From a conversation in Greystones to a proposed €250 million sports and entertainment arena in Cherrywood — here's how the ambitious project has evolved, what we know about the planned Dublin hockey team, and what still needs to happen before the first puck can drop.
Dublin's proposed home of ice hockey
A major new sports and entertainment project is taking shape in Cherrywood, south Dublin, with ambitions to give Ireland something it has never had before: a permanent, Olympic-sized ice sports facility and a professional ice hockey team based in the Republic of Ireland.
The project is being developed by Prime Arena Holdings, a private consortium led by entrepreneur and sports executive Dermot Rigley. What began with a conversation about whether professional ice hockey could work in Dublin has evolved into plans for a roughly €250 million multi-purpose arena, backed by Irish business figures as well as current and former NHL players.
It is important to stress that this is still a proposed development. Planning permission has not yet been secured, and the arena and team remain subject to the necessary planning, funding and league processes.
Here is how the story has developed so far.
It started with a simple question
According to Rigley, the idea dates back to 2021, when he was in Greystones and a friend returned from watching an ice hockey game. The question was simple: could professional ice hockey work in Dublin?
Rigley had not come from an ice hockey background, but he had spent much of his career in the commercial side of sport and broadcasting. He had worked with RTÉ Sport, BSkyB and the commercial side of the United Rugby Championship/PRO14, giving him an understanding of sports rights, live events and the business required to make professional sport sustainable.
He immediately began researching the idea.
One of the first people he approached was Mickey O'Rourke, founder of Setanta Sports and Premier Sports and an owner of the Glasgow Clan ice hockey team playing in the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL). O'Rourke had previously looked at the possibility of professional ice hockey in Ireland and became an important early supporter of the concept.
The idea soon grew beyond simply building an ice rink.
Rigley discovered that a serious professional team would need more than one ice sheet. The main arena would be needed for games and major events, while a second rink could provide training and development space. Discussions subsequently took place with the Olympic Federation of Ireland and the Irish Ice Hockey Association.
That was the point at which the idea began turning into something much bigger: a national winter-sports centre combined with a major entertainment arena.
April 2025: Prime Arena is announced
The project first became public in April 2025.
At that stage, Prime Arena Holdings announced an agreement to acquire an approximately eight-acre site at Cherrywood, close to the M50 and Luas. The site was being acquired from US property company Hines, which is developing the wider Cherrywood area.
The original proposal was valued at approximately €190 million.
The plans called for:
- Two full-size Olympic ice rinks
- A main indoor arena initially envisaged at around 5,000–6,000 seats
- A high-performance training facility
- A conference and events space
- A permanent home for Dublin's proposed professional ice hockey team
- Space for concerts, exhibitions and corporate events
The ambition was for the venue to become a national hub for winter sport rather than simply an ice hockey stadium.
The proposed hockey team was intended to compete in the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL), the professional league that includes the Belfast Giants.
That would make the Dublin side the first professional ice hockey franchise in the Republic of Ireland. It would not, of course, be the first professional Irish team on the island: the Belfast Giants have been established in Northern Ireland for decades having been formed in 2000.
2025 and 2026: The project gets bigger
During the following 12–18 months, the plans developed considerably.
The proposed investment figure has grown from the original €190 million estimate to approximately €250 million, while the arena itself has also become more ambitious. The increase reflects the evolution of the project from the original concept into a larger, more flexible arena and entertainment venue.
Current plans envisage:
Two Olympic-sized ice rinks — one would be the principal event rink, while the second would provide training, development and community access.
A flexible main arena — the latest plans describe an 8,000-seat arena, expandable to more than 10,500 for major concerts and events.
A conference and business-events facility — the venue is intended to operate as much more than a hockey building, with conferences, exhibitions and corporate events forming an important part of its business model.
Concerts and major sporting events — the arena could potentially host major international sporting fixtures, touring concerts and other large-scale entertainment.
The concept has increasingly been described as a scaled-down version of the North American arena model, with Prime Arena itself comparing its ambition to venues such as Madison Square Garden.
The thinking is straightforward: an ice hockey team alone would not keep a major arena busy enough to make the economics work. The building therefore needs to operate throughout the year, switching between sport, entertainment, conferences and community use.
The design team
Prime Arena Holdings have brought in major international expertise for the project.
Global sports and entertainment architecture firm Populous has been appointed to the project, working alongside Irish firm DMOD.
Populous has been involved in major venues around the world, including Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Yankee Stadium, Climate Pledge Arena and the Sphere in Las Vegas.
The intention is for Prime Arena to feel less like a traditional ice rink and more like a modern international sports and entertainment venue.
The hockey team: what do we actually know?
The proposed team is arguably the most exciting part of the project for Irish hockey supporters, but there are still details to be finalised.
Prime Arena says it has secured an exclusive franchise opportunity, although the team still has to progress through the relevant league approval and operational processes, and the target is for the Dublin team to play at the highest professional level available in the UK and Europe.
The EIHL has been identified as the natural destination.
That would put a Dublin team in the same league as clubs including the Belfast Giants, creating the potential for a particularly intriguing all-island rivalry.
The Belfast example is central to Prime Arena's thinking. The Giants have demonstrated that professional ice hockey can attract substantial and consistent crowds and commercial interest in Ireland. Prime Arena believes Dublin could replicate and potentially expand upon that model.
Rigley has said discussions with the EIHL have been positive and that the league is interested in expanding into new markets.
The team does not yet have a confirmed name, colours, logo or playing roster.
Those decisions will presumably come closer to the point at which construction and league entry are sufficiently certain.
NHL involvement changes the picture
One of the biggest developments came in May 2026, when Prime Arena announced that current and former NHL figures had invested in the project.
The group includes names such as:
- Rob Blake, Stanley Cup winner and former Los Angeles Kings general manager
- Pat Flatley, former New York Islanders captain
- Cory Cross, former NHL defenceman and two-time IIHF World Championship gold medallist with Canada
- Glenn Murray, former Boston Bruins forward
- Alex Newhook, Stanley Cup champion and current Montreal Canadiens player
- Jake Evans, current NHL player with the Montreal Canadiens
The involvement of North American hockey figures gives Prime Arena a significant connection to the NHL and the wider hockey industry, and adds considerable credibility to its hockey ambitions.
It also fits with the project's stated ambition to create a transatlantic sports and entertainment platform, rather than simply a local ice rink.
Support from Irish sport and business
Prime Arena has also accumulated considerable institutional support.
Prime Arena has received support from a range of sporting, business and tourism organisations, including the Olympic Federation of Ireland, Ibec, the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, the Belfast Giants and the Elite Ice Hockey League.
In July 2026, Prime Arena announced formal endorsements from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council's Economic Development unit, Dublin Chamber and Tourism Ireland.
The project is also being positioned as an economic and tourism development rather than simply a sports project.
Prime Arena Holdings have cited an independent estimate from DCU Business School suggesting the completed venue could contribute approximately €298 million annually to the Irish economy and attract around 1.3 million visitors per year. Those are projections rather than guaranteed outcomes, but they illustrate the scale of the economic case being put forward.
Where does the project stand now?
This is probably the most important question.
Prime Arena has agreed to acquire the Cherrywood site, assembled its investment group, developed the arena concept, appointed its design and project teams, and completed the pre-planning stage.
A pre-planning application has been submitted, and the company had been targeting a full planning application for summer 2026.
As of the latest information available in August 2026, Prime Arena was still publicly describing itself as preparing to submit the full application "later this summer." We have not found reliable confirmation that a full planning application has actually been lodged yet, so it would be premature to say that planning permission is imminent.
The project is also continuing discussions with Government regarding potential grant funding. Rigley has acknowledged that some public funding will be required alongside the private investment being assembled.
The company's broad target is:
2026: Complete planning process and submit the full application
2027: Target planning approval and commencement of construction
2029/30: Potential opening of the arena
Those dates are targets rather than commitments and depend heavily on planning, funding and construction.
So who are Prime Arena Holdings?
One of the more interesting aspects of the project is the group assembled behind it.
Rather than being the project of a conventional property developer, Prime Arena is essentially a consortium of people from sport, broadcasting, entertainment, technology, communications and finance.
Dermot Rigley — Founder and CEO. Rigley is the driving force behind the project. He has a background in sports business and broadcasting, including senior commercial roles with RTÉ Sport, BSkyB and the PRO14/United Rugby Championship. His role is particularly important because the project originated with his investigation into whether professional ice hockey could work in Dublin. He has subsequently become the public face of Prime Arena and is responsible for leading the project through its development and planning stages.
Tom Kennedy — Founder and Chairman. Kennedy is one of Ireland's better-known technology entrepreneurs. He co-founded Hostelworld, helping turn it into a major international online travel business before its sale to private equity. He subsequently became involved in a variety of technology, investment and property ventures. His contribution to Prime Arena is primarily on the entrepreneurial, investment and commercial side.
Denis Desmond — Entertainment. Desmond brings decades of experience in live entertainment. He is the founder of MCD, one of Ireland's largest concert promoters, and has been involved in staging some of the country's biggest music events. That experience is particularly relevant to Prime Arena's ambition to operate as a concert and entertainment venue as well as a sports arena.
Michael "Mickey" O'Rourke — Sports broadcasting and ice hockey. O'Rourke is perhaps the most strategically important person in the group when it comes to the hockey side. He was a founder of Setanta Sports and Premier Sports and has experience as an owner of professional ice hockey, through the Glasgow Clan. That means Prime Arena has someone within its ownership group who understands both sports broadcasting and the practical business of running a professional hockey club.
John Hume and Eoin Brophy — Communications and business. Hume and Brophy founded Hume Brophy, the European communications and public affairs firm. They subsequently sold the business to international communications group Penta. Their experience is useful to a project that requires extensive engagement with Government, local authorities, sporting organisations, investors, businesses and the wider public.
Helen Work — Finance and investment. Work brings an international financial and investment background. She spent many years working in Asian financial markets, including becoming the first Western woman to serve as a director of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. She later established an investment company with her husband and became involved in backing and advising start-up businesses. She is now an investor and director associated with the Prime Arena project.
A new addition: Susan Whelan. The leadership team was strengthened in June 2026 with the appointment of Susan Whelan OBE as Independent Chairperson. Tom Kennedy, who had served as Chair, remains on the board. Whelan spent more than a decade as chief executive of Leicester City Football Club, including during the club's extraordinary 2016 Premier League title win and its 2021 FA Cup victory. She also oversaw major infrastructure projects at Leicester, including a new training facility and work connected to the expansion of the club's stadium and surrounding development. Her arrival adds considerable experience in delivering large sporting projects and navigating the complex relationship between sport, property, finance and public authorities.
What Prime Arena is ultimately trying to achieve
It is easy to describe this simply as "Dublin getting an ice hockey arena." That actually undersells the proposal.
The hockey team is the anchor, but Prime Arena's business model is based on creating an entire ecosystem around it.
The vision is for a place where elite athletes can train year-round on Olympic-sized ice, young Irish athletes can develop winter-sports pathways without having to travel abroad simply to access suitable facilities, ice hockey fans can watch a professional Dublin team, schools and universities can potentially develop ice hockey programmes, families and recreational skaters can use the second rink, concert promoters can bring major international tours to Dublin, businesses can host conferences and events, and international sports organisations can bring competitions to Ireland.
And, ultimately, Dublin can become a genuine winter-sports destination.
Prime Arena has also highlighted the potential benefits for women's and girls' participation in sport, noting that skating internationally has a particularly strong youth and female participation base.
The big question: will it actually happen?
The project has moved a long way from the original 2021 conversation.
There is now a site, a sizeable investment consortium, international NHL backing, a major architectural team, institutional support, a proposed professional franchise and a detailed arena concept.
But there are still major hurdles.
Planning permission is the immediate one.
Then comes funding, including the proposed Government contribution.
After that comes the enormous challenge of actually constructing and operating a €250 million arena.
And, on the hockey side, the proposed Dublin franchise still needs to progress through the relevant league and operational processes before fans can finally buy tickets to a competitive professional game.
So the most accurate description at the moment is not that Dublin is getting a professional ice hockey team. It is that Dublin now has a serious, privately backed proposal to build the infrastructure that could make professional ice hockey in the Republic a reality.
If Prime Arena succeeds, the significance would go well beyond hockey. It could give Ireland its first permanent Olympic-sized ice facility, create a new home for professional hockey, open new pathways for winter sports and add a major new concert and events venue to Dublin.
For a project that began with one question over a coffee in Greystones in 2021 — could ice hockey work in Dublin? — it has certainly come a long way.