Fenway on ice? This is how it’s done
Things you learn when you’re entrusted with staging hockey games at Fenway Park: There’s such a thing as the ice getting too cold.
Bet you haven’t heard that one before. Allow Fred Olsen, the Red Sox director of special projects, to explain.
“I never thought it was possible for the ice to be too cold,’’ said the native of Durham, N.H., who has overseen all four Frozen Fenways, including the 2017 Capital One Frozen Fenway that began this week. “But when it’s too cold, the ice gets too brittle, and a resurfacer like a Zamboni or Olympia can’t drive on it because they’re too heavy and would crack the ice.’’
So what to do when the ice becomes too cold? Well, heat it, of course, which is another one of those things you learn when it’s your job to oversee the construction of an ice rink on a baseball field, which has been Fred Olsen’s assignment ever since he was a special assistant to Sam Kennedy, now the Red Sox president, and asked Sam to give him more to do.
“I’ll never forget it,’’ Olsen said. “Sam said, ‘Freddie, I got something for you. I want you to be project manager for Frozen Fenway.’’’
Fenway Park went into the hockey business for the first time in 2010, when the National Hockey League held its Winter Classic in the shadow of the Green Monster on New Year’s Day, an unforgettable event in which the Boston Bruins beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2–1, on an overtime goal by Marco Sturm. Hockey legends Bobby Orr of the B’s and Bobby Clarke of the Flyers took part in the ceremonial opening faceoff while a crowd of 38,112 roared.
“This has meant so much to Boston — not just to the Bruins and their fans, but to hockey at all levels here,’’ Ken Hodge, a star Bruins winger in the ’60s and ’70s, told the New York Times. “I mean, just look at this setting.’’
The NHL, and its celebrated ice guru, Dan Craig, brought its own rink for the game.
“They literally brought in the rink, brought in their crew, brought in everything,’’ Olsen said. “They installed it. They operated it. It was their Zamboni, everything. We learned. We watched.’’
When Fenway Park hosted its first Frozen Fenway a week later, a college double-header that featured Boston College, Boston University, University of New Hampshire and Northeastern, the same sheet of ice was used. It was a different story for the next Frozen Fenway, two years later.
“That’s when we took it on ourselves,’’ Olsen said. “It was, ‘We have to find a vendor who can do this and we need to learn how it all works.’’’
The 17-page, clolor-coded schedule on Olsen’s desk, the one which lays out in day-by-day, hour-by-hour detail the work needed to be done to construct a rink and make it operational, attests to lessons absorbed and mastered. Olsen found his man in Benn Breton, a Naples, Maine-based rink specialist who has built the rinks that have been used for the last three Frozen Fenways — in 2012, 2014, and now this January. “We’ve formed a great partnership,’’ said Olsen, who was drawn to the Red Sox by his love of baseball and who played basketball in high school in Durham, but is now fluent in the language of rink construction.
The first step, Olsen said, is to establish a flat surface for the rink, which is not quite as simple as it may sound, because Fenway Park’s playing field is not flat. It tapers, very slightly. When Red Sox manager John Farrell is watching a ballgame from the dugout, he’s actually looking up a slight incline. Breton and his crew, working with Sox head groundskeeper Dave Mellor and his team, lay down a hard plastic flooring as a base, and then with a laser instrument, determine the places where some added insulation is needed — a couple of inches here, a couple of inches there — to make the base as level as possible.
While all the rink equipment is being delivered — the dasher boards, the glass — the next step in construction is the placement of what is called an ice mat, which is separated into 22 rolls of very small hard plastic tubing, 20 tubes per roll. With the rink laid out roughly from first base to third base, they start at the first-base side and each roll is unspooled across the rink. The tubes will be filled with glycol, which is essentially antifreeze.
“The tubes are all attached together,’’ Olsen said, “and they all connect to piping that goes all the way out through Canvas Alley to Van Ness Street, where we’ve set up a ‘Chiller,’ a big refrigerator. There are also two generators that power the chiller.’’
The Chiller can regulate the temperature of the glycol, which brings us back to the beginning, and the question of what is to be done if the ice gets too cold. “Ben and his team also created a heater,’’ Olsen said, “which can heat up the glycol if the ice is too cold.’’
Once all the ice mats have been placed, the rink itself can be built, with the dasher boards and glass set in place and the tubing filled with glycol. Much of the work is done by a crew from Kurt Steelman of Steelman Production Services, which can number from 20 to as many as 40 on the busiest of days.
All that’s left, then, is the making of the ice itself, or the “flooding” process. Cutting-edge, 21st-Century technology? Not quite. A worker with your basic garden-variety hose sprays water, section by section, onto the surface, making sure it is as uniform as possible. Because the natural color of ice is gray, it is then spray-painted white, Breton employing a small cart to do the job.
The entire process takes roughly three weeks. The flooring was installed on Dec. 13. The flooding took place on Jan. 2. By Thursday night, Army was playing Bentley, and on Saturday, the first of Capital One’s featured double-headers will take place, with Boston University and the University of Massachusetts skating in the first game, followed by Boston College and Providence facing off in the second game.
Despite all the meticulous planning that goes into Frozen Fenway, which also incorporates the staff involved in any major Fenway event — ticket sellers, ushers, concessionaires, security, video control room (“We’re in charge of everything, soup to nuts,’’ Olsen said) — there is one aspect of Frozen Fenway that is beyond anyone’s control. The weather.
There have been challenges. “There’s a pretty high level of helplessness,’’ Olsen said.
In 2012, they had to cope with temperatures that soared into the 60’s. “Luckily we played the game at night,’’ Olsen said. “The sun really hits the third-base side of the rink, and the ice was melting. UMass could only practice on the first-base side. Toot Cahoon wasn’t too happy with us.
“We had to shut down that part of the ice, cone it off, and let the ice crew work on it. Fortunately, the game started at 4 so we had time to fix it. It was too soft to use a resurfacer, so they were packing the ice by hand.’’
The issues were even more daunting in 2014. “We were hit hard,’’ Olsen said. “We had a blizzard two days before the first double-header. The entire front office was shoveling out seats. Then it got really cold, so it was one of those tough, tough weekends.
“The next weekend, there were thunderstorms. We were removing puddles of ice off the rink. It was amazing. We played in the rain. BU and Maine finished the night with what might have been the first and only rain delay in an outdoor hockey game, because we had lightning and thunder.’’
Temperatures are ideal for Saturday’s double-header, though there is snow in the forecast. A little falling snow is welcome, adding a Christmas card effect to the setting. Too much snow, though, and you have a problem. Fingers remain crossed. These Hockey East games are not exhibitions; they count in the standings.
“We strive, №1, for perfection,’’ Olsen said. “That’s what everybody does here. We also strive for authenticity. We want hockey games to be hockey games. For every game — whether it’s college, high school or youth — it’s all about authenticity and delivering on that for players.’’
The reward? Seeing the expression on the players who never imagined they’d one day be skating at Fenway.
“Invariably you see huge smiles, you hear a lot of laughter,’’ Olsen said. “A big reason why I’m here is it’s fun. We want them to have fun, and hopefully that translates to the fans, and to us being able to do this again. This isn’t just about us making money. We’re trying to do something that feels good.’’
