Memorial City's Ice Rink Closes December 14 to Make Room for a New Mall Entrance
Ice Skate Memorial City now has under four weeks of operation left. Its final day is Monday, December 14, 2026. The Hockey Program, Open Skate, Freestyle Skate and Learn to Skate all run until that date. MetroNational's own FAQ says it would only consider running past that date if the redevelopment ran into material delays.
The timing makes the loss easy to miss. The closure comes in the busiest stretch of the Houston skating year. Seasonal rinks are opening downtown, in The Woodlands and in Galveston, and Santa is already set up inside Memorial City Mall. But those rinks are seasonal, and the closest year-round sheet is smaller than regulation. That means the program the Memorial rink carried for hockey players and figure skaters won't move to any one nearby rink. That gap is why a new nonprofit has formed to try to build one.
The December date is the second closing date this rink has been given. Here is how it got from the first to the second:
The rink got its current name in 2018. That May, the Memorial Management District announced a grand-opening celebration for the rebrand from "Ice Skate USA" to "Ice Skate Memorial City," with an appearance by Olympic medalist Kitty Carruthers.
The reason is construction, and the problem is technical. MetroNational told KPRC 2 that its mall enhancement plans, filed in November 2025, include moving and building a new main entrance. The company said that work would leave the rink unable to keep up its ice conditions. The Chronicle's April report described what was at stake as a place for youth hockey games, skating practice and birthday parties. According to the customer email quoted there, the operator plans to donate usable equipment to other rinks and community groups.
So the rink is closing because of where it sits inside the mall. That location is also why its programs can't just move to the holiday rinks opening this month.
This winter, Houston has more places to skate than at almost any other time of year. Most of those places will be gone by mid-January.
| Rink | Season | What it costs | How it compares to Memorial City |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ice at the Galleria | Year-round, indoors | See the public session schedule | KPRC 2 reported its ice is smaller than regulation, which limits hockey and high-level figure skating |
| Aerodrome Ice Skating Complex, 8220 Willow Place North | Public skating plus programs | $13 public skate, plus $7 skate rental | Runs public skating, figure skating and hockey programs |
| Green Mountain Energy Ice at Discovery Green | November 13 to January 18 | $18 plus tax, skates included | Outdoor and seasonal |
| The Woodlands Ice Rink, 2005 Lake Robbins Drive | November 20, 2026 to January 18, 2027 | $16 ages 6 and up; $8 ages 5 and under, for two hours | Outdoor and seasonal |
| Moody Gardens, Galveston | November 21, 2026 to January 2, 2027 | Included with Holiday Lights tickets; skate rental extra | Part of Holiday in the Gardens |
For a casual skater, the table covers the winter. Discovery Green opened November 13. It stays open until 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until 11 p.m. Friday, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturdays and school holidays, and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays. The Woodlands rink kicks off its season on Friday, November 20, from 6 to 9 p.m., with Santa, ice dancing and family entertainment. Ice at the Galleria offers Learn to Skate classes on an eight-week fall semester.
The skaters who lose the most are the ones who trained at Memorial City every week. By late January the three seasonal rinks are closed. The Galleria sheet is undersized for hockey. That leaves the dedicated rink complexes. HISC lists Bellerive Ice Center, Aerodrome Ice Skating Complex, Sugar Land Ice & Sports Center and Deep South Sports as existing rink partners.
The Houston Ice Sports Coalition is a Texas nonprofit led by people from Houston's hockey and figure skating communities. On its website, the group describes a proposed two-sheet facility in Central or West Houston for figure skating, hockey, recreational skating and competitions. At savememorialrink.org, it still points to December 14 as the closing date and asks MetroNational to consider including a revitalized ice rink in its new development plans.
The plan is still at an early stage. HISC's first fundraising campaign lists $5,351 raised from 16 supporters, about 10% of a $50,000 preliminary goal. That first goal pays for organizational, legal, accounting and planning work. Once that groundwork is in place, the coalition plans to seek larger anchor gifts for professional fundraising, design concepts, engineering and site evaluation. A two-sheet rink is a large capital project, and this first $50,000 pays only for the setup work that comes before it.
If you have skated at Memorial City, or your kids have, this is how the time before the closing date breaks down:
December 14 is a Monday, so the weekend of December 12 and 13 is the last weekend with ice at Memorial City.
Changes like a new mall entrance affect how a neighborhood works day to day as much as how it prices. At Uptown Real Estate Group, we follow projects like the Memorial City redevelopment because buyers and sellers in the Memorial area ask what is changing near their homes. If you want to talk about what changes along the I-10 corridor mean for your plans, book a private real estate consultation.
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