The closure of Ryde Arena has brought a lot of sadness to the Isle of Wight and huge amounts of effort have been expended to try and get it open again.
To date, sadly, none of these efforts have borne fruit. (You can read the history of the plight of Ryde Arena / Planet Ice here)
What’s it like inside now?
Given its huge size, it’s pretty hard to miss, so we suspect that a lot of people have been wondering what the inside of the building is like, especially after the current owners authorised the removal of large amounts of equipment from it back in April last year.
Happily, some plucky adventurers got in touch with OnTheWight to let us know that they’d been inside and had shot a video of the current state of the building.
OnTheWight chatted to the people who entered to shoot the video. There’s some worrying news, but also some hope. Details after the video.
The video
The adventurers
OnTheWight wanted to know more beyond the video – How is it inside?
“In my view, it’s obviously being neglected.”
“There’s the sound of water constantly running inside.”
“On the left-hand side, the floor is starting to collapse. It’s really spongy underfoot.”
Q: Could it still be used as an ice rink?
Watching the video, the light grey of the concrete under the area that used to be ice almost looks like it could be the ice rink. OnTheWight asked if they thought it could be brought back into use as an Ice rink, but the news was worrying
“There’s a very evident crack in the concrete across the ice rink.”
Something positive
When we asked about the impact of the video, they told us:
“I’d love for something positive to come out of this.”
There is hope though, if action is taken now.
“Something can be done about it at the moment, but it won’t be long until something can’t be done about it – and it’s beyond saving.”
