A decades-old Marblehead dream is getting another shot.
The Current has learned that Friends of Marblehead Hockey is mounting a $25 million fundraising campaign to build an indoor skating arena and new parking facility at the Lynch-van Otterloo YMCA, an ambitious project that would give local hockey players, figure skaters and recreational skaters access to home ice.
Friends of Marblehead Hockey would raise the money, build the facility and then donate it to the YMCA of the North Shore, which would own and operate it.
“We’ll raise the money, we’ll build it, and we will gift it to you,” Friends of Marblehead Hockey President Dana Tufts recalled telling Y officials. “All you need to do is give us the land.”
The proposed arena would be attached to the right side (if you face the front door) of the existing Y building at 40 Leggs Hill Road, replacing some of the parking there. A new low-profile parking structure, adding about 100 spaces, would be built on the opposite side of the campus near the outdoor pool. The garage would be constructed first.
The rink would be NHL-sized and include six locker rooms and a mezzanine with seating for about 250 spectators. The entire building would measure roughly 240 feet by 125 feet, according to Tufts.
Despite its Marblehead address, the Y property sits in Salem, meaning the project would go through Salem’s permitting process. The Y has already conducted internal traffic studies, Tufts said, though outside reviews and permitting remain ahead.
The YMCA says it is “actively engaged” in the project.
“We are encouraged by the continued effort by Friends of Marblehead Hockey to undertake this project and explore a community indoor skating/recreation center that would be located at our Lynch-van Otterloo Y campus,” Executive Director Brian Flynn said in a statement to the Current.
“While Friends of Marblehead Hockey leads this project, we remain actively engaged in the planning and design process,” Flynn continued. “We are optimistic that this project has the potential to create a valuable recreational resource for the broader community. Friends of Marblehead Hockey is still in the planning and due diligence phase, and several important requirements must be satisfied before our Y can provide final approval. We look forward to continuing to work with Friends of Marblehead Hockey as the project develops.”
A $25 million campaign
Tufts and his wife, Merry, said the group is currently in the quiet phase of fundraising and declined to say how much has been raised or pledged.
Of the $25 million goal, about $10 million is projected for construction of the rink, $5 million to $7 million for parking and $5 million for an endowment to cover future repairs and help sustain the facility.
The group has begun approaching potential major donors and has submitted a proposal to the Lynch Foundation, Tufts said. It has also received pledges from other donors around town.
“There’s momentum,” Tufts said.
Friends of Marblehead Hockey would like to break ground as early as spring 2027, although Tufts acknowledged that could be ambitious.
The project grew out of decades of efforts to find a location for a full-size rink in Marblehead. A 1941 article in the Marblehead Messenger reads, “Such spirit as these boys are showing should be rewarded by the townspeople getting together at the Town Meeting in March and giving the boys a halfway decent rink.”
Later campaigns were called Think Rink and Skate ’98. Friends of Marblehead Hockey are calling this latest push Headers for Home Ice.
Tufts served on a town feasibility committee beginning in 2021 that explored potential sites, including school property. But space limitations, competing uses and the complications of building on town property eventually led the group to look elsewhere.
Discussions with the YMCA began in earnest around 2023.
Tufts said the Y offers an unusual fit: a large nonprofit recreational organization just over Marblehead’s border with enough property to potentially accommodate a rink — and a history intertwined with Marblehead hockey.
Marblehead Youth Hockey began in 1958 in the basement of the old YMCA on Pleasant Street. With no ice available, young players practiced stickhandling over plywood laid atop the building’s bowling alley, according to Tufts and his wife.
“It’s kind of a no-brainer,” Merry Tufts said of bringing the two organizations back together.
Keeping young players close to home
For the Tufts, the strongest argument for the arena is access.
Marblehead High School currently plays its home games at Salem State University, while youth teams frequently travel farther afield for practices and games. Tufts said one of the project’s primary goals is to keep young players — and their parents — from making long drives for early-morning or late-night ice time.
“The first goal is to prevent the youth hockey parents of 8-year-olds driving to Worcester for a hockey practice at 6 a.m.,” Tufts said. “So you know, access is the answer to more success here.”
Marblehead Youth Hockey has about 325 participants, Tufts said, with another roughly 80 players in the high school boys and girls programs. Adult hockey, figure skating, learn-to-skate programs and other recreational uses could broaden the arena’s reach considerably.
Friends of Marblehead Hockey would seek guaranteed access for Marblehead Youth Hockey and Marblehead school teams as part of the arrangement with the Y. Tufts also envisions public skating, learn-to-skate programs, figure skating, sled hockey and adult hockey — even skating birthday parties.
The arena could potentially remain iced year-round. Organizers and the Y are also considering whether it could accommodate other uses during summer months, according to Tufts.
Once completed, the YMCA would be responsible for staffing, scheduling and operating the facility. Friends of Marblehead Hockey has been researching other rinks and developing operating and scheduling models to help the Y prepare.
No Larz Anderson money
One source that will not fund the project is the Larz Anderson winter sports fund, which has been at the center of the town’s separate plans for improvements at Reynolds Playground. (That project, which includes a smaller, outdoor rink, has been put on hold.)
Friends of Marblehead Hockey explored whether the money could support the YMCA arena but received two opinions from town counsel that it could not because the Y property is outside Marblehead, Tufts said.
The group decided not to challenge that determination.
“We’re not fighting for it,” Tufts said.
Instead, Friends of Marblehead Hockey is pursuing private donations for the entire project.
The irony isn’t lost on the Tufts. Anderson was a major figure in Marblehead skating history and helped spearhead construction of Lynn Arena, one of Massachusetts’ earliest artificial-ice arenas.
Organizers hope to honor that history in the name of the new facility.
The working name is the OAR — Orne Anderson Robarts Rink, honoring three figures in Marblehead hockey history: Bud Orne, Larz Anderson and Tremaine “Trem” Robarts, Marblehead High School’s first hockey coach.
For Dana Tufts, the effort is personal. His father, Edward Tufts, helped found Friends of Marblehead Hockey in 1994 and was deeply involved in hockey and philanthropy. Dana grew up in Marblehead, began playing hockey around age 10 and later played at Middlebury College.
Friends of Marblehead Hockey has since supported youth and high school hockey with equipment, uniforms and scholarships and maintains the town hockey Hall of Fame.
Anyone interested in learning more about the project can contact Tufts at 781-254-4017 or dtufts20@gmail.com.
