Future of the Rizzo Rink, a Pennsport staple, threatened by I-95 reconstruction project

On a recent rainy afternoon at Rizzo Rink, the youth hockey arena located under I-95 in South Philadelphia, stormwater streamed down from the leaky interstate and pooled on the rink’s hard plastic covering.

The traffic zooming by overhead sounded like rolling thunder and seemed to shake the crumbling concrete above the team benches. Pigeons cooed in the rusty rafters.

For Rizzo lifers, such as Jason Brinn, 47, who has played and coached at the Pennsport rink for nearly 40 years, the rainy day milieu is the way it’s always been at Rizzo Rink.

“That’s how everyone knows us,” said Brinn, a member of the Rizzo Rink advisory council. “We’re the rink under I-95.”

For decades, the volunteer coaches and administrators at the Ralph R. Rizzo Rink, named after the former’s mayor’s father, have more than made do at the tiny city rink crammed under the expressway. Charging $200 for three months of youth hockey (a fraction of other leagues) and outfitting the youngest skaters with free equipment, they’ve taught generations of kids how to play, including many who have gone on to play in high school and college and even a goalie drafted by the NHL.

Over the years, they have transformed the rickety open-air rink into a neighborhood staple.

“All it’s ever been about is bringing hockey to the kids,” said Steve Grosso, who has helped organize Rizzo’s hockey program for more than 30 years.

But now the rink boosters have begun the arduous task of finding a new home. PennDot and Philadelphia Parks & Recreation officials have informed Rizzo Rink that they will eventually have to shutter it as part of the decades-long I-95 reconstruction effort.

Brad Rudolph, deputy communications director for PennDot, said in a statement that an effort to widen the shoulders of the expressway cannot be safely done without at least temporarily relocating the rink. It is too early to tell whether the rink will have to be completely torn down, he said.

Construction on the project, which may also include a new on-ramp at the site, will not begin until the late 2030s or later, he stressed. When plans are formalized, the state agency says, it will set aside funds to relocate the rink.

The rink represents only the latest South Philly youth sports hub potentially impacted by the rebuilding project. PennDot came under fire recently after complaints that it misled South Philadelphians about proposals to run new roads through popular neighborhood baseball fields.

Rudolph said the agency is committed to community engagement and realizes the importance of the rink and fields.

“We have heard and understand the community’s concerns, as well as those of the elected officials and other stakeholders,” he said.

Charlotte Merrick, communications director for Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, confirmed in a brief statement that the rink will close due to the construction, but provided no timeline. She said the city is working to find an alternative location.

Still, uncertainty hangs over Rizzo Rink. Having long ago outgrown the rink, programs involved there say they have asked the city for years for help finding a larger site in South Philly, but to no avail. And finding any new home, especially in South Philly, won’t be easy.

Previous discussions for a new rink at sites including FDR Park, the NovaCare Complex, and the Delaware Avenue shopping malls and piers have led nowhere. Building a new site anywhere in the city will likely take years and tens of millions of dollars, officials say.

With few answers, Rizzo Rink officials say they operate as if every season could be their last.

“We know we’re on borrowed time,” said Brinn, whose father, Henry Brinn, founded the youth hockey league in the 1980s. “We just don’t know how much time we have left.”

Opened in 1979, Rizzo Rink once had clout. Back in the day, its backroom was a popular meeting place for South Philly politicians on the rise, including future mayor Jim Kenney, who served as a coach at Rizzo for years.

“We used to jokingly call it the Fourth Street Deli of rec centers,” said Brinn, referring to the famous Queen Village Election Day hangout.

In the rink’s heyday, 500 boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 13 skated in the instructional leagues running between November and March. Fans jammed the cramped arena and toted homemade Stanley Cup trophies.

“Oh, we had some wild games,” remembers Grosso.

But as competitive as the games could sometimes get, the league took all kids regardless of skill level. League fees are kept to a minimum. Fundraisers, donations, and proceeds from a small concession stand pay for jerseys, helmets, and pads. Free equipment is often donated back to the rink’s pro shop for other kids to use.

“We bring hockey to youth that can’t afford to play,” said Grosso.

The Rizzo league still thrives. Between 250 and 300 kids play each year at the rink, which also hosts summer camp programs.

While the city pays to keep the rink lights on and provides staffing, including a seasonal Zamboni driver, the league says it has long been responsible for most of the repairs. Though the layout is 30% smaller than a regulation hockey rink, it can still need big repairs.

In the winter, salt water dripping from I-95 expansion joints often freezes into dangerous speed bumps on the ice. The rink’s boards are warped. And the concrete pillars are chipping so badly in spots that rebar is exposed.

There is a tiny locker room for all the kids and a single set of bleachers for fans. Wildlife has decamped in the open-air arena.

During a game years ago, a hawk chased a pigeon through the rink, crashing against the boards and falling to the ice before it regained consciousness.

“We thought it was dead,” said Brinn. “But then we saw its talons start to move.”

And there was that year the rink’s compressor pipes, which create the ice, clogged. Grosso, Brinn, and Angelo “Lumpy” Pinto, the league’s longtime president, who died in 2022, slept nights at the rink, running heaters to get the pipes going again.

And with every repair a struggle, they worry any major one could be their last.

“Every year, we almost kind of expect someone to tell us, ‘This is it, you’re done,’” Brinn said.

Rink officials say they have been asking the city for help to find a new home for decades. A more spacious one, perhaps not jammed under a major highway. The pitch has always been the same, Grosso said.

“It’s a program that supports itself,” Grosso said.

But no one — not even league alum Jim Kenney — has delivered.

“We’ve gone to so many meetings with so many politicians and so many mayors,” said Grosso. “We’ve been promised so many things ... but nothing.”

Councilmember Mark Squilla, who helped secure funding for a new Zamboni a few years ago, said he is working to get PennDot and the city to the table to help find the rink a new home. He’d like to see a bigger facility, one that can handle all of Rizzo’s programming, and raise revenue through ice rentals.

“There will be a basic plan and a Cadillac plan,” he said. “The goal would be the Cadillac plan.”

Neither the city or PennDot has committed a dollar amount yet, Squilla said. There have been preliminary discussions about possibly building a new rink at the former PES Refinery site in Point Breeze, he said.

“It’s going to have to be a collaborative effort between PennDot, the city, and whoever else we could get to be a partner,” he said. “Anything we build is going to be tens of millions of dollars.”

The sooner a new site can be found, the better, he said.

“The reason we’re active now is that we know we have 10 years to do it,” he said. “And maybe that doesn’t seem like it’s a rush, but it’s pretty urgent that we find a location. Because once we find that location, we still have to come up with the resources.”

State Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler (D., Philadelphia), who along with Squilla has been lobbying PennDot for more transparency on the South Philly plans, said she hopes that as the planning continues, the conversation can evolve from simply preserving endangered South Philly spaces to imagining new ones, such as a waterfront park with new youth sports facilities.

“In addition to protecting and enhancing these valuable community spaces, I also would like to dream bigger about what outside space in South Philly can look like,” she said.

For now, the rink goes on in limbo. Some, such as Grosso, are skeptical that after all these years, they’ll actually get a new home.

“I think if they close us down, we’re probably done,” he said.