A new NHL-regulation ice rink opened its doors in Reseda on Friday, October 30, 2026, capping a project that organizers say was roughly a decade in the making. The LA Kings, American Sports Entertainment Company (ASEC), Councilmember Bob Blumenfield and the City of Los Angeles held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 1:30 p.m. to formally open LA Kings Ice Reseda at 18212 Sherman Way, giving the San Fernando Valley a permanent public ice facility built specifically to serve local skaters and youth hockey players.
The ceremony, detailed in a release from the Los Angeles Kings, marks the seventh permanent public ice facility operated through the team's partnership with ASEC. The 26,800-square-foot building houses an NHL-regulation 85-by-200-foot ice surface along with an outdoor roller area measuring roughly 60 by 120 feet. Inside, visitors will find office space, public seating, skate rental, a pro shop and concessions, while a dedicated 1,200-square-foot support building rounds out the site.
LA Kings Ice Reseda will offer public skating sessions, learn-to-skate lessons and Little Kings learn-to-play programming throughout the year, according to the same Kings release. The venue is also slated to host select games in the LA Kings High School Hockey League, positioning it as both a community recreation spot and a competitive hub for the area.
California Heat Finally Gets a Permanent Home
The biggest beneficiary of the opening may be the California Heat, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit youth hockey organization based in the San Fernando Valley that serves more than 200 players and families, per the Kings' announcement. The organization will make the new Reseda facility its home, a significant development for a club that has spent much of 2026 searching for stability.
Michael Santiago said the California Heat is thrilled to celebrate the opening and call the facility home, crediting the Kings, ASEC and the City of Los Angeles with supporting local hockey, according to the Kings. The timing matters: the Los Angeles Times reported in April that the Heat would still be able to practice at Valley Ice Center but needed another venue to host games after that facility's owner moved to demolish its main regulation-size rink and replace it with a medical facility for seniors. The Times noted that Valley Ice Center's smaller rink is expected to remain open for at least 15 more years, and that the Reseda rink's location just five miles away was itself a factor in the decision to downsize the Panorama City center.
That squeeze has been building for a while. The same Times report found Los Angeles County had nine ice rinks total, with California Heat registrar Abbey Wall saying most were already at capacity. Before LA Kings Ice Reseda opened, Heat leaders were already exploring a possible move to the new Sherman Way building, the Times reported.
Conflicting Timelines on How Long the Project Took
Exactly how long the Reseda rink took to build depends on which account you read. The Kings' opening announcement states that construction on the 26,800-square-foot building began in July 2022, while a December 2023 report from the Daily News said the Reseda Skate Rink broke ground back in 2019. The two outlets also diverge on cost: Blumenfield described the project as involving $30 million at Friday, October 30's ceremony, while the Daily News' 2023 report pegged it as a $26 million project. The evidence doesn't clarify whether those figures reflect different estimates, scopes or project stages.
What's clearer is the project's long public-private history. A Los Angeles City Clerk document tied to Council File 25-1331 states that in September 2018 the city acquired two Community Redevelopment Agency parcels on Sherman Way to construct what it calls the Reseda Skate Facility. The same document says Council District 3 secured funding in 2018 to proceed with construction and entered into a public-private partnership with the Kings, with the plan calling for the Department of Recreation and Parks to own the completed facility while the Kings manage it through a limited liability company called JV Ice Reseda, LLC. The Daily News separately reported that Blumenfield and the Kings signed a partnership agreement in 2018 to build and operate the rink. The city document also describes a request for the City Council to establish a new account for the rink to accept donations and fund maintenance, subsidies, events and programming, though the evidence doesn't confirm whether the council approved that request.
According to LA Kings Insider's reporting on the opening, LA Kings Insider noted the project broke ground in 2022 and took roughly four years from groundbreaking to completion, following discussions that began about a decade earlier. Kings president Luc Robitaille has said the team began working on the rink during the 2017 NHL All-Star Game and discussed the project that year with Councilman Blumenfield.
A Program With Deep Valley Roots
The California Heat's own history carries a similar wrinkle in the record. The Kings' feature on the rink's backstory says the Heat has been in the area since 1991, while the team's official opening announcement states the program was originally founded as the West Valley Wolves in 1992 before transitioning to the California Heat name in 2012. Whichever date marks the true beginning, the club has produced notable alumni, including Kevan Miller, who played more than 350 games and 33 Stanley Cup playoff games with the Boston Bruins; Shane Harper, who played for the Florida Panthers and now plays professionally for the ECHL's Adirondack Thunder; Brian Salcido, who played two games with the Anaheim Ducks; and Matthew Ford, who won a Calder Cup with the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2017.
Growth Across California's Hockey Scene
The Reseda opening lands amid broader growth in California hockey participation. California had more than 32,000 registered players during the 2025-26 season, per USA Hockey figures cited by the Kings, with registered players growing by a few hundred year over year and by a few thousand over the preceding decade. Robitaille has said three or four more rinks could open in the next few years, adding that the Kings will keep talking with cities and looking for opportunities to help open facilities.
The Kings currently operate multiple rinks in the Valley and had worked to keep the Burbank rink open, while the team's primary practice facility, which includes three ice sheets, is located in El Segundo. Robitaille has also said the Kings learned the Valley Ice Center was closing the night before it happened, catching the organization by surprise; the Kings were involved in neither the ownership nor operation of that Panorama City facility, which closed over the summer. Looking ahead, the United States Hockey League is set to begin play on the West Coast, bringing tier-one junior hockey to California with teams planned in Simi Valley, Orange County and San Diego — and the Simi Valley team will likely pursue additional rinks of its own as the league grows.
