The Bell Sensplex is a four-pad ice facility, located in Ottawa,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. It is the primary practice facility of the

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a membe ...

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

team. In a partnership with the city of Ottawa, it is also used for minor hockey and hosts the annual

Bell Capital Cup The Bell Capital Cup, formerly the Bell Canada Cup is an annual ice hockey tournament staged in Ottawa, Ontario between Christmas and New Years. It is open to youth teams aged 9–13 from all over the world. The tournament attracts over 500 teams a ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

tournament. The Sensplex is located at 1565 Maple Grove Road in the former city of Kanata. It was also the home arena for the Ottawa Lady Senators of the

Canadian Women's Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; french: Ligue canadienne de hockey féminin ‒ LCHF) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the leag ...

History

The Senators, in a partnership with the city of Ottawa, built the Bell Sensplex, for community and team use at a cost of . The facility contains three NHL-sized ice rinks, one Olympic-size ice rink and an indoor fieldhouse in its building. The City of Ottawa provided $1.4 million of the cost to facilitate the construction. The Sensplex ultimately used only $800,000 of the City's funds. The Sensplex opened in December 2004.

Usage

It is used for Senators team practices, minor hockey and short track speed skating. The City of Ottawa buys 2,400 hours of ice time for public use annually. The facility is the main arena for the annual

, open to ''Atom'' (9-11) and ''Pee-Wee'' (11-13) age group teams, held between Christmas Day and New Year's. The tournament attracts over 500 teams annually and bills itself as "the world's largest hockey tournament."

References

External links

Sensplex
{{Ottawa Senators Indoor ice hockey venues in Ontario Ottawa Senators Sports venues in Ottawa National Hockey League practice facilities Public–private partnership projects in Canada 2004 establishments in Ontario Sports venues completed in 2004