After decades as a popular hang-out for generations of Oaklyn kids, the aging hockey rink and adjacent basketball court at Oaklyn-Lions Park have both closed because of safety concerns.
Oaklyn Borough officials announced the closures at the Sept. 8 council meeting following an annual safety inspection that recommended the areas be closed because of concerns about the surface, boards, and fencing. The courts closed the following day and it’s unclear how long the repairs could take and how much they’ll cost.
Currently cordoned off by temporary fencing and caution tape, the wooden boards around the rink have come apart in various spots as weeds have sprouted through cracks on the surface.
Right behind one of the hockey nets, two holes in the boards and gaps in the upper protective fencing — all large enough for street hockey balls and pucks to soar through — directly face a neighboring playground.
On the basketball court, only one backboard remains standing — albeit crookedly.
But in spite of the current state of things, the area was still being used up until the sudden closure last week, said lifelong Oaklyn resident Alex Lewis, 36.
Like many other Oaklyn kids, Lewis grew up playing soccer at the hockey rink that for years was informally used for both sports.
“We had this really vibrant soccer-loving community,” Lewis said.
“It was so much the thing to do for our group that if we had a three-day weekend for school, we’d be down there all three nights playing soccer until we basically couldn’t walk anymore,” he said. “It was incredible.”
Eventually, the long-standing shared use of the space was paused in 2006 when an ordinance was passed banning all non-hockey equipment within the rink, Lewis said.
The ordinance has remained in place since then and precipitated a noticeable drop in the rink’s usage, Lewis said.
“There was still a vibrant hockey-playing community, as there should be, which is awesome,” Lewis said. “But the overall use of the court declined and the quality of the court and the upkeep of the court itself declined over that same amount of time.”
That steady decline has been clear to Lewis and others who spent years playing at the park.
Another lifelong Oaklyn resident Billy Gamba, 29, was one of the many hockey players who spent countless hours at the rink learning the fundamentals of the sport.
Almost every night growing up, Gamba and his friends would descend on the rink, he said, honing their skills and eventually passing them on to the players coming up behind them through impromptu clinics.
“We would just meet down there and we pick teams and just play for all hours of the day and throughout the night,” Gamba said.
The rink wasn’t only a draw for Oaklyners either, he said, attracting players from other communities, including Audubon, Collingswood, and Haddon Township.
In spite of its heavy use over the years, Gamba said he doesn’t remember any major repairs taking place at the rink in his lifetime, save for a quick patch-job when he was about 10 years old.
“I used to play down there like four or five nights a week and it just got worse and worse over time,” he said.
“Over the years I stopped playing because I don’t want to get hurt down here,” Gamba said. “I’ve seen guys get seriously hurt down there, whether their stick gets caught in the boards and they jab themselves in the stomach or their wheels or skates catch that deep crack and they fall.”
Just like Lewis, Gamba, and countless other residents, Oaklyn Mayor Greg Brandley has memories as a kid on the courts.
“Growing up in Oaklyn, I played on those courts my whole life as a little kid so it’s very sad to see this happen right now,” Brandley said of the closures.
“It’s something for the kids that we have to get reopened again,” he said.
But repairs won’t be as simple as just pouring a new layer of concrete, Brandley said.
Because the rink has a special surface, he said, the borough will have to consult with engineers on the necessary work and the estimated cost. After that, the discussion will then shift to how to find money for the project in the budget, he said.
As a result, it’s still much too early to put a realistic timeline or price tag on the project, he said.
With that said, Lewis has already gotten a jump on the process.
Last fall, Lewis and the semipro soccer club he founded, Oaklyn United FC, organized a tournament at the courts to help fundraise for the needed repairs.
While the money raised was “just a drop in the bucket” toward the tens of thousands of dollars that will likely be needed for the repairs, Lewis said, it was about trying to give back to “this public resource that in many ways was kind of the birthplace of OUFC.”
And while he’s disappointed that the courts deteriorated to the point of closing, he’s eager to help fix it up and make it even better.
With soccer gaining popularity in the U.S., Lewis noted that it could be the perfect time to formalize the shared-use of the court for both hockey and soccer, which is as simple as painting a few extra lines, he said.
“We’re talking about restoring a public asset that if it doesn’t get restored, it’s just kind of sitting there in this blighted state in what is otherwise kind of the center of the universe for our town,” Lewis said.
