The Centre Ice Arena, also called The Centre, was a 700-seat, 49,000 square-foot facility built in 2002. It was located on the Delaware State Fairgrounds in

Harrington, Delaware Harrington is a city in Kent County, Delaware, United States. It is part of the Dover metropolitan statistical area. Harrington hosts the annual Delaware State Fair each July. The population was 3,774 in 2020. History Harrington was named fo ...

. The facility held an ice rink and hosted

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...

and public skating in the winter, and then hosted

4-H 4-H is a U.S.-based network of youth organizations whose mission is "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development". Its name is a reference to the occurrence of the initial letter H four times ...

and FFA exhibits and demonstrations during the

Delaware State Fair The Delaware State Fair is the annual state fair for the U.S. state of Delaware. It is held in Harrington. The fair is a ten-day event at the end of July. History The first Delaware State Fair was held in Wilmington, with mentions of the "D ...

in the summer.

Ice hockey

The

Salisbury University Salisbury University is a public university in Salisbury, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1925, Salisbury University is a member of the University System of Maryland, with a fall 2022 enrollment of 7,123. Salisbury University offers unde ...

Gulls club ice hockey team played home games at the Centre. The Federal Prospects Hockey League's Delaware Thunder also played home games at the arena from 2019 until 2023.

Figure skating

The Bay Country Figure Skating Club's skaters performed shows and practiced at the Centre.

Closure

On January 24th, 2025, the Delaware State Fair announced on its website and social media that the Centre would close as an ice venue after the completion of the 2024-2025 season. This decision was made after the State Fair's board of directors voted to shut down the arena in light of rising maintenance costs and "several mechanical failures occurring in late November 024leading to overwhelming capital funds needed to bring the Rink online for current and future operations."https://www.delawarestatefair.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Delaware-State-Fair-Ice-Rink-Closure-Press-Release.pdf The decision was met with criticism by the local community, who had no say on the matter as the Fair and its property is privately owned. The last day of operation for the Centre was May 18th, 2025.

References

Ice hockey venues in the United States 2002 establishments in Delaware {{Delaware-sports-venue-stub