A long-promised Avalanche practice facility has lingered since 2017, turning “very close” into a familiar refrain and an increasingly uncomfortable waiting game.
A decade in the making and still not finished, the Avalanche’s long-promised practice facility has become less a project and more a running joke with a blueprint.
I wasn’t living in Colorado when the earliest versions of this idea surfaced, but reporting from The Denver Post’s Sean Keeler traced discussions back to 2017, when Josh Kroenke first began exploring the possibility of a dedicated practice home for the Colorado Avalanche.
Fast forward to 2026, and the message from Kroenke remains the same—progress, but not completion.
“There’s one final hurdle that we’re in and we hope to have some information relatively soon. But again, we’re dealing with the city, and we’re working on pedestrian access over Speer, in and around that. I don’t have an exact time frame, but we’re very close.”
On paper, “very close” sounds encouraging. In practice, it still leaves a lot unresolved.
Because getting a project like this approved is only part of the battle. The real work begins once the final signatures are in place. Construction timelines hinge on design complexity, permitting, and—perhaps most importantly—who is actually tasked with building it.
If the Kroenkes are looking for a reference point, they don’t have to look far. In Utah, the NHL’s newest practice facility for the Utah Mammoth was delivered in roughly 13 months, built by Layton Construction from the ground up.
It’s not a perfect comparison. Utah had open land, fewer structural constraints, and a development environment that allowed the project to move quickly from concept to completion. Denver is a different reality entirely—dense infrastructure, stricter regulations, competing development interests, and significantly higher costs all slow the process down.
Still, the contrast is difficult to ignore. A brand-new NHL market was able to move from groundbreaking to opening in just over a year, while the Avalanche have been talking about a permanent practice facility for nearly a decade.
This isn't about intent. The Kroenkes are one of the most influential ownership groups in professional sports, overseeing the Avalanche, Nuggets, Arsenal, Rapids, and Mammoth. Josh Kroenke’s presence at the end-of-season media availability was, at the very least, a signal that he remains engaged with the direction of the franchise.
But engagement isn’t the same as urgency.
The question now is simple: where does an Avalanche-specific practice facility sit on the priority list? It clearly isn't very high and the Avs have been treated more or less like a stepchild who has no access to the family trust.
For now, the team continues to operate out of South Suburban Family Sports Center, a relationship that dates back to 1998. It’s functional, familiar, and deeply ingrained in the organization’s daily rhythm—but it’s also increasingly outdated for a franchise that has lifted a Stanley Cup and continues to position itself as a perennial contender.
And without overstating it, the reality is straightforward: modern NHL standards have changed. Player development, recovery, and performance infrastructure have evolved, and many of the league’s top organizations now reflect that with dedicated, purpose-built facilities.
The Avalanche haven’t made that leap yet and it's unacceptable.
A long-promised practice facility no longer feels like a luxury project—it feels like something that should already be done and over with.
