New long distance lense advice

I currently have a Sony a77 ii with a 16-50mm lense however I'm looking for a long distance lense appropriate for ice skating photography, I am only a beginner but I would like a lense which will reach to the end of an ice rink. Does anyone have any advice or good recommendations on which type of lense would be appropriate for this.

I have the Sony a77 and 16-50 and the Sony G SSM 70-300 f4.5-5.6. Optically the G lens is very very good and you can usually find them on eBay for a good price. When I was looking for a longer lens the members of this forum recommended the 70-300 G. At the time of purchase the SSMII was not an option. If you want the newer 70-300 SSM II it's $1148.00 @ Adorama. Another option and depending on your budget and if you want or need a fast zoom with some reach I'd recommend the excellent Tamron 70-200 f2.8, it's a great lens and can take advantage of teleconverters for extra reach and it too sells for really good prices on eBay or can be purchased new from Adorama for $769.00. One other lens to consider if you're on a tight budget is the Sony 55-300 f4.5-5.6 DT SAM and it sells for $298.

As Mark suggests a zoom going up to 300mm should do the job nicely. Have a close look at shots taken with your lens at 50mm & see how much tighter you'd like to be in any linear dimension. If 4x tighter is enough (the subject fills 1/4 the width of your 50mm image) a lens reaching 200mm would do. The 300 will get you 6x more, if you want to just pick out small details like an expression you might want more still but this rapidly becomes both heavy & expensive.

I have the Sony a77 and 16-50 and the Sony G SSM 70-300 f4.5-5.6. Optically the G lens is very very good and you can usually find them on eBay for a good price. When I was looking for a longer lens the members of this forum recommended the 70-300 G. At the time of purchase the SSMII was not an option. If you want the newer 70-300 SSM II it's $1148.00 @ Adorama. Another option and depending on your budget and if you want or need a fast zoom with some reach I'd recommend the excellent Tamron 70-200 f2.8, it's a great lens and can take advantage of teleconverters for extra reach and it too sells for really good prices on eBay or can be purchased new from Adorama for $769.00. One other lens to consider if you're on a tight budget is the Sony 55-300 f4.5-5.6 DT SAM and it sells for $298.

Thank you I'll have a look into the 70-300mm

As Mark suggests a zoom going up to 300mm should do the job nicely. Have a close look at shots taken with your lens at 50mm & see how much tighter you'd like to be in any linear dimension. If 4x tighter is enough (the subject fills 1/4 the width of your 50mm image) a lens reaching 200mm would do. The 300 will get you 6x more, if you want to just pick out small details like an expression you might want more still but this rapidly becomes both heavy & expensive.

Thank you