MAC Expansion Features High-tech Dryland Room For Local Teams

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- An expansion project at the Municipal Athletic Complex in St. Cloud is well underway. The city is adding about 14,000 square feet to the hockey arena over two levels.

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Operations Manager Todd Bissitt says the 4,000-square-foot Dryland room is the crown jewel of the new addition.

Athletic training and performance enhancement for hockey players, golfers, runners, and really, about anything.  It has a big rubber space, it has turf in it, some shooting areas for pucks, maybe someday down the road, we'll have hitting stations for baseball.

Read More: How St. Cloud Youth Hockey Supports MAC Renovations |

Below the Dryland room, there will be three new lockerooms, which will give the high school teams their own space for the first time.

For 50-some years, we called them transients. Where they just come in here with their gear and play their game or practice, and then take their gear home.  So we're very excited for the high school teams to have a place to call home.

The St. Cloud Cathedral boys, the St. Cloud Crush boys, and the St. Cloud Crush girls teams all call the MAC their home arena.

Bissett says the construction project is about a month behind schedule, so it will probably wrap up around mid-March.

A lot of it is efficiency upgrades, like a new roof and boiler system, as well as 980 new solar panels on the roof. It's also getting a new state-of-the-art ice compressor system.

Bissett says the timing is perfect because it will allow them to keep ice on both sheets throughout the summer.

All the rinks around here try to help each other out.  St. Cloud State is pulling its ice as they are doing a major renovation, which they need; we fully understand that.  So, to help their customers out, we're going to leave in another sheet of ice for their customers.

Bissett says whether they'll maintain two sheets of ice in future summers remains to be seen. He says the year-round facility gets rented about 3,700 hours for practices alone, with an additional 70 to 80 games played there every year.

The MAC is the home area for three high school teams, the St. Cloud Norsemen junior hockey team, the College of St. Benedict's women's team, St. Cloud Youth Hockey, and the St. Cloud Figure Skating Club.

The MAC was built in 1971 with expansions in 1993 and 1998.

The $17 million project is being paid for with $10 million in state bonding money and $7 million from the local Food and Beverage Tax.