The Cardiff Arena, also known as Cardiff Bay Ice Arena and also known by ice hockey fans as the Big Blue Tent, is a temporary ice rink in Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, Wales. It has a capacity of 2,500 for ice hockey and is home to the Cardiff Devils after leaving the Wales National Ice Rink, in order to the rink to be demolished to make way for a John Lewis store. It is also used for figure skating and has hosted one competition to date (February 2009) with another planned for summer of 2010.
The ice rink is a prefabricated structure constructed in Finland. Assembly began in 2006 and after a number of delays opened on 6 December 2006 when the Devils hosted the Manchester Phoenix (who, coincidentally, were also waiting for a similar venue to be completed) in an Elite Ice Hockey League fixture. The Devils won the game 7-4 while Manchester's Tony Hand became the first player to score a goal at the rink.
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Cardiff Council has named the operator Planet Ice as the company it wants to build a new ice rink for the Cardiff International Sports Village. Development of the plan's rink design is due to start in late September 2010, and work is due to begin in early 2011, subject to planning, with the ice arena to be completed by February 2012. Planet Ice will run the rink as well as design and build it.[1]
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