The Kazakhstan Sports Palace ( kk, Qazaqstan sport saraiy) is a

palace of sports Palace of Sports or Sports Palace (russian: Дворец спорта) is a generic name of comprehensive indoors sports venues introduced in the Soviet Union (compare with Palace of Culture) of big size that includes various sports halls and auxil ...

located in

Astana Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim (river), Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmo ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. It serves as the home for

Nomad Nur-Sultan Nomad Hockey Club ( kk, Nomad Hokkej Kluby), commonly referred to as Nomad Astana, is a farm team of the Barys Astana of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Founded in 2007 as Barys Astana–2, the team changed its name to Nomad Astana in 2013. Fo ...

and

HC Astana Hockey Club Astana ( kk, «Астана» хоккей клубы, ''Astana hokkeı klýby'') is a professional ice hockey team based in Astana, Kazakhstan. They were founded in 2011, and play in the Kazakhstan Hockey Championship, the top level of ...

of the

Kazakhstan Hockey Championship The Pro Hokei Ligasy formerly known as ''Republic of Kazakhstan Open Ice Hockey Championship'' ''( kk, Шайбалық хоккей бойынша Қазақстан Республикасының ашық чемпионаты, russian: Откры ...

and

Snezhnye Barsy The Snow Leopards Astana, Also known As Snezhnye Barsy, ( kk, Qar Barystary Nur-Sultan, Қар Барыстары Нұр-Сұлтан; russian: Снежные Барсы; en, Snow Leopards) is a Professional ice hockey team from Astana. They comp ...

junior hockey team of the Junior Hockey League. The arena seats 4,070 spectators for ice hockey.

History

The sports palace was built from 1999 to 2001. The palace was opened by the president of Kazakhstan

Nursultan Nazarbayev Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev ( kk, Нұрсұлтан Әбішұлы Назарбаев, Nūrsūltan Äbişūlı Nazarbaev, ; born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakh politician and military officer who served as the first President of Kazakhstan, in off ...

on March 6, 2001. The Kazakhstan Sports Palace is one of the first sports venues in

Nur-Sultan Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim (river), Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmo ...

and is used for mass sport. The building contains a

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

, a

health club A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, health spa, and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place that houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise. In recent years, the number of fitness and health se ...

, an

ice hockey rink An ice hockey rink is an ice rink that is specifically designed for ice hockey, a competitive team sport. Alternatively it is used for other sports such as broomball, ringette, rinkball, and rink bandy. It is a rectangle with rounded corners and s ...

and many other amateur

sports clubs A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

. Until 2008 the hockey arena was used for multi-purpose events, such as

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

events. Until 2015, the arena hosted home games for

Barys Astana Hockey Club Barys ( kk, Барыс хоккей клубы , translit=Barys Hokkei Kluby), also referred to as Barys Astana or HC Barys, is a professional ice hockey team based in Astana, Kazakhstan. It is one of the founding members of the Kontine ...

. The sports palace was reconstructed for hosting Men's ice hockey tournament of the 2011 Asian Winter Games. Ice hockey preliminaries actually started two days before the Opening Ceremony of the Games on 30 January. The matches played in the main and newly built minor arena with 1,200 seats. Currently, the minor arena is the home arena for

of the

. In 2011,

Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs ba ...

commissioners declared that this arena is one of the worst in the league. The main reason is the low capacity. Barys Astana managers decided to build the new

Barys Arena Barys Arena ( kk, Barys Arena) is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Astana, Kazakhstan. It serves as a home arena for the Barys Astana of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). The arena seats 11,578 spectators for ice hockey. See also *List ...

with 12,000 seats. It opened for the 2015-16 KHL season.

References

External links

* *
Kazakhstan Sports Palace on the Google Maps
{{coord, 51, 09, 20.61, N, 71, 27, 55.01, E, type:landmark, display=title Barys Astana arenas Indoor ice hockey venues in Kazakhstan Kontinental Hockey League venues Sports venues in Astana