The hockeyarena in Liepaja, home of the Liepaja Metalurgs, was openend in Octobre 1998 as the first hockeyrink in Latvia after the country left the Soviet Union. The arena is not only used as a facility for the games of the professional team but also as a training- and competition-facility for ice-skating, as a public-ice-rink and as a modern multi-functional building with concerts and trade-fairs when the ice gets covered up. Corporate- and private-groups can also rent the building on an hourly basis even though this is probably a subject of availability. I don´t think the Liepaja Metalurgs will leave the ice when you and your family come in and ask for a private arena for an hour...

Some big events have taken place at the arena so far, too. Until now (summer 2001) the building was used as a site for the B-group world-junior-championships (hockey), as the arena of the female hockey world-championships and during the 2000/2001-season as the rink where the baltic cup was played out, a tournament featuring teams from Latvia, Estonia and Poland. Many local politicans and well known athletes like to show up at events at the arena as well.

The seating-capacity of the building during sport-events is 1.143 but up to 3.000 people fit into the building when you take the standing-room areas into account.

On a normal day the arena gets used as the training-facility of the town´s hockey-team, the "Liepaja Metalurgs" and for training-sessions of the country´s junior-national team. The Liepaja Metalurgs have their own youth department with two more teams as well so that some ice-time is reserved for them, too. Until 2006 when Latvia will host the World Hockey Championships two more arenas are scheduled to be openend in Riga so that the country will provide the hockey-world with enough state-of-the-art areans when the big tournament rolls into the country.

The Liepaja Metalurgs are hitting the ice as one of the two latvian teams in the eastern european hockey-league (OEEL) at the moment. While about 500 people use the arena each day on a normal business day for public skating or professional practices about 1.700 fans show up to all home-games of the Liepaja Metalurgs. For the fans with a bit deeper pockets there is also a VIP-bar inside the arena where the games can be enjoyed in more comfortable surroundings even though the atmosphere probably takes a big hit as well. A sauna is part of the arena as well, it is used for the professional teams as well as for the public.

The arena itself is located at a heavily used street only a short distance from the local top-hotel "Amrita" (54$ per double a night, easily four times as much as at a normal hotel in Latvia) and also rather close to the economical very important harbour of Liepaja.

Adress of the arena

Brivibas Str. 3/7,
LV 3401, Liepaja
Latvija,

phone: + 371 34 81840
fax: + 371 34 81841
e-mail: halle@apollo.lv