The Ondrej Nepela Arena () (also known as ''Orange Arena'' during the 2011 IIHF Championship and later as ''Tipos Aréna'', previously ''Slovnaft Arena'', for sponsorship reasons) is an

indoor arena An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. It is primarily used for

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

and it is the home arena of the

HC Slovan Bratislava Hockey Club Slovan Bratislava () is a professional ice hockey club based in Bratislava, Slovakia. In 2012, it left the Tipsport Liga (hockey), Slovak Extraliga and joined the international Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). In 2019, it returned to ...

History

Ice rink and original arena

The arena was first opened on 15 December 1940 as the first public artificial ice rink in Bratislava. The first official ice hockey game was played on 21 December of the same year. Between 1948 and 1949, new tribunes were built in order to increase the standing capacity from around 300 to 11,000. In 1957 the open-air venue was covered with a steel structure that required supporting columns, and 4,800 temporary seats were installed with the standing capacity reduced to 7,000. Another significant renovation took place between 1989 and 1992, in time for hosting the 1992 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships, and following this the arena now had a total of 7,747 seats until its full reconstruction started in early 2009. This time the interior was changed significantly (new seats, locker rooms and technical equipment) and the arena received a new reinforced concrete roof. Since 29 September 1995 the arena is named in honour of

Ondrej Nepela Ondrej Nepela (22 January 1951 – 2 February 1989) was a Slovaks, Slovak Figure skating, figure skater who represented Czechoslovakia. He was the Figure skating at the 1972 Winter Olympics, 1972 Olympic champion, a three-time World Figure Skati ...

, a Slovak

figure skater 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, with its introduction occurring at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic d ...

who competed for

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

in the late 1960s and early 1970s and who was the Men's figure skating champion at the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside ...

Sapporo is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in Hokkaido, Japan. Located in the southwest of Hokkaido, it lies within the alluvial fan of the Toyohira River, a tributary of the Ishikari River. Sapporo is the capital ...

, Japan.

New modern arena

In the period from April 2009 to February 2011, the venue was almost entirely rebuilt and upgraded, in line with IIHF, Slovak, and international specifications and largely funded by the Slovak government, as part of preparations for hosting the

2011 IIHF World Championship The 2011 IIHF World Championship was the 75th IIHF World Championship, an annual international men's ice hockey tournament. It took place between 29 April and 15 May 2011 in Slovakia. The games were played in the Ondrej Nepela Arena, Orange Aren ...

s. More than €87 million was spent to install a new steel roof, modernize facilities, build two new adjacent practice arenas, an underground car park and increase the seating capacity from 8,350 to 10,000. During the reconstruction phase, 80% of the original building was demolished and the resident ice hockey club

moved to the

Vladimír Dzurilla Vladimír Dzurilla (2 August 1942 in Bratislava, Slovakia – 27 July 1995 in Düsseldorf, Germany) was a Slovak ice hockey goaltender playing for Czechoslovakia. Dzurilla, a refrigerator repairman by profession, was goalie for the Cze ...

Ice Stadium in the

Ružinov Ružinov (, , ) is a borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, located in the Bratislava II district. It is the city's second most populated borough, housing over 80,000 inhabitants and its Nivy neighbourhood is the place of the emerging ne ...

borough of Bratislava. The reconstructed arena opened in April 2011, with one of the most advanced game presentations,

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...

scoreboards, and security systems ever built. In addition to the arena, a new

DoubleTree DoubleTree by Hilton is an American hotel chain managed by Hilton Worldwide. DoubleTree has been the fastest growing Hilton brand by number of properties since 2007, and by number of rooms from 2007 to 2015. , it has 587 properties with 135,745 ...

by Hilton hotel was built, which mainly served as the accommodation for the foreign teams and staff during the championships. Further improvements to the arena's facilities were carried out in 2018 to improve its ability to host the

2019 IIHF World Championship The 2019 IIHF World Championship was hosted from 10 to 26 May 2019 by Slovakia. It was the second time that Slovakia has hosted the event as an independent country, as was the case in 2011 IIHF World Championship, 2011. The host cities were Brati ...

. The work included an upgraded refrigeration system, a refurbished ice rink with new boards and plexiglas, improved team dressing rooms and other areas, and technical upgrades.

Notable events

Sport

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

pre-season game was held at the Samsung Arena between HC Slovan Bratislava and the

Tampa Bay Lightning The Tampa Bay Lightning (colloquially known as the Bolts) are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. The Lightning compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the ...

on September 30, 2008. Tampa Bay won 3–2 in overtime. On October 2, 2011, the arena hosted another NHL pre-season game, this time between HC Slovan Bratislava and

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York City. The Rangers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team plays ...

who beat the home team 4–1. An overview of some sport events held in the arena: * 1958 European Figure Skating Championships * 1959 IIHF World Championship * 1966 European Figure Skating Championships * 1973 World Figure Skating Championships * 1981 FIBA European Championship ;1990s * 1992 IIHF World Championship * 1995 IIHF World Championship Group B * 1996 ISBHF Ball Hockey World Championship * 1996 European Table Tennis Championships *

1999 European Judo Championships The 1999 European Judo Championships were the 10th edition of the European Judo Championships, and were held in Bratislava, Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Po ...

;2000s *

2001 European Figure Skating Championships The 2001 European Figure Skating Championships was a senior international figure skating competition in the 2000–01 season. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of single skating, men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. ...

* 2008 IIHF Men's InLine Hockey World Championship ;2010s *

* 2011 ISBHF Ball Hockey World Championship *

2016 European Figure Skating Championships The 2016 European Figure Skating Championships were held 25–31 January 2016 in Bratislava, Slovakia. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pairs, and ice dancing. Eligibility Skaters were eligible for th ...

* 2016 Women's Youth World Handball Championship * 2017 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship * 2017 Women's World Floorball Championships *

* 2019 WUKF Karate World Championship *

2019 Women's European Volleyball Championship The 2019 Women's European Volleyball Championship was the 31st edition of the Women's European Volleyball Championship, organised by Europe's governing volleyball body, the Confédération Européenne de Volleyball, CEV from 23 August to 8 Septemb ...

;2020s * Ice hockey at the 2022 Winter Olympics – Men's qualification group D *

2022 European Men's Handball Championship The 2022 European Handball Federation, EHF European Men's Handball Championship was the 15th edition of the tournament and the second to feature 24 national teams. It was co-hosted in two countries – Hungary and Slovakia – from 13 to 30 Janua ...

2026 European Women's Handball Championship The 2026 EHF European Women's Handball Championship, commonly referred to as the EHF EURO 2026, will be the 17th edition of the EHF European Women's Handball Championship. It will be held from 3 to 20 December 2026. The championship was original ...

* 2029 IIHF World Championship

Music

Transport

Ondrej Nepela Arena is located in the

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

district of

. The arena can be approached by

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

and

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

. Drivers can park directly under the Ondrej Nepela Arena. There are place for 365 cars. An additional 1,300 parking spaces offer the Central Shopping Center, which is approximately 400 m away from the arena. Next 994 parking spaces are under

National Football Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football ...

, which is 300 m away.

Image gallery

Image:Slovan samsung arena interier fotka.JPG, 2008 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship Image:Ondrej Nepela Arena.jpg, The main entrance after reconstruction in June 2011 Image:Majstrovstvá sveta v hokejbale 2011 - zahájenie.jpg, 2011 Ball Hockey World Championship Image:Ondrej nepela arena 2019 2.jpg, Exterior during the 2019 IIHF World Championship Image:Bratislava, 2016 European Figure Skating Championships, Ondrej Nepela Arena.JPG, 2016 European Figure Skating Championships

References

External links

* {{IIHF World Championship venues Buildings and structures in Bratislava Sports venues in Bratislava Ice hockey venues in Slovakia Volleyball venues in Slovakia HC Slovan Bratislava Sports venues completed in 1940 1940 establishments in Slovakia