Rigas Sporta Pils

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Dinamo Riga (1970-1995) Latvian national ice hockey team (1991-2006) HK Vilki OP Riga (2000-2007)

The Rigas pils Sporta, also Rīga Sports Palace ( literal translation Riga Castle of sport ), was an indoor ice rink in the Latvian capital Riga. It was opened in 1970 and offered 5,500 spectators ( 5,000 seats and 500 standing ).

From the opening of the ice rink to 1995 she was home arena of the ice hockey team Dinamo Riga. The building complex includes other gyms and ice, in which operates regularly figure skating, basketball and tennis was played. For many years, one of the stars of the Latvian hockey, Helmut Balderis, manager of the ice rink.

From 1991 to 2006, the ice rink was used for all home games of the Latvian national ice hockey team. Since there were no other ice rinks in Latvia in the 1990s, all of the games of the Latvian Hockey League were played here. Since the construction of other arenas, especially in front of the Ice Hockey World Championship in 2006, took the national team in the Riga Arena and many clubs around in newer ice rinks, so that only the team HK Vilki OP Riga their home games fought out here.

The owner of the building, the Red Man Group from Estonia, planned in 2007 to renovate the ice rink and around them to create a new infrastructure with homes, shops, offices and hotels. However, there were media reports that the ice rink was to be demolished. In the spring of 2008, the demolition of the building, which has largely determined over many years the sport of ice hockey in Latvia began.