Jamaica Olympic Ice Hockey Federation (JOIHF) President Don Anderson says while he is pleased to see an ice rink in Trinidad and Tobago, it has not changed his views about the possibility of building one locally any time soon.

ICED, Trinidad and Tobago’s first indoor ice rink, opened in La Romaine on April 14. It is the nation’s first venue of its kind and will serve the public as a snow park and recreational skating facility.

“I’m very pleased to know that Trinidad has been able to put up an ice rink,” Anderson told the Jamaica Observer. “Note, it is not for ice hockey but for skating. So that’s a bit different. You can have a smaller surface for figure skating than you can for ice hockey. They don’t have an ice hockey mindset yet, but it’s good that they’ve been able to put up an ice rink.”

ICED, operated by Ice Caribbean Entertainment District, hence the name, features two rinks, one for adults and another for teens, plus play areas for smaller children. It also has a beverage station, rental gear and equipment, photo booths, a candy wall, and bleachers.

It comes after JOIHF suspended its plans to develop Jamaica’s first ice hockey rink, which Anderson wanted as a venue for hosting local games for the national ice hockey teams, training sessions, and also to fund itself by being made available for recreational activities to the general public.

JOIHF also wanted an ice rink because it is a requirement for any nation with hopes of competing in ice hockey at the Winter Olympic Games to have a local facility.

But JOIHF told the Observer last January that the cost of not only building but also maintaining such a facility forced it to rethink any thoughts of constructing one in the near future.

“I have talked to a couple of good friends of mine in Trinidad and I’m getting some more information on it,” Anderson said. “It’s not something I’m scoffing at, by any means. It’s good that they could do it and the truth is, were we able to put together hotel interest, as was advocated some time ago, who was going to build an ice rink in Jamaica as part of our hotel development, we would’ve been on the road already. But the fact of the matter is, that has not realised. As a practical businessman, I’m not gonna jump and say, ‘Yeah man, we can put up an ice rink because Trinidad put up one’.”

Anderson says it is unreasonable to see a rink being developed in Jamaica at the moment when so much other infrastructural work is struggling to get going.

“There’s a lot involved,” he said. “When we’re having challenges retooling and renovating our National Stadium, which is the seat of our tremendous sporting achievements over all these years. With the world record holder in the 100m and 200m (Usain Bolt), and we’re still struggling to put up a stadium, I think it’s a little far-fetched to think that we could do that without substantial outside help — almost completely outside help.

“We have to be practical. Has it motivated me? Boy, in the same way that I was initially distressed when I saw Barbados putting up a sports museum before Jamaica, but we have to prioritise all these things and nothing happens before their time.

“We’re now driving towards a national sports museum. Barbados has had one for God knows how long. Proud of that. They’ve had one athlete (Sir Garfield Sobers) of significant note over the years but they have a sport museum — small scale of course, but we are gonna get there.”

The Jamaica Olympic Association is working on a national museum, which will be housed at its headquarters, Olympic Manor, in St Andrew. Work has started on the site, with the building previously occupying that premises demolished.

Anderson told the Observer in January that he felt it unreasonable to ask lesser-developed tropical nations such as Jamaica to build a rink before they can qualify for the Olympics. He said he was hoping to have talked about it with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach when he visited Jamaica in March. While Anderson did have a chance to meet with Bach, he said that the setting was not appropriate for such a conversation, but said through networking with him he laid the foundation for a future conversation about the topic.