Sheffield Arena issues statement a week after dangerous ice conditions and price hike in parking.

Last weekend, when Steelers were taking on Swedish giants HV71 in a televised match, there were alarming puddles on the pad and at least one dangerous hole.Outside the stadium, many fans were caught unaware by the rise in parking fees, which are now £5 pre-booked or £7 on the day.It was £4 on the night, £3.50 in advance last year.Today, Rob O’Shea, general manager of Sheffield Arena, said: “We recognise there were issues with the quality of the ice at Sheffield Arena for the Sheffield Steelers fixture against HV71 and, unfortunately, this was exacerbated by the warm outside temperatures. "We are working hard to rectify the situation for this weekend" he said, a reference to Sunday's Challenge Cup game against Manchester Storm"“On site car parking changes were introduced last month and communicated to every customer directly via email and our website" Mr Oshea added."It follows significant investment in new lighting and equipment to allow the scanning of pre-paid parking tickets, which are significantly cheaper than those bought on the day and are designed to speed up the entry process.”The Arena was asked if at least one of the scanners broke down last weekend, with 'pre-paying' fans apparently still asked to pay the £7 and then claim it back.They were also asked about how the number of Steeler "customers" who had been emailed about the parking fee changes- and how many were not.But a spokeswoman said: "The Arena hasn’t got anything else to add to the response sent over earlier."

The Star asked for a response on twitter:We_Are_Steelers : Yeah cheers Sheffield Arena, we support and look after you for 20 odd years, and you dump on us... Well done!! Dawn Rose: no email sent out at all. Terrible service. Using tram now. ShockingRobert Nowbolt: They are not ploughing money back into maintenance just running It into groundKeith Crawshaw: The honest answer is the Arena has to make more profit to make up cuts in SIV budgetDeano: Ticket ripped in half, lighting the same, parked in a puddle, service expensive and slow.

Flakmagnet: as a fan who lives 100+ miles away it's going to affect how many games I attend. Also, no, I did not get an email. Quelle surprise.David Storer ‏ Our prepaid tkt was not scanned but torn in half, expensive tech, my a***Simon Cope: disgrace Bob! Why scan parking tickets?? Takes 20 secs to hand over cash & go to parking!!Nic Guest Email comms? I never had an email and only found out through Twitter!!!Phil Beddoe ‏: Strange as the entrance we went in they were still tearing the prepaid parking tickets and the lighting looked the same.Craig Jones: Terrible again from Sheff Arena, but they hold the upper hand, the Steelers need them.Andy Wilson " I am a customer & you don't have my email address also putting it on the website is NOT directly contacting customer is it?Owlsteeler : can we all agree if someone wins the lottery they build our own arena plse Jill Henderson: is any1 really surprised the scanners didn't work? The door scanners are still hit-and-miss!Kathian 19: They didn't scan or tear my ticket. In fact he hardly looked at it!Tony: a money grab, but no surprise because they are in the money making business - why should they care about us?