Tomorrow at 11 a.m., coaches, players, and families will crowd into Patterson Park’s Mimi DiPietro Family Skating Center for a "Save the Rink" rally and benefit game, a last-ditch push to stop the city from shutting the dome after the season. Organizers say they want to make it impossible to ignore how tightly the rink is woven into East Baltimore youth programs and volunteer-run mentoring.
Programs, Mentors and a ‘Second Home’
For about twenty years, volunteers say the Mimi Dome has been more than an ice sheet; it has been a steady hangout where kids learn to skate, grab a meal, and connect with adults who stick around long after practice ends. "This rink means so much more than ice," Jack Burton, executive director of Tender Bridge, said in coverage by The Baltimore Sun. The Tender Bridge says the Baltimore Banners and related efforts have reached hundreds of young people through free skating and mentorship.
City Cites Safety and Cost Concerns
Baltimore Recreation and Parks officials counter that the dome has serious foundation issues, dome-integrity problems, and shifting soil beneath it. They say the repairs currently underway were only intended to squeeze out one final season, not keep the structure going long term. The department has said it plans to permanently close the rink after the 2026 season while it looks at funding options for a new build.
Longstanding Neighborhood Fixture
Neighbors and advocates stress that the Mimi Dome has anchored local programs for generations, and that the push to save it is about protecting those relationships as much as preserving ice time. Coverage of the rink’s reopening earlier this winter framed the current stretch as a bittersweet "final season," and Baltimore Fishbowl has argued that outside funders or a new management plan will likely be needed to keep the programs tied to the dome alive.
What Comes Next
Organizers say Saturday’s rally is meant to be both a celebration and a high-visibility pitch to potential backers and city leaders that the facility is worth saving. Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson called the rink "a Baltimore institution and community hub for decades" and plans to join the Banners at the event, according to WBALTV. After the rally, coaches say they will weigh options that include community fundraising, nonprofit partnerships, or relocating, although they warn that none of those paths would truly replace the park-side, low-cost access that the Mimi Dome currently offers.
