Buccaneers bid farewell to Buccaneer Arena after 46 seasons

The Des Moines Buccaneers closed the book on Buccaneer Arena with a final sale on June 27, ending 46 seasons in the building long known as the Madhouse on Hickman. The farewell marked the last chapter for a rink that helped define junior hockey in Des Moines, where the Bucs built their identity around a loud, tight building and a fan base that measured the franchise through banners as much as wins.

Buccaneer Arena opened on November 12, 1961, as Des Moines Ice Arena at 7201 Hickman Road in Urbandale. Before it became the Buccaneers’ home, it hosted the Des Moines Oak Leafs of the IHL and later the Des Moines Capitols, and in 1979 it staged a pre-Olympic exhibition between the St. Louis Blues and the U.S. Olympic Team. The building later became Metro Ice Sports Arena before taking the Buccaneer Arena name in mid-2004, carrying a hockey history that stretched well beyond one junior club.

The Buccaneers trace their own start in Des Moines to Herb Brooks, whose advice to local hockey supporters helped spur the creation of the franchise. The team says area hockey fans were told on February 15, 1980, that the Buccaneers would join the United States Hockey League, and the club has played continuously since that date. That run made Des Moines one of the league’s enduring markets, and by the time the arena closed, the Bucs had become the USHL’s third-oldest franchise.

The building’s walls carried the program’s success in full view. The team says the rink displayed four Anderson Cups, four Clark Cups, seven division titles and three Gold Cups, a banner haul that matched the club’s rise from an expansion-era idea to a fixture of junior hockey in Iowa. Alumni from that stretch include Vincent Riendeau, John Blue, Peter Smrek, Erik Cole, Scott Clemmensen, Peter Sejna, Kyle Okposo and Jeff Petry, a list that reflects how often Des Moines has served as a launch point for players who reached the NHL.

The move away from Hickman Road was driven by damage and age. The 2020 derecho hurt the building, and a mechanical issue later forced the Buccaneers to shift to the MidAmerican Energy Company RecPlex in West Des Moines for the 2024-25 season, where they remained in 2025-26. The arena closed in spring 2026 because of its age and the resources required to keep it safe and operational, while the club also moved through a 2025-26 season that followed back-to-back playoff misses and a coaching change. What disappears now is not just a rink, but the setting where the Buccaneers’ modern identity was built.