The Raiffeisen Arena is an

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 ...

arena in

Porrentruy Porrentruy (; ; ) is a Swiss municipality and seat of the district of the same name located in the canton of Jura. Porrentruy is home to National League team, HC Ajoie. History The first trace of human presence in Porrentruy is a Mesolit ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The arena serves as the home for

HC Ajoie HC Ajoie is a Swiss professional ice hockey team that competes in the National League (NL), the highest league in Switzerland. The team was founded in 1973 and plays in the Raiffeisen Arena in Porrentruy, Switzerland. HC Ajoie has won three Swis ...

of the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

(NL).

History

Raiffeisen Arena was formerly known as Patinoire de Porrentruy and has been the home arena for

since 1973. In 2018, the

Porrentruy District Porrentruy District (, ) is one of the three districts of the canton of Jura, Switzerland. Its capital is the town of Porrentruy. The French language, French-speaking district has a population of (as of ). Municipalities Porrentruy is divided int ...

voted yes on the renovation and expansion of the arena. Ground breaking for the arena renovations began in July 2019. The arena began to be erected in November 2019. The wood for the arena was largely sourced from the surrounding communities. 2,000 cubic meter of softwood and 1,000 cubic meter of hardwood were used. The expansion began in May 2020, when the existing ice rink was renovated to meet modern standards. The new 4,650-seat arena is also used by the curling club, figure skaters and the general public for ice skating. A second ice rink was also built with

National Hockey League 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 ...

(NHL) dimensions. HC Ajoie played away games to begin the season, until the new arena was completed. The first game at Raiffeisen Arena was played on November 24, 2020, in front of a crowd of 4,761 people. In December 2022 it was announced Raiffeisen Arena would serve as a second venue for the

2023 IIHF World U18 Championships The 2023 IIHF U18 World Championship was the 24th such event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation. Teams participated at several levels of competition. The competition also served as qualifications for the 2024 IIHF World U18 Champio ...

References

{{Reflist, 30em Buildings and structures in the canton of Jura Indoor arenas in Switzerland Ice hockey venues in Switzerland Sports venues completed in 1973 1973 establishments in Switzerland 20th-century architecture in Switzerland