Manhattan Roller Hockey League
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The Manhattan Roller Hockey League was established as a not-for-profit corporation in 2007 to revive the recreational adult roller hockey program that used to be run by Chelsea Piers in New York City. The Chelsea Piers Roller Rinks was a facility that operated from 1995 until August 2006 when the City of New York took back the lease on the rinks and a skate park so the Chelsea Waterside Park segment of the Hudson River Park could be built.
[edit] Foundation
The rinks and skate park at Pier 62 were demolished and work has begun on replacing them with a large green lawn bowl, a signature garden and landscaped boulder field, and a signature carousel with a green roof. While a new skate park facility is planned for completion in the fall of 2009 there will be no rink for roller hockey.
When the Chelsea Piers adult roller hockey program was shut down there were 30 teams left without a league or a venue to play games. The original formation of the league was done via a joint effort of teams sponsored by professional firms (Goldman Sachs, Ernst & Young, commercial real estate firm Studley, and the law firms Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler LLP and Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP) so they could continue playing in an organized hockey league. While not all of the founding teams are still playing, the league has since expanded with 14 teams participating in the Spring 2008 season. Unlike Chelsea Piers, which had lights and could hold games during the night, the Stanley Isaacs Park (more below) does not and the games are mostly played on Sundays with a few games being played early evening during the week.
The Manhattan Roller Hockey League holds Fall and Spring seasons running until December and June/July depending on weather, respectfully, at the Paul McDermott rink in Stanley Isaacs Park at 96th Street between FDR Drive and 1st Avenue in Manhattan. The league is meant for recreational players who want to play a hard but clean game and then shake hands afterwards no matter what the outcome. It fosters sportsmanship and an atmosphere of fun rather than intense competition and rough play.
To lend the league financial and roster stability the teams are primarily sponsored by large Manhattan professional firms rather than groups of individual players although individual players can email the captains and are added to rosters as need and space permit.
