Escondido rink proposal could boost San Diego Gulls development pipeline

A new three-sheet ice complex in Escondido could do more than add rinks to North County San Diego. If the city moves ahead, the project would give the San Diego Gulls a deeper development footprint, restore a lost local hockey presence and create a practice base designed to feed youth players into the AHL pipeline.

The City of Escondido and The Rinks Foundation announced plans to bring a memorandum of understanding to the Escondido City Council’s June 3 meeting, a regular council session with the closed session marked cancelled. The proposal would place the facility at Kit Carson Park, on city land, and would be fully funded and constructed by The Rinks Foundation, the nonprofit tied to Henry and Susan Samueli, the owners behind the Gulls and Anaheim Ducks.

That connection matters. The Rinks Foundation says it operates eight hockey and skating facilities in Southern California, and one of them, The Rinks - Poway ICE, has long been part of the Ducks-Gulls development system and has served as the Gulls’ official practice facility. A North County site would push that network farther inland and give the organization another place to build players, fans and families around the sport.

The proposed complex is broader than a standard practice rink. Plans call for three sheets of ice, including one with seating for roughly 2,000 to 3,000 spectators, plus administrative offices, dressing rooms, training facilities, retail space, concession space and a restaurant. The facility is also expected to host youth hockey, high school programs, adult league hockey, figure skating, sled hockey, curling, broomball and public skating, along with other community events.

The comparison point is already established across Orange County. Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena in Irvine is 280,000 square feet and includes four sheets of ice, including a 2,500-seat arena. The City of Irvine describes it as the Anaheim Ducks’ training facility and part of a public-private partnership with the Irvine Ice Foundation. Escondido’s plan appears to borrow that model while tailoring it to city land at Kit Carson Park and the Gulls’ regional market.

The stakes are especially clear in North County, where ice time is valuable and hockey access has been inconsistent since Ice-Plex Escondido shut down effective immediately on July 2, 2020. That rink, which opened in 1995, had been a major local anchor before the property at 555 North Tulip Street was later sold and approved for a 50-megawatt lithium-ion battery storage facility in 2023.

Kit Carson Park gives the proposal a large stage. Escondido says it acquired the land from the City of San Diego in 1967, and the park is the city’s largest regional park. If the council approves the MOU, the city and The Rinks Foundation would move to community meetings, a next step that will help determine whether the project becomes a long-term home for youth hockey and a meaningful piece of the Gulls’ player-development machinery.