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Rink Spotlight: Holiday Park

June 7, 2026 | By SoFlo Hockey

We started this series at the Baptist Health IcePlex, where the back-to-back Cup champs practice. This week’s spotlight is a five-minute walk away — in the same park.

Because here’s the thing about Holiday Park: it might be the most hockey-dense piece of land in Florida. Inside its 93 acres you’ll find two NHL-regulation sheets of ice and an outdoor roller hockey setup that’s been a Fort Lauderdale institution since long before the Panthers moved in. Stanley Cup champions on one side of the park, sweaty pickup roller on the other.

Here’s what to know about the outdoor side.

The Basics

  • Where: Holiday Park, 1150 G. Harold Martin Dr, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304 (also accessible from Sunrise Blvd)
  • Phone: (954) 828-5383 (Parks & Rec)
  • Park hours: 6 AM – 11 PM daily
  • Cost: Free
  • Setup: Outdoor boarded roller rinks with stadium lighting, scoreboards, covered benches, and spectator seating

1. A Real Outdoor Hockey Setup

This isn’t a repurposed tennis court. The Holiday Park roller complex was built for hockey — full dasher boards, electronic scoreboards, stadium lights for night games, covered player benches, and seating for spectators. League play has called this rink home over the years, and the bones are all there: it’s one of the most complete outdoor hockey setups in the region, and it costs nothing to play on.

2. The Most Hockey-Dense Park in Florida

Holiday Park’s hockey resume is genuinely absurd now. The Baptist Health IcePlex — the Panthers’ practice facility, with two NHL sheets, curling lanes, and the team’s flagship store — sits inside the same park. You can watch Tkachuk and Barkov run through drills in the morning, walk across the park, and play pickup roller under the lights that evening.

No other park in the state — maybe the country — packs an NHL practice rink and a public outdoor hockey rink into the same green space.

3. The Pickup Culture

Outdoor roller at Holiday Park runs on community, not a front desk. Games are first-come, first-served whenever the rink isn’t reserved, and the regulars organize through word of mouth and the Holiday Park Hockey group on Facebook. If you’re new to the area and looking for a run, join the group, ask when the next skate is, and show up. It’s that kind of rink.

Adult leagues have set up shop here over the years, too — the boards, scoreboards, and lights make it a natural league venue — so keep an eye out for organized play if pickup isn’t your speed.

4. Florida Roller Survival Tips

It’s an outdoor rink in South Florida, so plan like it:

  • Play at night. The lights are good, and the difference between a 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. game in July is the difference between misery and hockey.
  • Summer storms own the afternoon. Check the radar before you drive over; the surface needs time to dry after a downpour.
  • Bring water. More than you think. Then bring more.

5. Everything Around the Rink

Holiday Park is downtown Fort Lauderdale’s backyard — 93 acres in the corner of Victoria Park with pickleball, basketball, racquetball, sand volleyball, lighted ballfields, a gym, a dog park, and the Jimmy Evert Tennis Center, where Chris Evert learned the game from her dad. The beach is two miles east. Pre- or post-game options are not a problem.

One heads-up: the City kicked off a park-wide improvement project in May 2026 — new playground, dog park upgrades, landscaping, and signage, with construction running into summer 2027. The work doesn’t target the hockey rinks, but expect some construction activity and shifting parking around the park while it’s underway.

6. Who Plays Here

Downtown and Victoria Park locals, beer-league refugees keeping their wheels on, kids from the neighborhood, and ice players from the IcePlex crowd sneaking in an outdoor run. The skill range at pickup swings wide — from first-timers to former travel players — which is exactly what free outdoor hockey should look like.

7. The Bottom Line

Free, lit, boarded, and parked next door to the Stanley Cup champions — Holiday Park is the heart of outdoor hockey in Fort Lauderdale. If you live anywhere near downtown and own a pair of inlines, you have no excuse.

Find the Facebook group, check the radar, and get there before the lights come on.

Got a rink we should spotlight next? Drop us a note on the contact page.