The announcement by Klyde Warren Park officials back in February was unequivocal. Come November, Dallas' premiere urban green space would be home to an outdoor ice-skating rink.
They used the term "ice" loosely. Visitors would actually skate on a synthetic substance called Super-Glide. But then-Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation chairman Jody Grant was pretty solid on the November opening. Otherwise, they wouldn't have called every media outlet in town to a press conference, right?
Yet November fast approaches, and there is still no sign of an ice rink. Turns out, there may never be.
See also: Yes, Klyde Warren Park May Get an Ice Rink
On Friday, WFAA's David Schecter had a sit-down with park president Tara Green, who told him officials are still doing their due diligence.
"The thought was, 'Let's do a rink,'" Green says. "Well, that sounds so simple, that sounds so easy, but when you really dig into it, there's a lot more moving parts in it than you might imagine."
See also: Suggested Headlines for Stories About Klyde Warren Park Getting an Ice Rink
To be fair to the people of Dallas, it's not clear that anyone thought that building a 5,000-square-foot outdoor ice rink on top of a freeway in not-typically frozen North Texas was a simple proposition, but Green needed some sort of excuse for so thoroughly walking back the ice-rink plans. It wouldn't do to say that she had killed the idea as untenable after being hired in June, which is the narrative that emerges when you read between the lines.
(Update at 10:02 a.m.: Park spokeswoman Joanna Singleton says the ice rink is "very much still in the works." Green's refused to specify when or in what form the ice rink might open simply because there are so many variables, not because the ice rink's not happening.)
Green insists that the park still might install an ice rink, but only after officials "make sure it's the right fit for us." It's hard to imagine a scenario in which an ice rink would fit that criterion.
Here's Schecter's report: