Big changes are coming to Colorado Extreme Hockey’s facilities this season —  the nonprofit plans to move its second ice rink, currently located at the Rifle Fairgrounds, to Carbondale. 

Colorado Extreme representatives appeared before the Garfield Board of County Commissioners last week to request approval to move the rink. They also asked for the issuance of a prior approved land use change permit, a preliminary step to implementing planned improvements — like an indoor training facility they’ll begin planning in 2026 — to the nonprofit’s Carbondale location.

Both requests were placed on the consent agenda and officially approved by Commissioners Tom Jankovsky and Mike Samson during Monday’s meeting. 

“The big thing is that we wanted to be able to bring everything into one location in an easier position on the land and to have everybody come into one spot,” Colorado Extreme Academy CEO Steve Briere told commissioners on Nov. 3. “That way energy can be used across the lights, the chillers and so on.”

Founded in 2021, the local nonprofit offers free hockey programming to children up to 12 years old in Craig, Carbondale and Rifle. Its home-base outdoor rink in Carbondale currently offers learn to skate,14U, 10UAA, 12UAA and Academy Hockey. Craig is home to Extreme Hockey’s indoor rink, where participants can learn to skate, play 18U Hockey or enjoy a new Adventure Park. 

In 2023, Extreme Hockey opened a seasonal outdoor rink at the Rifle Fair Grounds, where the community could enjoy open skating and program participants could learn to skate and play 12U Hockey. 

Now, players that live in Rifle will have to travel to Carbondale to continue taking advantage of Extreme Hockey’s free programming. 

Extreme Hockey representatives at the Nov. 3 meeting stated that moving the rink could lead to decreased energy and staffing expenses. It will also be downgraded from a full-sized rink to a smaller skills rink. 

“It’s so much more cost effective to be able to have it in one location and not have to have all the start-up (expenses) every year,” Briere said. “To be able to have it more permanent right beside our other rink — it gives us just as much ice time and just as much coaching staff, but it’s a lot easier to have all the coaching staff in one place and one spot and then have all the kids in one place and one spot.” 

The relocated rink will serve as a training ground for goalies and smaller children, according to Briere.

“By having the rink right beside it, you can do a goalie session, and then you can have them come over onto the big rink,” Briere said. “Also, you can have the little kids — when you’re 8U and 10U, which is the majority of the kids that are in the program starting out, they don’t need a full ice rink. They need a small rink.”

Briere said while some loss of participation is expected, the move will allow Colorado Extreme to continue growing and attracting new participants. 

“On the hockey coach side of things, (it will allow us) to be able to provide a better product as opposed to being so thin on coaches and so thin on staff and then doubling all of our expenses, whereas now we can cut them in half and provide more coaching,” Briere said. “People drive from here to Denver to go skate all the time, so I think it might be a temporary dip, but I think that in the long run by having everything in one place it’ll really pick up.”

Although Garfield County commissioners expressed disappointment over the change, they unanimously approved the issuance of the land use change permit and the minor modification needed to relocate the rink.

“I’m highly disappointed,” Commissioner Mike Samson told Colorado Extreme representatives on Nov. 3. “One of the main reasons we really supported this was when you first came in here, it was with the business plan of doing it in Rifle, and we said, ‘Hey, we’ll do whatever we can to accommodate you at the fairgrounds and not charge you for it’ 

“I’m really disappointed, but I’m not going to vote against it because I see the good that it is doing in Carbondale…but you’re gonna lose people from Parachute to Rifle to Silt,” he added.”You’re going to lose a lot of kids…but you have to do what you have to do to make it survive.”