The Frank Ritter Memorial Ice Arena, known colloquially as "The Ritter", is an ice arena on the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology in Henrietta, a suburb of Rochester, New York, United States. It is the former home to the RIT Tigers ice hockey teams and current home to the Genesee Figure Skating Club. Its official capacity for ice hockey games is 2,100. The building was erected in 1968 when RIT moved from downtown Rochester to a new suburban campus in nearby Henrietta. Frank Ritter, a furniture maker famous for his dental chairs, helped found the Mechanics Institute, a forerunner of the Rochester Institute of Technology, in 1885. The Ritter-Clark Rink on the downtown campus had previously been named in part for Frank Ritter. Frank Ritter Shumway, Ritter's grandson and a major figure in U.S. Figure Skating, was a generous benefactor of RIT, and he ensured that the ice rink on the new campus was named for his grandfather. The arena is also home to the Genesee Figure Skating Club, founded in 1955 by F. Ritter Shumway. The ice surface measures 85 feet by 185 feet, with the goals at the north and south ends. The home bench, scorer's table, and penalty boxes are on the west side; the visiting bench is on the east side, with the men's and women's home locker rooms underneath the east bleachers. The PikePress Box and the President's Box are two stories up from the ice surface, on the south side of the rink. A new scoreboard was purchased and installed in time for RIT's inaugural Men's Division I season, 2005-2006. Previous renovations in 2000 improved the lighting, acoustics, and concessions in the arena. In 2010, the Institute announced a $3.5 million expansion project to include new locker rooms, offices, video rooms, and training rooms. The arena was ranked the second-best rink in the ECAC West in 2003. The Ritter was the third-highest-capacity rink in Atlantic Hockey. In 2009, USCHO.com national columnist Dave Starman wrote that the Ritter was "A Great Atmosphere More Should Experience", explaining: "Between the pep band, the small size of the arena, and perhaps the best public address announcer in college hockey, the RIT Tigers have created a buzz on campus that more people should see on a national broadcast." In 2011, Rochester Institute of Technology began raising funds for the Gene Polisseni Center, which became the eventual replacement home to the varsity hockey programs in 2014. Ritter Arena remains open despite the move of the varsity hockey programs to the new center.
