Highlights

DEL Wintergame 2013

Mobile AST Ice Rink a European Record in Ice Hockey

On Saturday, January 5, 2013, 50,000 spectators watched the largest outdoor DEL ice hockey game ever played, and that being in the Nurnberg football stadium. The company - AST Ice and Solartechnik - assembled the mobile ice rink. The AST-Team traveled directly from the Euro Ice Hockey Challenge in Lyon, France, where AST also assembled the mobile rink.

(The first DEL game in Nurnberg was a great success!”)

AST delivered the entire mobile ice rink to Nurnberg - including the refrigeration technology and the ice hockey boarding, as well as the resurfacing vehicles. The assembly of the EPDM ice mat system extended over the entire ice hockey playing surface with a size of 60 x 30 meters. “The system works very efficiently and offers the best ice quality,” explained Manfred Fink, AST’s CEO. The ice rink was erected on a wood foundation. The new mobile ice hockey boards are equipped with real-glass protection. In order to erect the facility in the shortest possible time and then to disassemble it after the event, five AST professional assemblers were present to handle the work.

The Ice Tigers of Nurnberg – organizers of the game – made their choice for AST and in doing so chose the leading company in the ice industry. AST has a tremendous amount of experience in the mobile ice rink market, earned through the countless World and European Championships, which they have conducted. The company has over 160,000 square meters of rental rinks at their disposal. Currently there are around 3000 AST rinks in operation.

In front of this record backdrop and crowd, the Ice Tigers scored a 4:3 victory over the German champions – the Berlin Ice Bears. On the Ice Tigers Internet page, Gernot Tripcke, the CEO of the German Ice Hockey League commented, “We are extremely happy with the event!” “It was a huge event for German ice hockey, for Nurnberg and for the Ice Bears,” said the Ice Bears coach Don Jackson, who was very impressed with the game. The home field of the 1. FC Nurnberg soccer club was completely transformed into a 50,000 seat ice stadium for the first DEL Winter Game!

Wiener Eistraum (Vienna Ice Dream)

The Vienna Ice dream has already been staged 15 times! This event runs from the last week in January through to the first week in March. Three ice areas are installed and connected to each other via an AST Skateway.
This allows the skaters to enjoy more than 6000 m2 of ice pleasure. From the Vienna City Hall through the park and on to the theater and back to city hall - almost a kilometer of real ice waits to be discovered! The mayor of Vienna opens the Ice Dream officially with the words “Eis frei!” An Ice-Stock lane is always reserved for him!

Frankfort – Opera Plaza on Ice

An AST Ice Rink larger than 700m2 was installed directly in front of the Frankfort Opera. The quality and form of the ice rink, the special lighting within the ice ring and the wonderful setting were already highlighted at the opera plaza. This led to the public’s acceptation of the rink right from the start. The magazine “Focus” published a picture of the rink as “Photo of the Week”.

Ice Hockey World Championship 2010 – Opening Match “auf Schalke”

AST’s assemblers had only 5 days to transform the football stadium into a giant ice arena. Every move had to count! The logistic had to function perfectly. The ice making - in spite of our being pressed for time – had to be done carefully.
An excellent ice hockey rink was turned over to the organizers and confirmed by the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) in a letter of thanks to AST.
The opening match between Germany and the USA ended with a victory (2:1) for the German host team. 77,803 spectators attended the game, which is a World Record and an official entry into the Guinness Book of World Records. Disassembly of the entire ice rink took only 2 days!

Video | Reference Letter IIHF (PDF)