Almaty Arena (formerly Almaty Ice Palace) is a multi-purpose

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 ...

located in

Almaty Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

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

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

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 (appro ...

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

concerts A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide #Curling stone, stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take t ...

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, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

MMA Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting sport based on striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-stylistic contests took place t ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

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, International University Sports Federation, FISU announced that ...

. 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 The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

, drove the need to build an ice hockey arena meeting the standards of the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey to ...

(IIHF). On 27 March 2014, the city's mayor

Akhmetzhan Yessimov Ahmedjan Smagululy Essimov (, ; born 15 December 1960) is a Kazakh politician who served as the chairman of Samruk-Kazyna from 2017 to 2021. Prior to that, he was the director of Expo 2017 from 2015 to 2017, akim of Almaty from 2008 to 2015, Mini ...

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 Minsk Arena () is the main indoor arena in Minsk, Belarus. The Minsk-Arena complex includes the main multi-purpose arena (capable of hosting 15,000 spectators) with an open multi-level parking lot (with 1,080 parking spaces) alongside an interc ...

and smaller than the

Bolshoy Ice Dome The Bolshoy Ice Dome () 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 during the 2014 Winter Olympics. Following the Games, it ...

. The complex consists of three units: the ice arena with 12,000 seats, a training rink with a recreation complex, and 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 and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

. 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 Summ ...

, 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 s ...

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; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), 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 ...

and the

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

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