Engelstad Family Foundation offers $500,000 for new south-end hockey rink

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The Ralph and Betty Engelstad Family Foundation is contributing to another hockey arena in Grand Forks, if other donors respond.

The foundation has committed to a $500,000 matching grant for a planned $7 million youth arena on the south end. Its gift stipulates that a matching $500,000 needs to be raised by June 30 for its gift to go into effect.

“This is a big deal,” said Gary Harris, the park district’s foundation developmental director. “This gives people the opportunity to double their gift.”

The proposed site of the new facility is on the grounds of the Altru Wellness Village, which is located just south of the soon-to-be opened Choice Health & Fitness.

The Engelstads built the $104 million UND hockey arena that bears Ralph’s name. But it doesn’t want any naming rights for its $500,000 donation, Harris said.

Tarek Howard, the head of the fund-raising committee for the youth arena, said the major naming sponsor may be announced within the next two weeks. The price tag of the naming rights for the building is $2 million.

The cost of the naming rights for the two ice sheets inside the arena are $500,000 each. One of the two rinks will be named in the memory of Judd Sondreal, an executive of McKinnon Co.

Another $2.5 million has been committed by the Grand Forks Blue Line Club, which also isn’t seeking naming rights because there already is an arena that bears its name.

“The Blue Line donation also is a matching grant, so we still have quite a ways to go,” Howard said. “Hopefully, the Engelstad gift will help the families with kids in youth sports to get their pledge in.”

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