In July 2007, during the scheduled IOC session, the capital of the next Olympic Games in the winter of 2014, the Russian city of Sochi, was announced to the whole world. During the preparation for the Olympics, modern infrastructure facilities, ice palaces, arenas, speed skating and biathlon centers and even a separate town Rosa Khutor, stylized as a small European city, were built. One of such unique structures was the Sochi Ice Palace "Bolshoi". Its full description is presented in our article.
Bolshoi Ice Palace (Sochi): description of the hockey arena
The Bolshoi Ice Palace is a hockey stadium where all hockey events were held during the Olympic Games in the winter of 2014. The stadium was commissioned in the first month of 2013. The general contractor during the construction was the NGO Mostovik. The best builders, architects and engineers of the country were involved in the construction. They decided to give the created object the appearance of a frozen drop with a pearl-white dome. The Beijing Opera also has a similar form. On the territory of the Russian Federation, such a complex project was implemented for the first time.
The ice palace is located in the Sochi Olympic Park , in the Imereti Lowland - in the picturesque place of the Krasnodar Territory. The ice palace in Sochi, the description of which is presented below, is designed for 12 thousand seats, and its area is almost 97 thousand square meters. All rooms are located on 9 levels. The stands of the arena are movable and transformable. Depending on specific sporting events, the size of the gaming sector may vary. The roof of the ice palace is a screen, the size of which can be compared with 12 hockey arenas. If necessary, it can broadcast various images and texts in dynamics. All this was achieved thanks to the LED modules built into the roof.
The Big Ice Palace in Sochi “Bolshoi” fully confirmed its name, becoming one of the most spacious and comfortable Olympic venues. In terms of comfort, it can be compared with the world's leading hockey venues.
Sochi Ice Palace "Big": Olympic and post-Olympic life
The main goal of creating the ice palace was to build a modern arena for holding hockey matches at the Olympic Games in the winter of 2014. And this task has been fully realized. From the second day of the opening of the games to the last day of the Olympics, this large ice palace in Sochi has hosted all the hockey events planned for this time. Later, at the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015, the Channel One Cup and the KHL Stars Match were held here.
Currently, the Bolshoi ice palace in Sochi is the hockey arena of the Sochi club. This is the most modern arena of the Krasnodar Hockey League, the analogues of which do not yet exist.
Ice arenas and palaces
Sochi Olympic Park includes several unique infrastructure facilities, some of which are located in the closest distance from the large ice palace. It is impossible not to note the ice puck "Puck", the curling center "Ice Cube" and a large training stadium.
These facilities, together with the Bolshoi Ice Palace, are part of the complex created by the International Ice Hockey Federation. They are located at a short distance from each other. It is planned to hold large-scale hockey competitions with a large number of invited people.
And of course, it is worth mentioning the Fisht Olympic Stadium, whose capacity was 47 thousand seats and where events related to the opening and closing of the Olympic Games took place.
How to get there
The Bolshoi Ice Palace and other infrastructure facilities of the Olympic Park are located in the Adler district of Sochi on the territory of the Imereti Lowland. To get to the place where the Sochi Ice Palace is located, you can directly from the railway station on special buses of the Sochi hockey club. Upon presentation of a ticket for the game travel will be free.
For those who do not like hockey, a visit to the ice palace can also be interesting, since this is a unique architectural structure of the Olympic Park, which is also located in a picturesque place in the Krasnodar Territory.