NY’s Largest Outdoor Roller Rink Opens-Not Bigger Than Guptill’s
There is something being built in New York state that will instantly take you back to your childhood if you grew up in the seventies and eighties. The largest outdoor roller skating rink is being built in Western New York and opens in August. It will be worth the four-hour drive on the Thruway to enjoy this amazing roller rink.
According to WGRZ.com, the thirty thousand square foot roller skating rink will be built on Canalside in downtown Buffalo and the plan is to have it rolling by the middle of August. Typically these canals at Canalside are filled with water in the summer and ice in the winter. The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation said that they will drain the canals starting around August 9th in preparation. Then crews will come in to put down the roller rink flooring. The project will take a couple of weeks and they plan on opening it on August 20th.
When I was a kid we would go rollerskating every Saturday night. Around here it was either Guptill's or Starburst. Those were the places to be and be seen. Some of my favorite childhood memories were rollerskating with my sister and my friends. I would totally make the drive out to Buffalo to experience the outdoor roller rink.
Guptill's just celebrated their seventieth year in business which is quite the milestone. They hold a Guinness Book of World Record as the largest indoor roller skating rink in the world at fifty thousand square feet. Not to knock this outdoor roller rink, but it's still twenty thousand square feet smaller than our beloved Guptill's Arena.
The Canalside roller skating rink will be open from August 20th through October 31st. Admission will be just six bucks for adults and two dollars for kids under thirteen. You can rent skates too for just four dollars.