G-Drive Arena

G-Drive Arena (Russian: G-Drive Арена) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Omsk, Russia. Opened in 2022 to replace Arena Omsk, it is the home arena of Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League.

G-Drive Arena

Location	35 Lukashevicha Street, Omsk,  Russia
Coordinates	55°0′31″N 73°17′51″E
Elevation	(Floor count 6)
Owner	The concessionaire is Arena LLC
Operator	Arena LLC
Type	Ice Palace
Capacity	Ice hockey:12,011
Record attendance	Ice hockey:12,011
Field size	60×26 m
Acreage	64 thousand sq.m[1]
Construction
Broke ground	2019
Built	2019–2022
Opened	1 October 2022; 2 years ago (2022-10-01)
Construction cost	12 billion RUB[2]
Architect	Vladislav Valoven,[3] ABD architects,[4] B2B Architects & Bureau V Architecture & SpecialOne[5]
Project manager	Arena Engineering LLC
General contractor	LMS Group of Companies[6]
Main contractors	Severin Development[7]
Tenants
Avangard Omsk (KHL) 1 October 2022; 2 years ago (2022-10-01)
Website
www.gdrive-arena.ru

History

G-Drive Arena Omsk KHL

In 2018, the previous arena that occupied the spot, Arena Omsk, was found to be structurally deficient, and had to be demolished, which was completed in September 2019. It was stated that a new arena will be built at its place and is planning to open in September 2022 for the beginning of the 2022-23 KHL season.^[8] As a result of this, from 2018 until 2022, Avangard had to temporarily relocate to the Balashikha Arena in the outskirts of Moscow, nearly 2,700 kilometers (1,678 miles) away from Omsk.

In January 2020, construction on the arena began and finished in the summer of 2022. On September 27, 2022, the first hockey game was played at the new arena between Siberian Snipers and Omsk Hawks, with the former winning the game by a score of 7–2. On October 1, 2022, the first KHL game was played at G-Drive Arena between Avangard Omsk and their Siberian rivals, HC Sibir Novosibirsk. Sibir's Trevor Murphy scored the first goal in the arena's history, but Avangard came back to win the game 2–1. The arena was originally planned to host games for the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship, along with Sibir Arena in Novosibirsk, but, in April 2022, the IIHF stripped Russia's hosting rights while the International Olympic Committee (IOC) called for Russia and Belarus to be stripped of hosting rights to all international sporting events due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

See also

• List of indoor arenas in Russia
• List of European ice hockey arenas

References

1. "Arena Omsk multifunctional sports complex Omsk". www.lms-construction.ru/en/ (in Russian). 2019.
2. "In total, about 12 billion rubles were spent on the construction of the arena (6.2 billion was invested by Gazprom Neft, 5 billion came from the federal budget, another 727 million rubles were added by the region)". www.om1.ru (in Russian). 2022-10-17.
3. "Vladislav Valoven G-Drive Arena Chief Architech". https:www.gdrivearena.ru. 2024.
4. "The multifunctional sports complex "Arena", which received the commercial name G-Drive Arena, is a unique facility, the design and implementation of which was carried out by a highly qualified team from various organizations. ABD architects has developed the primary design documentation". www.abd-architects.ru/en. 2023.
5. "The concept of the G–Drive hockey stadium". www.b2barchitects.ru (in Russian). 2019.
6. "Arena Omsk multifunctional sports complex Omsk". www.lms-construction.ru/en/ (in Russian). 2019.
7. "CONSTRUCTION CONTROL". www.severindevelopment.ru (in Russian). 2022.
8. "Цена новой арены "Авангарда" осталась на уровне 12 млрд руб". Archived from the original on 2021-10-01. Retrieved 2022-02-11.

External links

• Media related to G-Drive Arena at Wikimedia Commons