Almaty Arena (formerly Almaty Ice Palace) is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Almaty,

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 ...

which was opened on 18 September 2016 and seats 12,000 spectators for

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 ...

. Apart from hosting ice hockey matches, the arena is venue for

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 predetermine ...

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are m ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, concerts, and other events. It is one of the venues to host the

2017 Winter Universiade Winter Universiade 2017, the XXVIII Winter Universiade, was a multi-sport winter event which took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan from 29 January to 8 February 2017. On 29 November 2011, FISU announced that Winter Universiade 2017 would be hosted ...

. The arena is located in the north of punched Ryskulov Avenue, to the west from Momyshuly street in the Alatau District.

History

Almaty's successful bid to host the

, coupled with its (unsuccessful) bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, drove the need to build an ice hockey arena meeting the standards of the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 ...

(IIHF). On 27 March 2014, the city's mayor Akhmetzhan Yessimov announced the building of the new arena for 12,000 spectators and a minor arena for 3,000. The arenas were projected to cost $170 million and $89 million respectively.

Structure and facilities

The ice palace is the second largest in the CIS with the area of , similar with the Minsk-Arena and smaller than the

Bolshoy Ice Dome The Bolshoy Ice Dome (russian: Большой Ледовый дворец) is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Olympic Park, Sochi, Russia. Opened in 2012, the 12,000-seat arena was primarily constructed to host hockey competitions duri ...

. The complex consists of three units: the ice arena with 12,000 seats, a training rink with a recreation complex, and a swimming pool. The layout of the ice arena allows it to function as a universal platform for figure skating, ice hockey,

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

, as well as a concert hall with an extra 5,000 seats, in the case of laying

thermal insulation Thermal insulation is the reduction of heat transfer (i.e., the transfer of thermal energy between objects of differing temperature) between objects in thermal contact or in range of radiative influence. Thermal insulation can be achieved with ...

covering the entire area of the ice field with about . Special attention is given to the technology of ice freezing. 120 cubic metres of water is needed for each rink pouring. The water is pre-treated from various mechanical impurities,

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine i ...

and the

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

s, and then falls into the softener system and maintain the desired storage temperature. Ice surface is aligned with special ice machines to achieve the desired thickness - 5 cm after a complete freezing.

Sport events

* 2016, October - IV International Kazak Kuresi Championship "Eurasia Barysy * 2016, October 29 - Pro Boxing Night (Kanat Islam - Patrick Allotey) for the WBO, IBO and WBA Fedelatin titles. * 2016, December - Kazakhstan Figure Skating Championship * 2017, April 1 - MMA Fight Nights * 2017, April - UEFA Futsal Cup Final Four 2016/2017 (Inter, Sporting, Gazprom-Yugra, Kairat). * 2017, Final stage of National Student Futsal League games * 2018, December - TITAN FC 51 international MMA tournament * 2019, March - Professional boxing night with fights for four local WBA and WBC titles * 2019, March 30 - Ilya Averbukh Ice Show featuring Alexei Yagudin, Elisabeth Tursynbaeva and others. * 2019, April 26 - 28 - UEFA Champions League Final Four 2018/2019 (Inter, Sporting, Barça, Kairat) *2021 - NFC Championship * 2021 - city cultural and sports festival Almaty Urban Fest * 2021 2021 - World Curling Cup

Music events

* 2017, June - VIA Gra concert * 2017, September - VI Eurasian Music Award of the Muzzone TV channel "EMA 2017" * 2017, September - Platinum ABBA tribute show * 2018, March - DDT concert * 2018, May 26 - Scriptonite concert * 2018, June - "Leningrad" concert * 2018, October - "Hands Up!" concert * 2018, November - concert of Garik Sukachev and the Untouchables * 2019, March - concert of Bi-2

References

External links

* {{in lang, kk Indoor ice hockey venues in Kazakhstan Sports venues completed in 2016 Buildings and structures in Almaty