IIHF Arena Manual

Ever thought of building an ice rink?

The rink is the key to all hockey development
In the beginning, ice hockey had its definite limits. It could only be played in places where you had natural ice from December until at the latest March. And those were the long seasons! This is why North America, Scandinavia, the former Soviet Union and a handful of other countries had an early jump in this game. Today, the International Ice Hockey Federation has 63 national member federations. Some of the countries with hockey programs and leagues include the United Arab Emirates, Israel, South Africa, Australia and Singapore. In the United States, there is high level ice hockey played in cities like Los Angeles, Tampa and Dallas. The reason, of course, is rinks with artificialice. Only some ten years ago, ice hockey in some of the places mentioned above was a good joke. Not anymore. Rinks with artificial ice can be built anywhere, even in the desert or south of the equator. The problems associated with building artificial ice rinks could be summarized in these two questions:
1. How do we start ?
2. Isn't it far too expensive ?

In order to show communities all over the planet that an ice rink is not one of the seventh wonders of the world, the IIHF decided to put a group of experts together to create a rink manual. The goal of the manual is to help communities and hockey enthusiasts to build ice rinks in their neighborhoods, at reasonable costs. This manual targets ice hockey clubs with an ambition to build a community rink, the decision makers within communities or municipalities, and construction entrepreneurs. As the President of the International Ice Hockey Federation I am proud to present this manual: "Ever thought of building an ice rink" ? This is the first manual of its kind in regards to ice rinks.

René Fasel
IIHF President

Chapter 1: You can build an ice rink everywhere
1.1 Introduction of the Manual/IIHF Prototype
1.2 Introduction to ice hockey

Chapter 2: Social interest of an ice rink
2.1 Interest of the community
2.2 Activity programs and services
2.3 Ice rinks throughout the world

Chapter 3: Technical guidelines of an ice rink
3.1 General introduction
3.2 Sizing the ice rinks
3.3 IIHF prototype definition
3.4 Materials and structural systems for an ice rink
3.5 Mechanical and electrical plant
3.6 Energy consumption optimisation
3.7 Environmental effects

Chapter 4: Economic profile of the IIHF ice rink prototype
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Construction costs
4.3 Operational budget

Chapter 5: Financing
5.1 Construction costs / Investment costs
5.2 Operational costs

IIHF Rules for Ice Rinks

Equipment