Outdoor ice rink planned for Nashville's NHL All-Star Weekend

Tired of these hot, humid August days?

The local organizing committee for the upcoming NHL All-Star Weekend wants you to start thinking about chilly winter days and an outdoor ice rink.

"We plan to turn Walk of Fame Park into a Winter Wonderland," Predators' CEO Jeff Cogen said.

An ice rink, scheduled to open Dec. 12, will be the focal point of the park's transformation leading up to the Jan. 29-31 NHL All-Star Weekend in Nashville. The rink will have open skating hours, as well as planned ice skating performances and ice hockey exhibitions.

"It would be Rockefeller Center for 50-some days," Cogen said, referring to the famed temporary ice skating rink that is set up in the heart of New York City each winter.

Finding tickets to the NHL Skills Competition on Jan. 29 and the NHL All-Star Game will be tough, unless you are a Predators season ticket holder. Thus, the NHL All-Star Nashville Local Organizing Committee is planning many public events around Bridgestone Arena.

The opening of the ice rink will be the first of many events that are being planned by the committee, chaired by Christine Karbowiak, executive vice president of Bridgestone Americas, Inc. The committee includes many of the city's leading business people, and music and entertainment leaders as well as members of the Nashville Sports Council.

"This is not the Predators' all-star game," said Sean Henry, the team's President and COO. "It's Nashville's."

The NHL Fan Fair, an interactive hockey playland, will be held at Music City Center, Jan. 28-31. There will be music concerts inside Music City Center and also on an outdoor stage to be built on Demonbreun Street.

Getting some of Nashville's music artists to perform on the stages is one of the perks of having Sarah Trahern, CEO of the Country Music Association on the local organizing committee.

"It's important to us to make this more than just hockey," Cogen said. "We want to take the best of Nashville and to offer it and to celebrate it."

And what if the weather doesn't cooperate the final weekend of January? Henry asked, then answered his own question: "What about weather on New Year's Eve, what about the weather at the (Music City) bowl game? Those events are setting (attendance) records."

Reach Dave Ammenheuser at 615-259-8352 and on Twitter @NashSportsEd.