Kyiv Sports Palace

The Palace of Sports (Палац Спорту, Palats Sportu) is an indoor sport-concert complex situated in the center of Kyiv, Ukraine. The complex is an independent state enterprise.

History
It was built between 1958–1960, to design of Mykhailo Hrechyna and Oleksiy Zavarov, as a major indoor sports arena and was opened on 9 December 1960. Constructivism Architecture, an artistic movement sporting mostly simple geometric forms was used in the design.

In the first 50 years, the Sports Palace was the venue for 16 world championships, 28 European championships, 42 championships of the USSR and more than 4,000 concerts and theatre shows as stage performances. In addition, there were around 400 exhibitions and fairs. The events attracted more than 24 million visitors.

Renovations
In 1980–1982, the Palace of Sport was reconstructed (by the Kyivproject Institute and the Kuiv Zonal Scientific Research Institute for Experimental Design). The lighting and technical facilities were almost completely modernized, the interiors and halls were expanded and otherwise illuminated, the palace was equipped with numerous changing rooms and sideboards.

A further reconstruction took place from October 2010 in preparation to host matches for the 2011 IIHF World Championship Division I. As part of the reconstruction, the backstage space was completely re-equipped, six sports locker rooms were installed, the hall lighting was modernized, and the ventilation, air-conditioning, heating and fire safety systems were completely replaced. In addition, a modern quadrilateral display appeared above the arena. In the stands, plastic seats were installed in the colors of the national flag: the total number of seats is 6,900 for sporting events, increased to 9,800 when in concert-mode.

Sport
The hall hosts ice hockey, basketball and boxing competitions. The home teams have included the ice hockey club HK Sokol Kyiv and the basketball clubs BC Kyiv and BC Budivelnyk.

Major sporting events to be held at the arena include the 2012 Professional Hockey League All-Star Game.