Aviator Sports Faces Closure

By Katie McFadden

From airplanes to flying pucks, balls, gymnasts and ice skaters, some of the historic hangars of Floyd Bennett Field have been home to Aviator Sports and Events Center for more than 20 years, but the beloved sports facility may soon be flying away. After the lease is up on April 14, Aviator’s current owners are taking their ball and leaving. But with the National Park Service yet to announce a replacement operator after a Request for Proposal process, the sports facility’s future is up in the air, potentially leaving the thousands of children that use it feeling down in the dumps. But they’re not giving up just yet.

In early January, the National Park Service (NPS) issued a Request for Proposals for the sports and events center, seeking an operator to keep the programs running, and improve the space through repairs and making use of underutilized parts of it. Interested parties had until March 10 to submit their proposal. This RFP came after the current owner of Aviator, Arklow-FBF, LLC’s 20-year lease came to an end in April 2023. They originally entered into an agreement with NPS in 2003 and got to work on developing the $38 million sports complex inside hangars 5, 6, 7 and 8 and outside fields at Floyd Bennett Field. In 2006, the facility officially opened to the public. When the lease was up in 2023, NPS and Arklow-FBF, LLC came to an agreement to extend the contract for a year into April 14, 2024, and then once again into April 14, 2025, a deadline that is soon approaching.

On Thursday, March 20, news crews were called, and athletes, parents and coaches gathered at Aviator to demand that their sports facility remains open. The move came after doubts about the facility’s future started to spread as the deadline passed on March 10, and the federal agency having four to six weeks to pick a new vendor out of the potential applicants. But four weeks after that deadline would be April 14, the day that the current owner’s contract expires. Upon this realization and hearing a rumor that the current operator wasn’t interested in renewing, concern grew among Aviator’s members. A petition started to circulate on March 18, urging NPS to keep the beloved facility from closing, whether its temporarily or permanently, as uncertainty remains about the facility’s future.

This concern deepened on March 24, as the current Aviator operators put out a notice on social media, confirming the rumor that the current operator is not renewing their contract. “It is with deep regret that we must inform you that the indoor facility at Aviator Sports and Events Center, which we have operated on behalf of the NPS since 2006, will be closing on April 14th, when our current contract with the NPS expires. Our hockey, gymnastics, volleyball and other indoor programs will be discontinued on that date,” the statement read.

They continued citing some of the obstacles they’ve faced over the years. “Since taking on this project, we have together navigated immense challenges—economic downturns, Hurricane Sandy, government shutdowns, COVID-19, and a migrant camp outside our front door,” it read.

The statement added that efforts will continue to try to keep the outdoor activities going. “We recognize the importance of our outdoor activities — golf, the Green Meadows Farm, and rental of outdoor playing fields — to the many people who rely on them. For that reason, we are currently discussing with the NPS an arrangement that we hope will enable us to keep the outdoor facilities open through the fall of 2025.”

As for the rest? They say it’s up to NPS. “In January 2025, the NPS issued a competitive solicitation (Request for Proposals) for ongoing use of the facilities to find our successor and we understand that the process will unfold in the coming months,” advising people to reach out to NPS for more information.

In response to Aviator’s statement, The Rockaway Times did reach out to NPS for more information. In a statement, Gateway National Recreation Area’s public affairs officer Daphne Yun said, “The NPS is committed to providing high-quality visitor services, including those provided by our concessioners. The NPS has offered the concessioner another up-to-one-year concession contract extension through April 14, 2026. The NPS is currently in discussions with the concessioner concerning whether they will accept the contract extension and continue operating the facility beyond April 14, 2025.

“In January 2025, the NPS issued competitive solicitations for ongoing use of the facilities under the terms of a lease. The NPS is currently reviewing the submissions. Until the review process is complete, we won’t have any details to share.”

The decision of Aviator’s current operator to back out and NPS’ lack of selecting a new operator or being transparent about if there are even any interested qualified operators, has left young athletes, their parents and coaches, in a game of limbo, including many in Rockaway.

For local resident Marie Raico, who runs the Rockawave Volleyball Training and Club out of Aviator for the last three years, and coaches for Xaverian High School, which utilizes Aviator’s fields, a closure could impact hundreds of kids that she coaches alone. “For volleyball, we’re done at the end of April, so it would inconvenience us for two weeks but then we rely on Aviator every day starting in November. I could find more space for our program, but it will be less convenient and less cost effective. Aviator has been very fair to us,” Raico said. “But for the catholic high schools, we’re not sure where they’ll go. For schools like Xaverian, we don’t have our own fields. Catholic schools depend on this place. It’s crazy what’s happening. You’d rather shut the doors than figure this out for the greater community you serve?”

For those who utilize Aviator’s ice rinks for ice skating and hockey, they say closing Aviator, even temporarily, would be devastating, as ice rinks with available ice time are difficult to come by, and cutting off electricity to Aviator’s rinks would result in them melting and taking several weeks to be in proper working order again. That’s the reality for Breezy Point resident and hockey assistant coach Eddie Long, whose daughter uses Aviator for volleyball and whose son utilizes it for hockey. “You can’t play ice hockey without ice. There’s a limited number of rinks within the city limits and most have programs already. Most ice times are filled. We’ll be faced with traveling far and wide to find facilities that have these sports. We already spend five days a week at Aviator. It’s in our backyard,” Long said. “Now we’re potentially going to spend five days a week on the road with my wife taking our daughter one place and me taking my son to another just to be able to keep our kids in the athletic activities that they truly love. That’s not ideal for family time.”

For Rockaway resident Vicci Matrullo, who has two daughters who utilize Aviator daily for ice skating practice, she doesn’t know what she’ll do. “This is going to change our lives if this gets closed down,” Matrullo said. “All of the team members are pretty competitive. These are young athletes with dreams, and they don’t really have another option if Aviator closes.”

For Mila Polishchuk of Marine Park, whose children have been going to Aviator for 10 years, even a few days off the ice could be devastating for her kids. “Everything that happens in April is preparation for big competitions and national qualifiers in the summer and fall. If Aviator closes, we’d have to go to Long Island and none of the rinks offer three to five hours of free skate. For us having to drive long distances or pay tolls isn’t viable. We’d have to scale back from six days a week to maybe two days a week, which is nowhere near what’s required at my daughter’s level. She’d go from a competitive figure skater to a recreational figure skater,” Polishchuk said.

With potentially having to travel so far to other rinks in New Jersey, Westchester or Long Island, some parents are considering desperate measures as they think about their kids’ future, and that could mean moving. Rockaway resident Yana Salerno’s two daughters fell in love with ice skating since learning the sport at Aviator. Now they’re there five days a week, with Olympic aspirations. “The place has become their life. They’re on a team of 15 girls and they’re best friends. I can’t even describe what this place has given us in terms of community and working towards something you believe in,” Salerno said. Her girls are so passionate about the sport that losing Aviator could lead them to uprooting everything. “We could commute somewhere but it would be hard five days a week. My husband and I have talked about selling our home that we just built. We love it here and it’s great, but what made it better was the fact that Aviator is five minutes from our home. To lose that, we’d have to reevaluate everything and selling is something we’re thinking about if this place does close,” Salerno said.

Another Rockaway resident, Jaimie Gili, is considering the same for her daughter who participates in a synchronized skating program at Aviator. “My husband and I have lived in Rockaway for 10 years and bought a house two years ago and the only reason we stayed is because of my daughter. It’s the convenience of being so close to the rink. We’re happy here and love the community, but if Aviator closes, we might have to move to be closer to a rink. If she’s not at school, she’s at the rink and these are her dreams, so we want to help her fulfill them. That’s what every parent wants for their kids,” Gili said.

Despite coming up with worst-case-scenario options, parents are still hopeful that something can be worked out to save the sports complex. Despite a lack of transparency into the RFP process from NPS, several parents have heard from a potential operator who is very interested in the lease, who is allegedly negotiating aspects of the proposal with NPS. Additionally, with all of the recent media attention, elected officials are starting to work with NPS to try to come to a solution, including Staten Island/Brooklyn Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and Brooklyn Assemblywoman Jaime Williams. “I’d like to think some of our political officials are coming to the table, working their connections to try to speed up NPS to come to a resolution,” Long said.

“When they wanted to bring the migrant tent here, NPS had no problem doing that, and got $10 million out of it. Those tents went up in a week and came down in a week. You’re telling me that we have people who are interested in operating and investing in this and you can’t get it done in six weeks? You’re going to close the door on kids because you can’t figure out a lease agreement?” Raico said.

Parents say they won’t give up on doing right by their kids. “I’m not going down without a fight,” Matrullo said. “We need this lease to be signed.”