Riga Sports Palace () was an ice hockey arena in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

. It was built in 1970 with 4,500 permanent seats with a total capacity of 5,500 including room for 500 standing spectators. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was the home arena for the renowned ice hockey club

Dinamo Riga Dinamo Riga ( lv, Rīgas Dinamo) is a professional ice hockey team based in Riga, Latvia. It is a member of the Latvian Hockey Higher League. The club is affiliated with HK Zemgale/LLU. The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 as a successor of ...

and also frequently hosted figure skating, basketball, and tennis events. From 1990 until 2006 it was the home to the Latvian national ice hockey team and until end of the 1990s was host of almost all Latvian Hockey League teams. However, since 2006 Latvian national ice hockey team has been played its home games in the 10,300-seat

Arena Riga Arena Riga ( lv, Arēna Rīga) is an indoor arena in Riga, Latvia. It is primarily used for ice hockey, basketball and concerts. Arena Riga holds a maximum of 14,500 and was opened on 15 February 2006. It was built to be used as one of the v ...

that was built to host the

2006 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships The 2006 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships was the 70th such event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation. Teams representing 45 countries participated in four levels of competition. The competition also served as qualifications for ...

. Chief of arena for long term was legendary ice hockey player

Helmuts Balderis Helmuts Balderis-Sildedzis (born 31 July 1952) is a Soviet former ice hockey player. He played right wing, participated in the Soviet team's losing effort in the Miracle on Ice, and played part of a single season in the NHL after being drafted in ...

. The last owner of arena

Jānis Leimanis Jānis is a Latvian masculine given name. The first written use of the name Jānis dates back to 1290. It may refer to: *Jānis Ādamsons (born 1956), Latvian politician *Jānis Akuraters (1876–1937), Latvian poet, writer, playwright and polit ...

announced his plans to renew the arena and area near arena (starting at summer 2007). His aim was to make it more suitable for residential and commercial needs – to build flats, offices, hotels and keep renewed ice hall itself. Rīgas Sporta Pils was demolished in 2007.

Notes

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Riga Sports venues completed in 1970 Buildings and structures demolished in 2007 Indoor arenas built in the Soviet Union Indoor arenas in Latvia Indoor ice hockey venues in Latvia