Vision for 'Thin Ice' took form long before new MGM ballroom

Mashantucket - With 50,000 square feet of wide-open space, the Premier Ballroom at MGM Grand at Foxwoods is touted as, well, the premier venue of its kind in the Northeast.

It's just the place from which to televise a figure-skating competition modeled on "Dancing with the Stars" and "American Idol."

By Monday morning, that might seem obvious to a lot of people. But it was Terry O'Neil who figured it out years ago, before MGM Grand was even built.

"When I read about (MGM Grand) going up with a ballroom with all that column-free space, I said it would be ideal," O'Neil, who helped shape network sports programming as a producer in the 1980s and '90s, said Wednesday. "I said it would be a great way to showcase the facility."

ABC will televise "Thin Ice" from the ballroom Friday and Sunday, featuring top amateur skaters as well as judges famed for their skating exploits — Dick Button, Kristi Yamaguchi and Katarina Witt. Audience members and home viewers will have a say in the judging, too, à la "Idol." The event starts tonight and continues with matinee and evening sessions throughout the weekend.

O'Neil said his idea for a reality-based skating show had been turned down by "every network, broadcast and cable, two or three times" before he pitched it to Foxwoods executives prior to MGM Grand's 2008 opening. Joe Jimenez, Foxwoods' senior vice president of casino marketing, was receptive from the start.

"In this business, it's easy to keep booking music and comedy," O'Neil said. "It takes courage to do something like this, to say, 'We'll take this ballroom out of service for two weeks and turn it into a skating rink.'"

O'Neil, who is independently producing "Thin Ice," sold ABC and Foxwoods on it by agreeing to assume much of the financial risk.

For the last week, crews have been working around the clock to install 2,800 ballroom seats and build a rink whose dimensions are 150 feet by 85 feet, about three-quarters the size of an NHL rink. The 12,000 gallons of water being frozen to form the ice started to flow Monday.

The timing of the event - on the heels of the Winter Olympics - is no accident.

"As I was watching the Olympics, I realized the figure-skating was reaching more people than 'American Idol,' " Jimenez said. "So I knew we had a hit."

MGM Grand officials have followed O'Neil's road map in preparing the ballroom.

"Just figuring the nine camera shots and coordinating the logistics of everyone involved has been a challenge," Jimenez said. "Planning a U2 concert would be a hundred times easier."

So, who do you call to build an ice rink in a ballroom?

Try "The King of Frozen Water," otherwise known as Ice Rink Events, a Texas-based company that's been building rinks around the world for decades. Among its more notable projects are an outdoor hockey rink on Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., and a huge public rink in Mexico City.

Mike Clayton, president of Ice Rink Events, is overseeing the MGM Grand rink installation. He said 23 miles of tubing was laid beneath the ice to carry 250 tons of refrigeration. An early layer of ice was painted white before more water was applied. When finished, the ice will be 2½ inches thick.

During the event, Clayton said, technicians will constantly monitor the temperature of the ice's surface and the humidity in the ballroom, both of which are affected by lighting and the presence of people.

An almost palpable sense of anticipation surrounded this week's preparations.

"It's exciting. ... Live TV. Who does live TV?" said Jimenez, who come Monday morning will have "overnights" to ponder - the ratings for "Thin Ice."

b.hallenbeck@theday.com