THE first pieces of steelwork on the new ice rink in Altrincham have been bolted into place and the building should be fully operational by early December.

After months of setbacks the new home of ice hockey club Manchester Phoenix, and of all ice sports in the region, is now ahead of schedule.

Neil Morris, joint owner of the rink and full owner of the Phoenix, is still not prepared to name an opening date but MEN Sport predicts it could be Saturday, December 9.

The foundation work, which was plagued by a series of problems from vibrations from the nearby railway line to the discovery of arsenic in the subsoil, is now complete.

"We are out of the ground, as they say in the construction industry, and on our way," said Morris. "We were due to start putting the steel up today but we started a couple of days early.

"We completed the foundations ahead of our revised schedule so at the moment it is all good news but I'm still being careful before naming an opening date."

When the new building is unveiled it will be available for public skating as well for ice hockey games.

It has been a long haul for Morris who has invested heavily in the project but he is at pains to point out that he could not have come this far without the support of the fans.

Fantastic

Phoenix have been forced to play their home games at Deeside and Ice Sheffield while waiting for the new rink to be completed.

"It is the fans who have kept this team going and they are a fantastic group of people," Morris added.

"The way they have travelled to Deeside on a wet Sunday night to support us has been amazing.

"There is no doubt the people of Greater Manchester want ice sports in the region."

After a series of opening games when results did not go their way Phoenix have strung together three wins to lift them up the table, the latest a penalty shoot-out thriller in which they beat Basingstoke 2-1.

"It was a very entertaining game of hockey," enthused Morris. "It was very quick and both teams moved the puck around extremely well. I'm just glad we won it.

"I'm very pleased with the team our coach Tony Hand has put together.

"I'm not one for stats but we have about 10 different players who have scored goals and that's a good sign."

Phoenix's next `home' game is against Nottingham Panthers at Ice Sheffield on Sunday (8.15pm). Tweet