Dayton Hockey Association president Jim Dennis told the Dayton Daily News his organization will press on without the 50-year-old venue, but it is a great loss.
RELATED: 5 things to know about the closing of Hara Arena
“It has a tremendous impact on youth hockey because it’s one less venue that we have for practices and games,” Dennis said. “It’s forcing us to do a lot of scrambling around to try to find ice at other venues to reschedule those practices and games. It’s a difficult task.
“Plus the fact that Hara Arena is the oldest and most venerable hockey arena in our area. Our parents and players built a lot of relationships there and it’s very tough to lose it.”
The DHA supports teams for ages 4-18, including a squad of high school-aged players who won the Buckeye Cup state tournament this year.
Dennis estimated teams used Hara for about 10.5 hours per week for practice on top of holding games there on the weekends from August through March.
PHOTOS: Hara Arena through the years
Without Hara, DHA teams will plan to utilize the Kettering Ice Arena, Hobart Arena in Troy, South Metro in Washington Twp. and NTPRD Chiller in Springfield.
However, Dennis described Hara as, “critically located because we have players from all over the greater Dayton area and beyond, but we also have a significant amount of players from the north Dayton area. And Hara was a very convenient venue to get to for many of our families.”
Though professional hockey has come and gone in the area, Dennis said youth hockey has been a fixture in Dayton since at least the mid-60s.
RELATED: Hara's rich sports history
Last year the DHA fielded 28 teams, and its alumni include Jeff Hamilton of Englewood, who played for four NHL teams after starring at Yale and Ethan Graham of Xenia, who played at Michigan State before six pro seasons.
Dennis confirmed the DHA worked with Hara to try to help it remain open, including an attempt to recruit an elite junior-hockey team to play there, but ultimately those efforts were unsuccessful.
“They’re good people,” Dennis said of Hara’s ownership. “And they are as sad as we are, obviously, about the news that it had to close.”
READ MORE: Hara was often host to history
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