Manhattan Roller Hockey League
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.
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 there will be no rink for roller hockey:
This work is scheduled to be finished in the Fall of 2009.
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. Teams sponsored by the 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) decided to band together and form a new league so they could continue playing.
The Manhattan Roller Hockey League plans to hold Spring and Summer seasons at the Paul McDermott rink in Stanley Isaacs Park at 96th Street between FDR Drive and 1st Avenue in Manhattan. It will open to players of all abilities And Co-ed teams will be strongly encouraged. 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 will foster sportsmanship and an atmosphere of fun rather than intense competition and rough play.
To lend this new league financial and roster stability it is looking primarily for teams sponsored by large Manhattan professional firms rather than groups of individual players.