Frank Ritter Memorial Ice Arena

Infobox_Stadium
stadium_name = Frank Ritter Memorial Ice Arena| nickname = "The Ritter"


location = Rochester Inst. of Technology
Rochester, NY 14623
coordinates = Coord|43|5|7|N|77|40|26|W|type:landmark
broke_ground =
opened = 1968
closed =
demolished =
owner = Rochester Inst. of Technology
operator = Rochester Inst. of Technology
surface = Ice
dimensions = 185 ft x 85 ft
(56 m x 26 m)
construction_cost=
architect =
former_names =
tenants = RIT Tigers (Men's and Women's Hockey)
Genesee Figure Skating Club
seating_capacity = 2,100 (hockey)

The Frank Ritter Memorial Ice Arena, known colloquially as "The Ritter", is an ice arena in Henrietta, New York, a suburb of Rochester, New York, United States. It is home to the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers ice hockey teams and the Genesee Figure Skating Club. Its official capacity for ice hockey games is 2,100.

The building was erected in 1968 when RIT moved from downtown Rochester to a new suburban campus in nearby Henrietta. Frank Ritter, a furniture maker famous for his dental chairs, helped found the Mechanics Institute, a forerunner of the Rochester Institute of Technology, in 1885. The Ritter-Clark Arena on the downtown campus had previously been named in part for Frank Ritter. Frank Ritter Shumway, Ritter's grandson and a major figure in U.S. Figure Skating, was a generous benefactor of RIT, and he ensured that the ice rink on the new campus was named for his grandfather.

The arena is also home to the Genesee Figure Skating Club, founded in 1955 by F. Ritter Shumway.

The ice surface measures 85 feet by 185 feet (26 m by 56 m), with the goals at the north and south ends. The home bench, scorer's table, and penalty boxes are on the west side; the visiting bench is on the east side, with the men's and women's home locker rooms underneath the east bleachers. The Pike Press Box (room for 16 with 5 telephones and ethernet access) and the President's Box (stadium-style seating for 16) are two stories up from the ice surface, on the south side of the rink.

A new scoreboard was purchased and installed in time for RIT's inaugural Men's Division I season, 2005-2006. Previous renovations in 2000 improved the lighting, acoustics, and concessions in the arena. The arena was ranked the second-best rink in the ECAC West (out of six) in 2003. [http://www.uscho.com/news/id,6095/ThisWeekintheECACWestFeb62003] (The only better rink was the Utica Memorial Auditorium, which is a professional-level hockey arena.) The Ritter is the third-highest-capacity rink in Atlantic Hockey (behind Army's and Air Force's rinks).

References

* [http://whatsinaname.rit.edu/structures/?id=2 RIT Library file on the Arena's name]

External links

* [http://www.ritathletics.com/Sports/gen/2002/ritter.asp Official web site]