It really showcases Hastings, gives our Hastings Hockey Association as well as the high school program a super cool venue right in their backyard to play some premier outdoor classic type games, and now we'll have a world class capacity for their families to come out and watch them play.”

United Heroes League (UHL) President Shane Hudella

To learn more about United Heroes League and its mission to help military families along with the SCHEELS Rink, visit www.giveuhl.org.

We may only be nearing the end of 2024, but if the speed at which this year seems to have passed is an indication of how fast Hockey Day Minnesota 2026 will be here, you should be looking for it next week. Thankfully, that is not reality, especially if you are United Heroes League (UHL) President Shane Hudella and his team. The staff at UHL held their annual Veterans Jamboree at the SCHEELS Rink on the Tradition Veterans Complex on Saturday, November 9. The day featured multiple hockey games on the outdoor rink, food and beverage trucks and a special groundbreaking ceremony for the next phase of the long-term improvement plans of the Tradition Veterans Complex.
The day started with a sigh of relief for the UHL team. Friday morning, a brief power outage caused the ice chiller to partially reset, and staff spent most of Friday night and Saturday morning making sure the ice was ready for the event, and they pulled another rabbit out of the hat to do just that with the 50-degree weather.
Food and Beverage trucks rolled in early Saturday to set up, Veterans hockey teams took to the ice at 9:00 a.m. and played all morning up to the groundbreaking ceremony and then Raider youth teams played into the evening despite rain that moved in. The rain did force one cancellation for the evening, Fist Full of Ladies was scheduled to perform from 6-8 p.m. but could not do so safely with the rain.
The headliner of the day was the 12:30 p.m. groundbreaking ceremony for their new locker room and bleacher project.
“Today, we have our Veterans Day jamboree out here at United heroes League, opening day for SHEELS Rink on the campus. We’ve also just finished up a groundbreaking ceremony for a new building and permanent bleacher structure that we're adding next to the rink. We're super excited about the building. It'll have four world class locker rooms, a large public bathroom for when we're hosting events out here, as well as a Zamboni garage that we can use for our resurfacing machines to service the rink. We are so excited for that and excited to add 1,200 seats,” explained Hudella.
During the ceremony, each of the major partners of the bleacher project had an opportunity to speak, all of them thanking Hudella and UHL for their commitment to not only Veterans worldwide, but also to the regional communities that the SCHEELS Rink and the Tradition Veterans Complex will serve once Hudella’s version of the ‘Field of Dreams’ is complete. That vision goes far beyond a beautiful Veterans memorial, a hockey rink and an obstacle course, which are three of the current amenities on the campus. Eventually, there will be an indoor rink, meeting spaces, offices, equipment warehouse, other indoor sports amenities like a basketball court, a large turf field and batting cages. Outdoors, there will be two multi-use turfed surfaces and other training facilities.
For now, the focus is on providing a top-notch experience for those that come to the SCHEELS Rink for this season and beyond while the entire Hastings hockey community prepares for Hockey Day Minnesota in January of 2026.
“We're starting to book NCAA games and have some pretty high-end hockey matches out on the ice, and it's going to be so great. Great for our mission with military kids and veterans, but also great for the entire community. It really showcases Hastings, gives our Hastings Hockey Association as well as the high school program a super cool venue right in their backyard to play some premier outdoor classic type games, and now we'll have a world class capacity for their families to come out and watch them play,” said Hudella.
The construction was scheduled to start this week with the building containing the locker rooms, restrooms and equipment rooms done by March of 2025. There will then be a roughly 30-to-60-day construction pause before the bleachers are added. The entire estimated cost of this phase of the project is hovering around four million dollars.
The outdoor rink opened officially last season and in that one winter, several teams from Minnesota and Wisconsin held practices or games there. The Hastings Raiders boys and girls both had games at the rink along with many of the Hastings and Cottage Grove youth teams. The most notable visit was when the PWHL Minnesota team held a practice there and they had a blast. The practice was really an hour plus of them loosely scrimmaging intersquad with a ton of fan interaction for all the girls that came out to watch up close and personal. Many of the Frost players were commenting that it would be really unique to play a future game at the facility.
“Odds are high,” explained Hudella. “We are going to have a capacity for 5,000 plus fans which is right in the wheelhouse for what a typical game is for the PWHL. We have the support of the NHL that we are working with on some other projects, so I like the odds that we can end up with the PWHL Outdoor Classic Game on Friday night before Hockey Day.”
The NCAA has also approved the rink for official NCAA use and that means that St. Catherine University of St. Paul, who also practiced at the rink last year, can host their own outdoor game at the rink. Their game against Lawrence University is scheduled for January 11, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. at the SCHEELS Rink.
UHL’s obstacle course, a military approved training course, has been used by teams from all over the state as a fun team bonding experience. This fall, the men’s hockey team from Minnesota State Mankato used the course and their head coach plans on coming up to practice this winter at the rink because he has three current players that grew up in the south and they have never skated outdoors. That, along with the added bleachers could mean an outdoor Mavericks game in their 25-26 season if the cards all fall in the right place.
“I am really excited for the future out here with the SCHEELS Rink, not only for the military kids and veterans in our program, but for the entire community,” added Hudella.
To learn more about United Heroes League and its mission to help military families along with the SCHEELS Rink, visit www.giveuhl.org.