The annual fee is $10. The association was founded in 1961 by Dempsey Anderson, the namesake of one of the two arenas it would now run.

The arrangement would replace a for-profit operator that has cost the municipality six figures a year. Under a fee structure of $30,000 plus half of gross profits, the prior operator drew $101,482 in 2023, $108,663 in 2024 and $99,611 in 2025. ACIM has committed to taking no profit at all, plowing every dollar of net revenue back into the rinks.

That pledge runs straight into the buildings' biggest problem. Both arenas carry significant deferred-maintenance backlogs, and the agreement tackles them by suspending the standard rule that five percent of gross revenue be set aside in the Capital Reserve Fund — a requirement waived until January 1, 2029. That reserve holds about $1.3 million today and took in $172,054 in 2024 and $124,334 in 2025. Those suspended deposits would instead pay for immediate rehabilitation, subject to approval by the municipality's Venues office.

To get a volunteer-rooted nonprofit through its first lean months, the city would also provide a one-time $450,010 transition grant, timed to cover startup costs before the arenas' higher-revenue winter season arrives. ACIM plans to take on a startup loan as well. The grant is structured less like a gift than an advance: if the contract ends and ACIM stops operating the facilities, it has agreed to transfer its entire remaining Operations Account back to the municipality.

The selection followed a February 2026 request for proposals that drew three responsive and responsible bids; ACIM was chosen after oral interviews and negotiations that wrapped in the spring. The proposed contract runs five years with five one-year renewal options and can be ended by either side on six months' notice. ACIM would operate the rinks under the municipality's Ice Time Allocation Policy and approved annual operating plans and budgets.

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance submitted the recommendation and the Assembly takes up the item June 23.