20 years ago, the building nestled behind Tim Moellering, the Berkeley High School baseball diamond, once rang of laughter and the clatter of skates on ice, serving as a sanctuary of joy and camaraderie for Berkeley families. Today, this building is home to the retail store and Berkeley’s provider of athletic gear: Sports Basement.
Open from 1940-2007, the former Berkeley ice rink Iceland served as a beloved community hangout spot, famous for hosting the U.S. Figure Skating Nationals and housed multiple world-renowned Olympic skaters. However, due to financial and refrigeration issues, in 2007, the rink was forced to close. In 2014, after several years of un-occupancy, Sports Basement acquired the building and began renovation, with the hopes of restoring the importance the space used to bring.
Throughout construction, Sports Basement worked hard to preserve much of the building’s history and capture the nostalgia of Iceland, “There’s a lot of cool memorabilia. We kept some of what we could,” Tom Purcell, Sports Basement General Manager of thirteen years, said, “You’ll see we’ve put up some information boards around and I personally rebuilt the scoreboard. We also pulled the old sign off the roof and put it up behind the front counter.”
For Irisa Charney-Sirott, Berkeley High School 1991-95 alumna and mother of two BHS students, every time she steps into the store, she is hit with a remembrance of what used to be. “The whole shape of the place is the same and those bathrooms were pretty much the exact same. Where you walk in there was a whole arcade area and space where you would rent the skates and the floor now for the store is where the rink used to be,” said Charney-Sirott.
Much of Iceland’s significance rested in its impact on the community of Berkeley. For the families and teenagers of the town, the rink provided a sanctuary of activity and resembled a gathering place. For Charney-Sirott and other past locals, Iceland was a meaningful place that provided the city’s teenagers with a weekly hang out spot. “Everyone loved Iceland. On Friday nights, you got dropped off and you rented skates and skated and we hung out, played pinball and drank hot chocolate,” Charney-Sirott said. She also spoke about how Iceland’s conversion into a store is reminiscent of how other local buildings have evolved over the years. “When we were growing up, Berkeley Bowl was a bowling alley that was turned into a into a grocery store,” Charney-Sirott explained. There are currently two Berkeley Bowl locations, having kept the original name despite changing owners and purposes.
Purcell reiterated how many remnants of the ice skating rink remain in the building, while also explaining the massive endeavour of renovating the location to become a functional store. “I think we did more to that building than people realize,” he explained, having been present for the whole redevelopement process. “We put a new roof on it, we poured a new slab, we put in over 2000 new windows. We put in all new lighting, an elevator and mezzanine level. It was a huge job. I mean, we really gutted it and rebuilt it, and there was a lot of cool history that was were, old Iceland remnants still kind of strewn around,” Purcell said.
With winter and holiday season finally arriving, the cold crisp air and playful buzz of Iceland’s skating rink is replaced by the bustling and bright atmosphere of Sports Basement as Berkeley shoppers gear up for their winter sports. For the Sports Basement staff, this time means putting up merchandise and launching their winter rental department, “We just had snow fest, which is where we get in all of the new snow clothes for the season,” Elena Samuels, Berkeley Sports Basement employee and BHS senior, said. “There’s lots of people that do work to make room for everything new. It’s constantly changing, so a lot of people are involved in putting up new shelves and figuring out how to rearrange everything,” Samuels explained.
Samuels also believes that the current store setup echoes its past as Iceland. “(It has) a very unique ... style and structure that actually lends itself really well to a store. But you can definitely tell that it was initially an ice rink. You kind of tell temperature wise that it’s a very insulated building,” she expressed.
Today, Sports Basement works to continue Iceland’s legacy and support the Berkeley community members through their Basementeer Program. This program allows Basementeer Customers to cho¬ose a beneficiary to which Sports Basement will donate 10 percent of their Basementeer profits to the highest demanded nonprofit by the customers. For many seasons at the Sports Basement Berkeley location, several shoppers have signed up on behalf of BHS, allotting Sports Basement to donate more than ten thousand dollars annually to the school in previous years.
Beyond the donations, Sports Basement also provides a free recreational space in their building for anyone to reserve. Frequently, this space has been home to BHS athletic team meetings or end of season gatherings like team banquets. “We love (BHS) and we love to support BHS in any way we can,” Purcell said.
While the classic skates and smooth ice rink floor may be a thing of the past, the building’s legacy as a fun-filled winter wonderland continues on today. Coming far from its ice rink beginnings to a chain retail store, Sports Basement provides the people of Berkeley a space to purchase and rent gear for their winter sports dreams and pursue any aspiring physical adventures.