Blyth Arena

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Blyth Arena was an indoor ice hockey arena in Squaw Valley, California. It was built in 1959 and held 10,000 people. The ice hockey games and figure-skating competitions during the 1960 Winter Olympics were held at this arena.

An unusual feature of the arena was that the one of the lengthwide sides of the building, facing the ski slopes, had huge plexiglas windows (with the Olympic rings hung in front of them), which gave most spectators a chance to look out to the mountain during breaks in the action.

The above paragraph is incorrect. Blyth Arena was OPEN on its south side; no lucite wall. The 400m speed skating track was just to the south of the open side of the arena. This side of the arena also faced the 70m and 90m ski jumps and the slopes of Squaw Valley now known as the Red Dog. The ski jumps were of wood construction and were allowed to deteriorate to nothing. The 400m speed skating track was ripped up for ski area parking in 1963 over the loud protests of California speed skaters since at the time, it was supposed to be the only mechanically frozen 400m track in the country. From 1963 to 1983, the Squaw Valley ski area operator appealed regularly to the state of California to have the arena torn down to provide still more parking. In 1983, so much snow was allowed to accumulate on the roof, I think deliberately, that the place caved in; voila, more ski area parking. There is a new ice arena at High Camp at the top of the cattle car tramway, at 2500m. This rink is essentially an outdoor rink. It is covered during late spring, summer and early fall. The roof panels are removed for the winter or the wind could potentially remove them. There is a set of Olympic rings hanging at this rink causing many people to think that the 1960 Olympic Figure Skating and Hockey were conducted on this new ice rink even though there is no seating around the rink nor any way for spectators to have accessed the rink in 1960.

The arena was demolished in 1983 after the roof collapsed due to snow accumulation. The site is now a parking lot for the Squaw Valley ski resort.

v • d • e Winter Olympic stadia
Chamonix, 1924 • St. Moritz, 1928 • Lake Placid, 1932 • Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 1936 • St. Moritz, 1948 • Oslo, 1952 • Cortina d'Ampezzo, 1956 • Squaw Valley, 1960 • Innsbruck, 1964 • Grenoble, 1968 • Sapporo, 1972 • Innsbruck, 1976 • Lake Placid, 1980 • Sarajevo, 1984 • Calgary, 1988 • Albertville, 1992 • Lillehammer, 1994 • Nagano, 1998 • Salt Lake City, 2002 • Turin, 2006 • Vancouver, 2010