In December 2021 the Penrith Ice Palace was sold to a development company. As a result, the 6 clubs based at the rink formed the Western Sydney Ice Sports Co-operative with the intention of leasing the facility and keeping the only Olympic ice rink servicing Western Sydney open.

To start the co-operative, money is needed to pay for the leasing costs, repairs, initial supplies etc. All these need to be paid before we can take over the lease and start earning an income. Once we get started, we believe the rink will be financially stable and as a not for profit run organisation, all profits will be returned to ice rink.

We have some great plans for the rink with improvements to existing programs and adding some great new programs to grow ice sports in Western Sydney and provide an all year inside sporting and recreational venue.

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The clubs involved in the co-operative include the Flyers, Phantoms and Emperors Ice Hockey Clubs, Penrith Valley Figure Skating Club and Sydney Ice Theatre. These clubs combined, include over 400 members aged from pre-schoolers to adults, producing athletes who have successfully competed at a State, National and International level.

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The Penrith Ice Palace was the last of the Olympic sized ice rinks servicing Western Sydney, The Norwest and Blacktown rinks were knocked down after being bought by developers and without the help of the ice sport community and general public, Penrith Ice Palace will have the same fate.

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The Penrith Ice Palace has been in Penrith for 20 years and is a purpose built ice sports facility that has held National, State and club level competitions. It is currently used by 8 different ice sport clubs as a primary training location and a further 2 more as a secondary training location. These clubs provide training, playing opportunities and competitions in the ice sports of Figure Skating, Broomball, Ice Hockey, Theatre-on-Ice and Synchronised Skating.

The rink use is not limited to club based activities and 100s of people each month use it as a public indoor recreational facility for school sports and general public skating.

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Although there is a smaller rink at Liverpool, there is no other Olympic sized rink servicing Western Sydney and the 3 other Sydney based rinks are located in the city. These remaining rinks in the Sydney basin are already at capacity and unable to provide the ice time needed to the displaced clubs if the Penrith facility is closed. This will decimate the ice sport clubs in Western Sydney area who will have limited opportunities to train and no opportunities to recruit or retain members. This impact will be also felt at a State level due to State sporting organisations having a significant decrease in both teams and competitors and having to find other venues to hold the games, competitions and tournaments held at Penrith each week. Venues that are already at capacity. Broomball will be the most heavily impacted as Penrith is the only Broomball venue in NSW and its closure will mean Broomball will no longer be a sporting option in NSW.

If the Co-operative are unable to reach a lease agreement with the owner, the money raised will go towards finding ice for our members including identifying another location and installing a rink or sourcing ice for members.

So please help the Western Sydney Ice Sports Cooperative to keep the Penrith ice rink open by making a donation to this fundraiser

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