Broadmoor Ice Palace



The Broadmoor World Arena was a pioneering skating rink and hockey arena located at the Broadmoor Resort & Spa in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Originally an outdoor riding academy, the building was enclosed and converted to an ice arena which opened in January 1938. It was the original home of the Colorado College Tigers hockey team, as well as the Broadmoor Skating Club, a major force in the figure skating community. The building served as the first home of the NCAA Hockey Championships, which it hosted for the first ten years of its existence (1948-1957) and once more, in 1969. The arena served as host to the 1962 World Championship. It also hosted the World Figure Skating Championships five times between 1957 and 1975.

With wooden seats, red aisle carpeting and wildlife paintings on the walls, the arena had an intimate atmosphere that reflected its lakeside, resort hotel setting. The arena was the primary arena setting in the 1970s movie Ice Castles.

In 1993, the Broadmoor announced that it would be closing the venerable arena to make room for a $27 million expansion of the resort. It closed in March 1994. The last major event held at the arena was the 1994 World Junior Figure Skating Championships.

There is a memorial on the grounds of the hotel to the members of the 1961 US Figure Skating team, all of whom perished in the crash of their flight to the 1961 championships near Brussels, Belgium. Many of them had trained at the Broadmoor.