Kazakhstan Sports Palace

Kazakhstan Sports Palace
Location Astana, Kazakhstan
Coordinates 51°09′20.61″N 71°27′55.01″E / 51.1557250°N 71.4652806°E / 51.1557250; 71.4652806
Capacity Ice hockey: 4,070[1]
Construction
Built 1999–2001
Opened 6 March 2001
Renovated 2007
Tenants
Barys Astana (KHL) (2001–present)
Nomad Astana (KAZ) (2009–present)
Snezhnye Barsy (MHL) (2011–present)
HC Astana (KAZ) (2011–present)
2011 Asian Winter Games
Website
www.dskazakhstan.kz

The Kazakhstan Sports Palace (Kazakh: Қазақстан спорт сарайы; Russian: Дворец спорта Казахстан) is a palace of sports located in Astana, Kazakhstan. It is mainly serves as the home of Barys Astana of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and hosts various indoor events. It is also serves as the home for Nomad Astana and HC Astana of the Kazakhstan Hockey Championship and Snezhnye Barsy junior hockey team of the Junior Hockey League. The arena seats 4,070 spectators for ice hockey.

History

The sports palace was built from 1999 to 2001. The palace was opened by the president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in March 6, 2001. The Kazakhstan Sports Palace is one of the first sports venues in Astana and is used for mass sport. The building contains a swimming pool, a health club, an ice hockey rink and many other amateur sports clubs. Until 2008 the hockey arena was used for multi-purpose events, such as boxing and basketball events. Nowadays, the arena serves for the home games of the Barys Astana. The sports palace also hosts President of Kazakhstan's Ice Hockey Cup, the yearly pre-season tournament for Barys Astana and teams invited by them.[2]

Minor Arena of the sports palace.

The sports palace was reconstructed for hosting Men's ice hockey tournament of the 2011 Asian Winter Games. Ice hockey preliminaries actually started two days before the Opening Ceremony of the Games on 30 January. The matches played in the main and newly built minor arena with 1,200 seats. Currently, the minor arena is the home arena for HC Astana of the Kazakhstan Hockey Championship. Also, it using for training and warm-up for Barys Astana team, which play their home games in the main arena.

In 2011, Kontinental Hockey League commissioners declared that this arena is one of the worst in the league. The main reason is the regrettably little capacity. Barys Astana managers have decided to build the new Barys Arena for 12,000 seats. The new Barys's home arena will open in the 2015-16 KHL season, as the KHL's president Alexander Medvedev said at the press-conference during the 2014 Kontinental Hockey League All-Star Game.[3]

Kazakhstan Sports Palace annually hosts President of the Republic of Kazakhstan's Cup, the pre-season tournament organized by Barys Astana organization and Nur Otan political party. This was first held in 2010.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Barys Astana's profile". Kontinental Hockey League. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  2. 1 2 Paul Bartlett (8 August 2010). "Ice Comes Early for Astana Hockey Fans". Eurasianet.org. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  3. ↑ Ilyas Omarov (15 January 2014). "Barys Players Join KHL Stars on Ice in Bratislava". The Astana Times. Retrieved 25 March 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kazakhstan Sports Palace.
Preceded by
first arena		 Home of the
Barys Astana
2001 – 2015 		Succeeded by
Barys Arena

Coordinates: 51°09′20.61″N 71°27′55.01″E / 51.1557250°N 71.4652806°E / 51.1557250; 71.4652806

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