ArenaWakota

Wakota Arena

In the early 1960's, a group of local business leaders put their heads and their pocket books together and came up with a vision for the future of youth hockey for the southeast metro area. They chose South St. Paul, a hot bed of hockey loyalty, tradition and pride, to be the site of one of the first indoor ice arena’s in Minnesota, with four walls and a roof, that vision became the breeding grounds for some of the state’s best hockey and was called Wakota Arena.

Wakota Arena was originally built as one ice sheet in October 1962 and was privately owned by Wakota Arena Incorporated, which consisted of 650 shareholders and was named The Cow Palace. It was built on ten acres of land for the cost of $550,000.00. A year later, the name was changed to Wakota Arena. In 1977, the city of South St. Paul purchased the arena for $375,000.00, and it is still under the cities ownership. Our regulars also might know that Wakota Arena was the training grounds for the 1964 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team managed by Edina native Walter Bush.

The arena is forty-four years old now and has undergone two substantial renovations. The first in 1989, the large concession stand and lobby was added onto the south end of the building as well as an upstairs viewing room. In 1997, Rink # 2 was built, in addition to the large office space and the Area Learning Center and is what you now see standing today.

Through the years Wakota has been the center of the hockey community as the Suburban Conference home. As the years passed the Cities in the conference grew, and some teams moved on. Wakota was still home through the 1980's and early 90's to St. Thomas, Simley and Henry Sibley in addition to the hometown team South St. Paul. Eventually all the teams in the conference moved on, and now we’re still the proud home to South St. Paul. Wakota Arena is currently the home ice for the South St. Paul Boy’s and Girl’s hockey teams, as well as the Great 8 Festival. The Ted Brill Great 8 Festival is a tournament after the High School season showcasing the best seniors from around the state distributed into 8 section based teams.

Wakota was also a home to the St. Paul Vulcans before they moved on to the West Metro area of the Twin Cities, and eventually to Kearney, Nebraska. They are one of the top teams in the USHL today. After the Vulcans, Wakota became home to the South Suburban Steers in the Minnesota Junior Hockey League. The Steers were sold and the team moved to Bloomington to become the Twin Cities Northern Lights, however we have been the host to some of their games even since the move.

Throughout the years, Wakota has hosted many dry floor events, such as concerts, dances, graduations, circuses, home & garden shows, and festivals. We were proud to host the first ever Minnesota Governor’s Inaugural Hockey Game in 2003.

For 44 years Wakota has been part of the tradition of South St. Paul hockey and the entire state. Making Wakota one of the oldest and most historic arenas in the state many player’s whom have played here, went on to make professional, Olympic and/or National teams. Phil Housley's #20 was retired at SSP High School and his #20 jersey hangs in the arena as a testament of his legendary status at SSP.

Source in part: Southstpaul.org

Wakota Arena Construction 1962**