Officials: It's Been A Challenge To Freeze The Ice At LCA For Wings Games

(WWJ) Is something wrong with the ice at the Red Wings new arena?

The players have been complaining that the ice at Little Caesars Arena is too soft and soupy during games. Even Captain Henrik Zetterberg has complained, saying, "we should be able to get better ice, it's not just this building, but a lot of buildings. Technology that we have nowadays it should be able to be better  ... It's a big difference from the Joe."

Olympia Entertainment president Tom Wilson says it's been a challenge to freeze the ice because it's immediately covered after each game with a basketball court for the Pistons. Wilson says practicing on the ice also in the past has helped to solidify it, but the Wings are now practicing on a different rink.

He says he's confident the situation can be remedied.

"Our goal is over the next few months to talk to everybody else who's in the exact same situation as we are in and figure it out. So it'll be a little trial and error, but eventually we're confident that we'll figure it out. We've got the best technology in the country that's part of the arena," Wilson said.

Zetterberg said it has gotten better than it was at the start, when it was "bad." He added: "Hopefully we can be the first to have great ice in a multi-sport arena."

Little Caesars Arena, the crown jewel in the new eat, live, play area called District Detroit, cost $863 million to build. It's a public, private partnership with taxpayers footing $324 million and Olympia Entertainment picking up the bulk of the cost, according to a Detroit City Council analysis. The arena, which switches from a basketball court for the Pistons to ice for the Red Wings, has about 20,000 seats, an attached parking garage with 1,100 spaces and about 40,000 square feet of retail space. There's also a team store and several restaurants, including Kid Rock's 230-seat Made In Detroit.