Here in Massachusetts, youth hockey is clearly going strong.  My son's "town"
team, however, is undergoing some ice time problems because they are almost
exclusively dependant on one state-owned rink that has developed some freon
problems.  The state put the repair effort out to bid and took the low bidder.
(All fine so far.)  However, the low bidder was the only bidder who said that
he could not begin the several month job on June 1st as was stipulated, and
that he could only do it starting September 1st.
 
Did the state go to the next lowest bidder?  NOOOOOOO!  So the rink will not
be available until about Thanksgiving, the state loses all the revenue they'd
have gotten for those three months, and teams like ours have to scramble for
ice time and wind up with 5AM practices.  :-(  (The others were 6AM, 7AM, 8AM
on Saturdays so it's only incrementally less sleep.)
 
My son's Metro team should have plenty of ice time and may pick up more at
the new *four-rink* complex that's gone up in Marlboro.
 
DaveH