Ask around Franklin long enough and someone will tell you the town used to have an ice rink. They are underselling it. For sixteen years, Williamson County had two full sheets of ice inside one building in Cool Springs, with high school hockey, a junior team, figure skaters, adult leagues, and public skating all living under the same roof. Then, on a single day in February 2016, all of it went dark, and the county spent the next five years with no ice at all. This is the story of what Franklin had, how it lost it, where the skaters went, and why the next chapter might be the biggest one yet.
Southern Ice Arena: Franklin's first ice, 2000
The building at 215 Gothic Court, just off Seaboard Lane in the Cool Springs commercial district, opened in 2000 as Southern Ice Arena. Two sheets of ice, the only two Williamson County has ever had. For context on how early that was in Middle Tennessee's hockey timeline: the Predators had arrived in Nashville only two years before, Centennial Sportsplex was the metro's established public facility, and the Ford Ice Centers were still more than a decade away. A two-sheet building in the southern suburbs was betting on a hockey market that barely existed yet.
The bet looked smart for a while. In 2007 and 2008 the property expanded into a 174,818-square-foot multi-sport complex and rebranded as A-Game Sportsplex: the two ice sheets, plus six basketball courts convertible to twelve volleyball courts, a 50-yard indoor turf field, a laser tag arena, and a training gym, all on about 19 and a half acres. For Williamson County families, it was the everything building.
The A-Game years: what lived on that ice
The roster of programs that called A-Game home reads like a map of Middle Tennessee skating in that era:
- High school hockey. The GNASH league (Greater Nashville Area Scholastic Hockey) used A-Game as one of its home facilities, with Brentwood, Ravenwood, and Franklin High School teams practicing and playing there.
- Junior hockey. The Nashville Junior Predators, a Tier III junior team, played their first two seasons at A-Game beginning in 2014 before relocating.
- Figure skating. Williamson County's figure skaters trained there, the only local ice they ever had.
- Adult and recreational hockey. League play ran under the Southern Ice name for years.
- Public skating. Open sessions gave the county's families the walk-in skating experience without a drive to Nashville.
Two sheets is what made the mix possible. One sheet can host a schedule; two sheets can host a community. That distinction matters for reading everything that has happened in Williamson County ice since, including what is being proposed now.
February 2016: the doors close mid-season
On February 4, 2016, A-Game closed abruptly and without notice, mid-season, with programs in full swing. The owners cited a monthly operating shortfall of more than $72,000 and said the facility had never turned a profit. Thousands of athletes, hockey teams mid-schedule, figure skaters, and volleyball clubs were displaced overnight. Parents and student-athletes protested; the local coverage from that week reads like a small town losing its gym, its rink, and its Saturday afternoons all at once.
A short reprieve followed. About a week later the owners reopened the building on an interim basis while lease disputes went to mediation, but the reprieve was temporary and the ice era was over. A sale to a Cincinnati developer that would have converted the property to office space had been in the works since late 2015, and though that deal ultimately fell through, so did everything else: a 2017 deal with an investment group that wanted to keep it a sports facility collapsed, and a 2018 auction failed to produce a buyer.
The end of the story is gentler than the local rumor mill remembers. A version that still circulates has the building sold to a church; the property record shows otherwise. In May 2018 the complex sold for $12.2 million to Tennessee Youth Sports LLC, a Tennessee investor group that kept it a youth sports facility, rebranded it Franklin Sports Hall that November, and later brought in Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance as naming partner. Today the building operates as the TOA Sports Performance Center: basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, batting cages, sports medicine. Still a sports building, still full of Williamson County kids. Just no ice. The two rinks were converted to other uses, and they are not coming back in that building.
The five-year gap: 2016 to 2021
When A-Game's ice closed, Williamson County's sheet count went from two to zero, and the greater Nashville area lost two of its seven sheets in one stroke. The county's skaters scattered north and east:
- Figure skaters moved to Centennial Sportsplex Ice Arenas in Nashville, taking early-morning practice slots at the metro's oldest public facility.
- The Junior Predators relocated to Ford Ice Center Antioch, the Predators' first community rink, which had opened in 2014 and suddenly became the pressure-relief valve for the whole southern metro.
- High school and youth hockey redistributed across Centennial and the Ford Ice system, which grew again when Ford Ice Center Bellevue opened its twin sheets in late 2019.
The gap years also explain one of Franklin's stranger skating facts: the only ice built inside the city since A-Game is a deliberately small training sheet behind a warehouse near downtown. The Hockey Lab opened in that era to serve hockey players who had lost their home ice and needed somewhere to train without an hour of interstate. It is a training facility with limited public access rather than a public rink, and we cover exactly what it offers in our Hockey Lab guide. That a converted warehouse with a Jeep for a Zamboni counted as good news says everything about the county's ice supply in those years.
2021: ice comes back to the county
Williamson County got its sheet back in 2021, when Gary Force Acura Ice Arena opened in a converted indoor soccer building on Haley Industrial Drive in Nolensville. One NHL-size sheet, year-round, home of the Nashville Warriors youth hockey program, with public skate, stick and puck, and freestyle sessions registered through its online calendar. It is not two sheets in Cool Springs, and Nolensville is a different corner of the county than the Franklin and Brentwood core, but it ended the five-year era of Williamson County as a zero-ice county.
Today's full local picture, including the Ford Ice Centers just over the county line and the seasonal holiday rinks, lives in our Franklin and Williamson County guide and the wider Nashville ice skating hub.
The next chapter: Franklin may get its ice back
The reason this history page exists now: in June 2026, a development called The Banks at Brownland was proposed for the Brownland Farm property on Hillsboro Road in Franklin, with a 100,000-square-foot, two-sheet ice facility operated by the Nashville Predators as its centerpiece. Two sheets. The same capacity the county lost in 2016, this time run by the organization whose Ford Ice model has already proven the community-rink formula twice in the metro.
It is proposed, not approved, and the property's floodplain history makes approval a real fight rather than a formality. But the shape of the story is hard to miss: Franklin had two sheets, lost them to economics, spent five years with nothing, got one sheet back in Nolensville, and now has a proposal on the table that would restore the two-sheet standard inside Franklin itself. We are tracking the proposal, the approval process, and what it would mean for the county's skaters in our Banks at Brownland tracker.
Sixteen years of ice taught Williamson County what a rink means to a community. Five years without taught it what the absence costs. Whatever happens on Hillsboro Road, the county's skaters have already lived both halves of that lesson.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Franklin, TN ever have an ice rink?
Yes. The building at 215 Gothic Court in Cool Springs opened in 2000 as Southern Ice Arena with two sheets of ice, later expanding into the multi-sport A-Game Sportsplex. The ice operated until February 2016, hosting high school hockey, junior hockey, figure skating, adult leagues, and public skating.
What happened to A-Game Sportsplex?
A-Game closed abruptly on February 4, 2016, with the owners citing monthly losses of more than $72,000. After a brief interim reopening and two collapsed sale attempts, the property sold in May 2018 for $12.2 million to Tennessee Youth Sports LLC, which kept it a youth sports facility without ice. It is now the TOA Sports Performance Center.
Was A-Game Sportsplex sold to a church?
No. That rumor circulates locally, but the documented buyer was Tennessee Youth Sports LLC, an investor group that rebranded the building Franklin Sports Hall in 2018 and kept it operating as a sports facility. It has remained one ever since.
When did Franklin lose its ice rink?
February 2016. The closure took Williamson County from two ice sheets to zero, and the county had no ice at all until Gary Force Acura Ice Arena opened in Nolensville in 2021.
Where did Williamson County's skaters go after A-Game closed?
Figure skaters moved to early-morning ice at Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville. The Nashville Junior Predators moved to Ford Ice Center Antioch. High school and youth hockey redistributed across Centennial and the Ford Ice Centers, with Ford Ice Bellevue adding two more sheets in 2019.
Will Franklin get an ice rink again?
Possibly. The Banks at Brownland, proposed in June 2026 for the Brownland Farm property on Hillsboro Road, includes a two-sheet ice facility that would be operated by the Nashville Predators. It has not been approved, and the site's floodplain history makes the outcome uncertain. Until then, Gary Force Acura Ice Arena in Nolensville is Williamson County's rink.