1. Underinvesting in surface quality
The first mistake is treating the surface as the place to save money. A soft, high-friction surface makes skaters plough rather than glide, tires them out and dulls their blades, and since about 80% of attendance depends on people enjoying themselves, a poor surface quietly removes the enjoyment the whole rink depends on. It is also the one thing that cannot be fixed after opening without replacing it.
2. No one owns the rink
A rink needs a leader who fully takes responsibility for it and treats it as their own. Without someone who owns the outcome, standards drift, decisions stall and no one is accountable when things slip. The single strongest sign of a rink that will work is a person who genuinely cares that it does.
3. No operating and maintenance protocol
A surface that is not appropriately cleaned and cared for degrades: it goes greyish, the seams start to show, it drags underfoot and it dulls blades faster. A rink needs a written operating and maintenance protocol, and the products to carry it out, followed from day one. Without it, even a good surface slides toward a poor one.
4. No sharpening protocol
Blades have to be checked and sharpened on a routine, not whenever someone remembers. That means a protocol, regular checking and re-sharpening, and staff trained to follow it. Edge life also depends on keeping skates on the ice or rubber matting; hard flooring or asphalt ruins an edge fast. A rink that lets edges go dull hands every skater a bad experience, and then blames the ice.
5. Staff who are untrained or take no pride
Equipment does not run a rink; people do. Staff who have not been trained on the protocols, or who do not understand why they matter, will skip them, and staff who take no pride in the rink let standards drift. The fix is training that explains the why, not just the how, and a culture that treats the rink as something to be proud of.
6. Uncomfortable skates
Everything else can be perfect, but if the skates are uncomfortable, people will not enjoy it, and it is one of the simplest things to get right. No one wants to spend an hour in a boot that hurts, and a bad experience in the skate gets blamed on the rink. Comfortable, well-fitted skates are not a detail.
7. Cheap skates
Cheap skates save mostly on blade quality, and a low-grade blade dulls faster, so the skater loses their edge sooner and the sharpening burden climbs. Whatever the blade quality, edges last only while skates stay on the ice or rubber matting; hard flooring or asphalt ruins them fast. Saving a little on the fleet quietly costs more in dull blades and disappointed skaters.
8. A dasher board that looks functional, not premium
The boards are the framing of the rink and the first thing anyone sees walking up to it. People today care about look and feel, and want the moment to be worth sharing, so a board system that looks merely functional undersells the whole venue. The question to ask is whether it looks appealing and premium, and whether it elevates the space.
9. No ambiance
A rink is an experience, not just a surface. The right decoration, lighting and music are what turn a functional rink into somewhere people want to be and come back to. Skip the ambiance and even a good rink feels flat.
10. Too little marketing and PR
A rink no one knows about stays empty, and an empty rink attracts no one, because people are drawn toward a rink full of others having fun. Marketing and PR are not extras once the rink is built; they are what turns a good surface into attendance. Underfund them and the plan's numbers never arrive.
11. The wrong location
A rink with no natural footfall, or no atmosphere to draw people, starts at a disadvantage no surface can overcome. The best spots have people passing by and an ambience that makes them want to stop. Get the location wrong and everything else has to work twice as hard.
12. No proper storage system
A rink that is installed and struck each season needs a storage system built for it. Packed improvised and unprofessionally, it takes more labour hours to pack and unpack, more truck space to move and more space to store, season after season. The right storage system quietly saves all of that.
13. A supplier without a culture of excellence
Even a good rink run by a good team needs a supplier who, by default, makes sure the client has everything they need to succeed. A supplier without that ingrained culture of excellence leaves gaps, is slow to answer, and treats the sale as the end rather than the start. Where there is no local team and no help when something goes wrong, small problems become lasting ones.
The common thread
Notice how few of these are about the surface itself. A rink is not equipment; it is an experience people choose to return to, and it succeeds or fails on ownership, protocols, people, skates, look, atmosphere, marketing, location, logistics and the supplier behind it. A rink without care and animation is like a gym that is technically equipped but grubby and unwelcoming, and today's visitors, who expect a genuinely good experience, simply go elsewhere.
In short
Synthetic ice rinks rarely fail because of the surface. They fail from underinvesting in it, from no one owning the rink, from missing operating, maintenance and sharpening protocols, from untrained staff, poor skates, cheap-looking boards, no atmosphere, weak marketing, the wrong location, no storage plan, or a supplier without a culture of excellence. Getting the surface right is necessary but not sufficient; the rest is what turns it into a rink that works.
Reviewed by Viktor Meier, Co-Founder and CEO, Glice AG. Last reviewed August 2026.
Glice — Swiss-engineered synthetic ice. No water, no energy — proven across 3,000+ rinks in 100+ countries.