WE'VE BEEN BUSY THIS YEAR!
Greetings everyone! As this is the very first update I'm publicly providing on the current status of our Dedicated Ice Project, I want to let you know that we have been working on this for quite some time behind the scenes! There have been a lot of truly hard working participants going through a lot of work, research, and outreach, and up until recently I didnt want to get ahead of myself and start enthusiastically declaring our plans without having one fully in place.
But given that we have been working on this for a while, where do I even start? If you want information about what we intend to do, I encourage you to read the main post to get a better idea of what we have in store. There have been months of work, and I know I will forget so many things. Let me give a brief overview of what we have done, and then a general timeline as to when things were completed.
Over the last 8 months, the Curl Troy board, along with many other members and volunteers have set out to organize and position ourselves to best transition from an arena curling club into a club curling on dedicated ice. We finalized our business plan, worked daily on financial projections, thought through fundraising ideas, planned events, worked on pitch presentations, talked with architects, hired a wonderful realtor to help our search and we even toured a number of buildings. In fact, we were so close to an agreement with a location in Huber Heights, that we thought we might have to scramble to release all of this information and be ready to curl by January 2027. In hindsight, that is very pie in the sky, but given the pace we were moving at, I felt confident we could organize enough resources to make that happen. As it turns out, it did not happen, but that's ok. Trials and tribulations will occur, but we will keep moving forward, because we have all of the pieces in place to execute when we find the space that works for us.
Since then, we have toured two additional spaces, and continue to be on the lookout for others, and while that perfect spot may not yet have presented itself, new opportunities seem to come up weekly. It is really only a matter of time before it's found. So what have we done since the beginning of the year? Well the scope is large, and I am sure I will not remember it all, but so you understand the dedication we have committed to making dedicated curling happen in Dayton, let me run through things for you as brief as I can.
January 2026
- Finalized Business Plan
February 2026
- Developed multiple Pro Forma, Costs Analysis, and Funding Needs Analysis as well as initial fundraising strategies.
- Toured building at 1333 E 2nd St
March 2026
- Hired realtor
- Toured building at 8320 Expansion Way
- Interest to pursue bulding by both parties. Numerous discussions were had over the course of 3 months, but in the end, an agreement couldn't be reached
March - June 2026
- Obtained bids from multiple architects
- Obtained several cost estimates for ice equipment from various suppliers and for a variety of equipment
- Finalized fundraising and donor strategy
- Discussed zoning and permitting requirements for building site
- Began developing volunteer organization
- Developed and refined intial pitch for possible donors
July 2026
- Developed additional cost estimates for ice equipment based on a more "grass roots effort" approach
- Toured building at 6020 Chambersburg Road - Ultimately owner not interested
- Had first member specific event to discuss all above infromation and get feedback on financial and volunteer commitments
August - September 2026
- Attended the Germanfest Picnic and Beavercreek Popcorn festival with the intention of raising awareness about our current project.
- Additional events being planned
- Toured building at 427 Washington St. Currently discussing potential
- Established information on website, and begin diseminating plans to our wonderful curling community
- Continuing to search for other potential properties that match our necessary requirements
Moving Forward
We are still planning to have a full season of curling this year! You can look at our current schedule here and find something that fits you well. I know many of us were hoping last season would be our last on arena ice, but we have made such fantastic progress this year, and I have full faith that we are closer than ever to making this dream a reality. I will do my absolute best to keep this page updated with all of our progress moving forward, and if you have any thoughts, comments, concerns, or well wishes, don't hestiate to reach out and let me know! Until next time!
Brian Ressler - Curl Troy
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