Cracks In The Ice: Allegations of Poor Conditions, Mismanagement & Non-Payment At Ion Putting Virginia Youth Hockey In Peril

Thanks to the Washington Capitals' success over the years and the "Alex Ovechkin effect," hockey has grown throughout the DMV, with several young players and adults getting involved in the game. However, the future of hockey in Loudoun County, Virginia is currently in peril amid concerns and allegations surrounding the Ion International Training Center in Leesburg.

Ion, a facility opened in 2019 by former Olympic figure skater Luis Taifas and his wife Mitra Setayesh, is a 3,500-person arena featuring two NHL rinks, a full gym and more amenities.

For almost six years, it has played host to figure skating programs and multiple youth hockey organizations, including the Loudoun Knights and Washington Little Caps. It also has an in-house team, the Loudoun Castles, and hosted an adult recreational league, though that was ended last year.

Over recent years, there have been multiple complaints of degrading facilities, unsafe ice conditions and coaches going unpaid. All the while, the Loudoun Times reports that the facility is considering changing the rink into a performing arts center, putting the youth programs in jeopardy.

Jessica Huff, one of the Knights' original coaches whose husband, Travis, was the original general manager of Ion but left amid toxic workplace concerns, said the bathrooms and locker rooms have been so poorly maintained that youth players will change outside.

"(The bathrooms) are still unsafe. They took a bunch of stalls, they ripped a bunch of bathroom stalls out of the back corner," Huff said, adding, "The locker rooms are so poorly kept. When you go to check out a locker room key, you have to sign and say, 'Hey, I'm responsible for the state of the locker room.' But the issue is, no one wants to check out any locker room keys because they're in such bad condition or there's toilets leaking. It's not clean. The kids can't use the bathroom."

Huff also said that there has not been a regular cleaning crew in years and that the rinks have not been properly maintained, from faulty hockey netting to broken Zamboni doors and broken padding.

"If things remain the same, and I assume they will, we won't be back next year," Huff said, adding, "The fact of the matter is, it won't last, everything's going to fall apart."

Parent Carrie Drake, whose son plays for the Knights, said she would clean up garbage while her son practiced, and noted that her son's practices would start late with no one around to open the venue.

Drake started to notice the deteriorating conditions after the COVID-19 pandemic, and that in recent months, her working relationship with Ion's ownership began to sour.

Ultimately, though, Drake hopes that speaking out will draw awareness to the issues at hand and help save the rink.

"This is an opportunity for the community to come together to make this the resource it should be."

A YouTube vlogger known as "The Warning Take" played in the adult league at Ion, and said that it wasn't able to maintain a 10-team league among two levels amid worsening conditions at the rink.

"By far some of the worst ice I've ever skated on and some of the worst management and worst ownership I have ever seen," he said in a recent video, adding, "The locker rooms are the size of broom closets and they're also falling apart. Out of all the beer leagues I've ever played in it was by far the worst one, and it's not even close."

Numerous patrons also took to social media and the Loudoun Knights Facebook page to echo these concerns.

In addition to the poor conditions at the facility, there have also been issues with timely payments made by rink owners to respective parties.

One coach, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that he has yet to be paid for his work with the Knights, and also complained about the ice conditions as a member of the now-defunct adult recreational league.

Huff also added that referees refused to show up for games if they didn't receive payment.

The Stay in the Game Foundation also stated in a recent article that despite families paying Ion over $700,000 in fees for the upcoming season, coaching and officiating staff went unpaid. This article also alleged that money raised by the Knights in a 2023 fundraiser for LAWS, a domestic violence and sexual assault support organization, was collected by the rinks' owners but not paid to the charity.

Despite payment concerns, Ion International Training Center still donated $2,575 to Kelly Burk's mayoral campaign in June, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

At the time of publication, co-owner Setayesh has yet to respond to requests from The Hockey News for comment but told the Loudoun Times that the claims of poor facilities and poor management are false and have stemmed from concern regarding the facility's potential of becoming a performing arts center.

It goes without saying though that Ion's move away from hockey would certainly affect the hundreds of youth players in the area that call the rink home. The facilities' closing would mean relocation for the Little Caps and the potential discontinuation of the Knights, an organization that has provided travel hockey opportunities to children in the area for the last five years — including starting the first Loudoun County girl's travel team.

"There's a need for ice in the Virginia area, there's a demand, there's a big hockey community. These kids will be displaced to other rinks, and it'll force other kids out. There's already not enough ice as there is, and it's growing," Huff said. "It's unfortunate the thought that there might not be an ice rink. We just want it to stay a rink."