Youth hockey in Maine is struggling. Fewer kids are learning the game, and a big reason is the lack of places to play. In the last 20 years, Maine youth hockey participation is down 15%.

The Maine Mariners don’t expect to solve all the state’s youth hockey ills with a rink they propose to build on the site of the former Scarborough Downs horse racing track, but a new rink would definitely help.

Any rink, anywhere, would help. You can’t learn to play ice hockey without the ice, and as rinks have closed over the last decade, that important starting piece of learning to skate is a big reason why participation has shrunk.

The Mariners announced their plans last week. If built, the rink will be in the Innovation District at the Downs, near the intersection of Innovation Way and Paddock Road, not far from Costco. If approved, the team eyes an opening in time for the 2027 season.

The makeover of Scarborough Downs from a horse track to a community is an ongoing process. A number of apartments are open, as is Costco and an Allagash Brewing tasting room. It will be home to a Market Basket grocery store. A community gathering spot, like an ice rink, makes sense.

Sam Murray, the Mariners’ vice president of sales and strategy, said the team submitted its first sketch to the Scarborough planning board, which will discuss the proposal for the first time at Monday’s meeting.

For the Mariners, the rink would be a home away from Cross Insurance Arena, where they play home games. The arena is often booked for concerts or other events, and the team practices wherever it can find ice time. Sometimes it’s across town at Troubh Arena. The Mariners have practiced at Family Ice Center in Falmouth. Last week the team held preseason practices at the University of New England’s Alfond Forum in Biddeford.

“We have to bounce around a bunch,” Murray said. “This would be a centralized home where our guys can practice, work out and get treatment.”

The ECHL requires teams to provide housing for players. This season the Mariners are living in some of the new apartments at the Downs, and Murray sees that continuing in future seasons. With that in mind, a rink there would be even more practical for the team.

“As far as location goes, we think it’s a home run,” Murray said.

He’s right. The spot is ideal for traffic, not far from the Scarborough exit/on ramp to and from Interstate 95. A rink at Scarborough Downs would be the only one between Portland and Biddeford. Murray said the team has floated the idea of using the rink to a few youth hockey programs, but until the Mariners are actually in position to guarantee ice time, it’s just an idea.

A rink at Scarborough Downs would be a godsend to the Scarborough High boys hockey team, coach Eric Wirsing said. Now, the Red Storm practice and play home games at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham. The team has to bus to every practice and every game. If the team leaves the school at 2:30 p.m., then reviews video after skating, it could be 6 p.m. by the time it pulls back into the high school parking lot.

This winter, there will be 28 boys teams and 13 girls teams competing statewide in high school hockey. Only nine of the boys teams represent one school. On the girls side, just one — Brunswick — is an old-fashioned one-school squad. High school hockey in Maine is shrinking and were it not for co-op teams, would already be gone.

A place where more children could learn to skate and learn the game wouldn’t solve all the problems facing the sport, but it would be a welcome change for a hockey community looking for any spark.

“If it’s a way to grow youth hockey in southern Maine, I’m all for it,” Wirsing said.

In September, the Mariners announced a three-year extension with the Boston Bruins as the team’s ECHL affiliate, as well as a five-year extension on its lease with Cross Arena. They’re here for the long haul. There are a lot of hurdles to jump to make this practice rink a reality, but they’re worth jumping, and a new rink is something to look forward to.