The shock withdrawal of Sydney’s two teams from the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) has amplified calls for more pro-standard rinks in the country.

Urgent renovations at Sydney’s Macquarie Ice Rink have forced the Sydney Ice Dogs and Sydney Bears off the ice for the 2025 season.

Both sides use Macquarie as their home rink.

The AIHL said it was initially told works would take about eight weeks in April and May but advised last week it would now be unusable for the entire 2025 season.

“It’s going to be really tough for a national league, going from 10 teams to eight teams in our 25th anniversary year; that stings a bit,” media director Stephen White said.

“Sydney is the only city in the country that’s produced an NHL player, Nathan Walker … and we just don’t have facilities to produce more Nathan Walkers at the moment.

Century-old presence

Ice Hockey Australia president Adam Woolnough said more investment was desperately needed to bolster the number of appropriate rinks for professional play.

Woolnough, who formerly played in the NRL and notched more than 100 games for the Newcastle Knights, said ice hockey had been a part of the national sport landscape for more than a century.

“Since 1908, which is a long time,” he said.

Woolnough urged governments at all levels to invest in ice-sport facilities.

“We haven’t grown as much as other sports and that’s because of our geography, climate and the lack of rinks,” he said.

“If we don’t have investment into facilities, even just for upkeep, we will slowly see more and more closures.

“We’re continuing to seek support from the Australian Sports Commission … we just can’t quite get their funding support at the moment as a recognised national sport organisation.”

Ripple effect

Newcastle Northstars general manager Garry Doré said the withdrawal of the Sydney teams would have an impact across the board.

“Especially for Newcastle, Central Coast and Canberra, we accommodate a lot of their fans to our home games which makes it a great rivalry,” he said.

Mr Dore said there would be a big group of extremely talented players looking for places to play and the Northstars would potentially be picking some of them up.

“We [want] as many players as we can to continue playing … if any of the strong defencemen become available, we may look at that,” he said.

More than 70 players were contracted between the two Sydney clubs in 2024 and many are expected to seek contracts at other clubs or pursue overseas opportunities.

Teams that will contest the 2025 title are the Newcastle Northstars, Adelaide Adrenaline, Brisbane Lightning, Canberra Brave, Central Coast Rhinos, Melbourne Ice, Melbourne Mustangs and Perth Thunder.