When most people think of the Adirondack Bank Center, they think of the Utica Comets.

While the American Hockey League team is the headlining act, the arena is anything but empty when theyre not in town. Most days, the first skaters hit the ice at 6:30 a.m. and a steady stream of teams use the facility until it closes at 11 p.m., said Ray Meyers, Adirondack Bank Center assistant general manager.

The arena is shared by the Comets, two Utica College ice hockey teams, a National Collegiate Development Conference team and 13 youth hockey teams, as well as the Utica City FC soccer team. Its a lot of activity to be contained within a single facility and Meyers said scheduling is a big challenge.

The Adirondack Bank Center has about 470 total employees, counting part-time and restaurant staff. There are only 15 maintenance staff employees, however, and ensuring proper staffing and time off between shifts can be tough, Meyers said.

A lot of what we do is a team effort; theres not one particular individual job, Meyers said. Its a collaborative effort to get it done.

The responsibilities for maintenance staff are varied and around the clock. Any given day, theyre responsible for 11 ice cuts during hours of operation.

Donald Bienkowski, the maintenance manager and an employee at the center for 19 years, watches the Comets practice while alongside the ice cutting machine he drives. He said he measures the thickness of the ice every Monday and weighs factors that can affect ice quality, including outside air temperature.

While he hasnt cut ice during a Comets game this season, Bienkowski said he works during the day shift, when theres a team on the ice almost all the time.

You see a lot of hockey, thats for sure, Bienkowski said.

Despite the demands of the job, Bienkowski said there are good workers at the Adirondack Bank Center and the work is fun.

Its exciting to work here, he said. The people are great.

The entire maintenance staff faces their biggest challenge when changing the arena surface from ice to something else, such as the turf field for Utica City FC. Its an all-night process, Bienkowski said.

For soccer games, the ice needs to be covered by the turf and a lower tier of seating is pushed back to make a field-level beer garden. All of the glass is removed and some of the boards, to allow for recessed goals and team-specific advertising sponsors.

Meyers said the changeover occurs at night, with maintenance employees working until 7 a.m., then returning by 4 p.m. the next day to do it again.

The addition of the Adirondack Bank Centers new neighbor, the Nexus Center, wont alleviate the late-night changeovers between soccer and hockey, Meyers said. The 170,000-square-foot proposed facility will change some of the dynamics of use at the Aud, though.

The Nexus Center, which may receive up to $22 million in state funds, is expected to have three sheets of ice. Meyers said the centers location along the Thruway will help draw tournaments.

Facilities like this exist in Marlborough, Massachusetts, Lake Placid, Buffalo, Philadelphia, said Lindsay Mogle, vice president of communications for the Utica Comets. So if you look at those on a map, were the central hub to all of that.

With more ice availability once the Nexus Center is built, youth hockey is likely to grow, Meyers said. There currently are youth locker rooms and other amenities in the Adirondack Bank Center, but only one place to play.

Youth hockey wont be the only beneficiary of the Nexus Center, however. If the Comets are displaced due to a concert or other event, as happened once with a police funeral, they have to find another place to practice, Meyers said.

Now theyll be able to practice on a different sheet of ice right here and wont have to travel to New Hartford or Whitesboro to get ice, he said.

One current tenant of the Adirondack Bank Center, the Utica College womens ice hockey team, is still waiting to see the full impact of the Nexus Center. Coach Dave Clausen said its unknown how scheduling will unfold with the new center, but everyone will benefit from the additional ice slots.

An expansion of facilities is going to be exciting, Clausen said.

The additional ice will benefit those using the facility, but it will also impact existing maintenance employees.

It is going to be a lot more demand on our staff, having to maintain three more sheets of ice on top of the one were doing now, Meyers said. So our drivers will basically be going from one rink to another rink to the next rink all day long.

The proposed Nexus Center follows the revitalization of the Adirondack Bank Center, which was expanded, renovated and rebranded in 2017. The facility received a 26,000-square-foot expansion, including a new entrance, executive suites and a new womens bathroom as part of a state-funded $10.55 million project.

The Utica Memorial Auditorium was built by the City of Utica in 1959 on land donated by the state. The cable-supported roof structure was the first of its kind and the building provided inspiration for Madison Square Garden, the home of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers.

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More than Comets: Inside the Adirondack Bank Center - Utica Observer Dispatch