Discover The 8 Largest Ice Skating Rinks in Ohio This Winter

When winter arrives, ice skating becomes a family favorite activity after school or on the weekends. With a cup of hot chocolate, a basket of greasy concession stand fries, and tingling fingertips from the cold, there’s nothing quite like the nostalgia of going to an ice rink in the winter.

Did you know that Ohio, and Columbus in particular, has a deep history of ice skating? That’s right — the city was the first-year host of Champions on Ice in 1998. Today, skating legends like Tatiana Ratchkova and Valerie Marcoux-Pavlas, two winter Olympians, coach at the OhioHeath Chiller rinks.

With such a history and popularity of ice skating in the state of Ohio, you might be wondering where to go to skate. Below, discover the eight biggest ice rinks and arenas you can visit this winter to speed skate, spread eagle, and spiral your heart out!

The 8 Largest Ice Skating Rinks in Ohio this Winter

Ohio’s largest ice skating rinks are all indoors. While there are great outdoor rinks in the state, most are only around 5,000- or 10,000 square feet.

Deep Freeze Ice Arena — Youngstown, Ohio

Located in Youngstown, Ohio, the Deep Freeze Ice Arena boasts a massive 90,000-square-foot complex with an Olympic-sized ice skating rink. Situated on McClurg Road, Deep Freeze Ice Arena is open at varying times, depending on whether you’re looking for a public skate, a cosmic skate, figure skating, or hockey ice time.

The complex is unique in that it’s home to one of Ohio’s few Olympic-sized ice skating rinks. Many of the rinks on the list are National Hockey League regulation size — 200 feet by 85 feet — but Olympic standards are a bit bigger. Deep Freeze’s rink is a whopping 19,600 square feet large, or 200 feet by 98 feet. In addition to the rink, the facility has a large concessions area and two multipurpose rooms that residents use for corporate events, community functions, gatherings, and more. Deep Freeze Ice Arena also shares land with other businesses, like the Extreme Air Trampoline Park, and offers discounts on entrance fees with partnering businesses.

Because the rink is indoor, public skate programs happen year-round. To enhance the experience, Deep Freeze organizes themed public skating options. Their current theme is cosmic skating, where the public can come to skate to funky music, disco lights, and even a few extended periods of blacklight skating. Cosmic public skating only occurs on the weekends between Friday and Sunday. Regular public skating happens the rest of the week — both cost $11.

If you start skating and fall in love with hockey or figure skating as a sport, the arena has programs and facilities to help you hone your skills. Deep Freeze Ice Area is home to the Deep Freeze Skating Club and the Youngstown Phantoms.

Cleveland Heights Community Center — Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Cleveland Heights Community Center seems to have it all — a fitness center, personal training services, a senior activity center, and an Olympic-sized North ice rink! Located on Monticello Boulevard in Cleveland Heights, the North ice rink hosts public skates, an organized club, and more. However, until the fall of 2023, the North rink will remain closed for much-needed repairs.

The Cleveland Heights Community Center is home to Northeastern Ohio’s only Olympic-sized ice rink. Like Deep Freeze’s rink, it’s 19,600 square feet large, which is the perfect size for a massive public skating program and the National, Sectional, and Junior competitors who use the rink to practice, test, and compete at all levels. When it’s not undergoing repairs, the community center’s North ice rink also hosts youth, high school college, and adult hockey leagues on the ice surface.

When the rink reopens, public skating doesn’t cost too much at all. For students of Cleveland Heights schools (kindergarten through twelfth grade), the price to skate is only $2! Adults who live in the area have to pay only a dollar more to skate, and non-resident public skating fees go up to just $5. You can bring your skates if you have them. If you don’t, the cost to rent a pair is $2.

Finally, Cleveland Heights’ ice rinks have Learn to Skate USA classes for a variety of age groups. These foundational classes help toddlers to adults get comfortable on the ice, whether they want to skate recreationally, begin figure skating, or try their hand at playing hockey.

OhioHealth Chiller Easton — Columbus, Ohio

OhioHealth operates six different ice rinks throughout the state. The Easton Arena in Columbus, however, has two NHL-sized rinks and other great facilities. Across the six different central Ohio locations, 10 great rinks exist to skate at. The Easton location on Chiller Lane has a multitude of private and public activities, making it one of the coolest places in the city to spend an afternoon of fun.

The Chiller location of Easton is impressive. Outside of its NHL-sized rinks (at 17,000 square feet each), there’s also a great concession stand (the Ice Box) where you can secure some much-needed hot chocolate after a heart-pounding few laps around the rink. The arena also has two multipurpose rooms for the community to make use of for birthday parties, private events, and school field trips.

If you’re ready to step out on the ice, the Chiller Easton is ready for you! Several different public skate options exist — including a noon skate, a Friday night meltdown, a cheap skate, and a standard public skate. Prices range between $6 and $18, with some skate rentals included.

OhioHealth Chiller Easton solidifies itself as the region’s most versatile and largest ice rink by hosting multiple different teams. The organizations that call Easton their home rink include:

• Easton Youth Hockey Association.
• Gahanna High School Hockey.
• Pickerington/Reynoldsburg High School Hockey.
• Westerville High School Hockey.
• The Ohio Scholastic Hockey League.
• The Capital Hockey Conference.

It’s not all about hockey, though. All of the Chiller locations provide options for figure skaters, like taking the U.S. Figure Skating Association’s basic skills programs, competition skating, and synchronized teams. Central Ohio’s only short-track speed skating club practices and skates at the Chiller Easton as well.

Center Ice Sports Complex — North Canton, Ohio

Located in North Canton on Jackson Avenue, the Center Ice Sports Complex boasts a massive NHL-sized rink and other facilities for an action-packed afternoon or weekend. It opened in 1999 and has worked hard to fill the role of a recreational destination for all the residents of Stark County since its founding. Since 2003, it has welcomed as many as 10,000 visitors a week to its facilities.

The rink itself is 17,000 square feet large — 200 feet by 85 feet — and offers year-round programming for public free skates, figure skaters, and hockey players. There’s also a large video arcade, a full-service pro shop, and a delicious cafe attached to the rink. If you attend a public skate with your own pair of ice skates, pop into the pro shop to see if your blades need sharpening. Or, grab a new pair of knit gloves!

At Center Ice, you’ll need to pre-register to join in its own skate. Admission costs $12 and has an additional $4 rental fee for skates. Open skate ice times occur almost every day of the week — only Tuesdays and Thursdays don’t offer a timeframe for the public to skate. Like the Cleveland Heights Community Center, Center Ice offers Learn to Skate programs. They’re even certified by the Ohio Afterschool Child Enrichment educational savings account program.

If you or your family members fall in love with skating at this rink, you’re in luck. The complex hosts hockey players, figure skaters, and birthday parties year-round, too.

Ohio State University Ice Arena — Columbus, Ohio

Also located in central Ohio is the Ohio State University Ice Arena. Founded in 1961, the rink on Columbus Drive is an NHL-size ice surface that hosts the University’s Buckeye hockey teams — as well as recreational figure skaters and hockey players.

According to a University press release, the facility features “a warming room, which contains coin-operated vending machines, benches for changing shoes, lockers for checking valuables and small parcels, and a pro shop complete with the latest in hockey equipment and skating apparel. The basement houses locker rooms for the Buckeyes and their opponents, a training room, and a storage area.”

Though the men’s and women’s hockey teams for the college use the rink to practice, it opens on a rotating schedule to the public between Wednesdays and Sundays (save for Saturdays). Please note that rink prices and hours may change without warning after the time of publishing this article.

Wednesday hours in October 2023 for open skate occurred between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., Thursday hours happened over lunch between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m., Friday free skates occurred between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., and on Sundays, the public could skate between 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Student admission to free skates costs $10 and the public’s price is $12. However, the best time to go is weekday afternoons, when the price of admission is only $5.

Northland Ice Center — Evendale, Ohio

Cincinnati’s first year-round indoor ice rink, Northland Ice Center, first opened its doors to the public in 1973. Since then, it’s been a community staple of family fun with an NHL-regulation-size rink. Located on Reading Road in Evendale, the Northland Ice Skating complex provides a space for more than just public skating — it’s also home to a figure skating club, several hockey organizations, and operates as the secondary home practice ice for the Cincinnati Cyclone hockey team.

Nearly every day of the week offers public skating times around 1:00 p.m. The price to skate for adults is $12 and children aged 12 and under skate for $10. While the admission price is a little higher than a few of the other options on the list, Northland Ice Center doesn’t charge for skate rentals! Simply go to the skate counter with your skate admission and tell them your size. If you’re looking to partake in open hockey, the cost is $15 for all ages. Northland Ice Center also provides skate trainers to help kids and those unsteady on blades safely learn how to orient themselves to the ice. While these trainers are free to use, they do require a $25 security deposit.

The Pond — Chagrin Falls, Ohio

If you’re looking for a public ice skating rink and sports complex that has year-round fun to enjoy, take a gander at The Pond. Located just five miles from Chagrin Falls, Northeast Ohio residents can find opportunities for public skating, hockey, figure skating, and more at The Pond.

While the rink’s website doesn’t indicate the size of the ice surface, AZ Animals called to confirm the rink is standard NHL-sized — 17,000 square feet of fun. The locally-owned rink has two types of free skates for the public. The standard skate, open to all ages and abilities, costs between $8 and $15, depending on which special you choose to take advantage of! The “No School” skate at The Pond is specifically crafted for families during those school holiday days when watching Netflix or running errands doesn’t sound like a great use of time. For $15 a person, you’ll get an hour of ice time with skate and glider rental, an hour of turf time at The Yard, and two pieces of pizza from the concession stand.

The Pond encourages regulars to look into their Learn to Skate, hockey, and figure skating programs. When you need to thaw out after a few dozen skates around the rink, take advantage of The Pond’s new game room.

Alice Noble Ice Arena — Wooster, Ohio

Generously donated by the Donald and Alice Noble Foundation in 2002, the Alice Noble Ice Arena provides the citizens of Wooster with an NHL-regulation-size ice surface. The rink’s origins — found in the passion of Donald and Alice Noble since 1934 — persist today, as the rink supports all manner of ice-related recreation.

Public skate times vary by day and mostly take place in the afternoon. Until December 31, 2023, the cost for admission to public skating is $10. Keep an eye on the dates and programs, as some weekdays or afternoons have lower-priced skate rentals.

The Alice Noble Ice Arena hosts several different clubs and organizations, including:

• The Wooster Hockey Club.
• The Wooster Figure Skating Club.
• The Wooster High School club hockey team.
• The College of Wooster’s hockey team.

In addition to figure skating, hockey, and public skating, the arena has a popular learn-to-skate program that teaches fundamentals. Like the Cleveland Heights program, the Alice Noble Ice Arena’s Learn to Skate USA program remains backed by the U.S. Figure Skating and USA Hockey organizations.

The refurbished ice arena provides a clean, safe, and family-friendly rink, a concessions stand, a spacious lobby, large meeting rooms, and the ability to rent the entire ice for group events, field trips, team building, and other gatherings.

Summary of the 8 Largest Ice Skating Rinks in Ohio This Winter

When Did Ice Skating Originate?

According to the Smithsonian Magazine, ice skates date back to the Bronze Age. Thousands of years later, those who lived in the Netherlands used ice skates to get around. Because the vast network of canals in the cities would freeze in the winter, boats couldn’t pass through to trade goods. So, merchants and locals would don their skates to sell and buy the commodities they needed.

The first ice skates from nearly 3,000 years ago used animal bones instead of sharpened blades. Today’s ice skates have different iterations — speed skaters, figure skaters, and hockey players all use different variations of the ice skate.

These winter sports also have different origin stories. While ice skates have existed for thousands of years, figure skating, hockey, and speed skating have only existed for a few hundred. Figure skating gained popularity first; the first figure skating club was formed during the 1740s. About one hundred or so years later, hockey and speed skating became recognized sports in the 1840s.

Interestingly, hockey may date back much farther than the 1840s — Phil Pritchard, curator at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, states that a painting exists depicting a sport being played that looks like hockey: a sport with sticks happening on ice. The early 1600s and 1700s also saw a game called “chamiare” played on ice that has a similar outline to modern-day hockey.

Where Did Ice Skating Originate?

The practice of skating on ice traces its origins to Scandinavia, Russia, and the Netherlands. Residents of these northern countries needed a way to get around in the winter, so they fashioned skates out of animal shin bones and used poles to propel themselves forward.

Moving past primitive skating, credit goes to the English and Dutch for improving ice skating and popularizing recreational skating. After Edinburgh, Scotland established the world’s first figure skating club, organized figure skating took off. Soon, athletes learned different styles of figure skating, tested themselves against standards and techniques, and created their own patterns they’d etch into the ice below.

According to the International Ice Hockey Federation, Montreal hosted the world’s first hockey game in 1875. Largely considered to be a national pastime and favored sport of Canada, it’s not surprising hockey originates in the Great White North. For what it’s worth, a 1949 magazine published in the Soviet Union claims Russia “perfected” the game in the mid-nineteenth century — attempting to afford the invention to its own country instead.

Speed skating originated in Scotland, but Norway, the Netherlands, and the U.S. followed closely behind in picking it up.

Cold as Ice

Ohio’s largest skating rinks have everything you need for a fun afternoon or morning public skate. Remember to consider the thickness of your socks when you go to pick your skate size so you’re not uncomfortable and lace up to support your ankles!