Venue: Bolshoy Ice Dome
Town: Sochi, RU
Capacity: 12,000

The Bolshoy Ice Dome (Russian: Большой Ледовый дворец) is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Olympic Park, Sochi, Russia. Opened in 2012, the 12,000-seat arena was primarily constructed to host hockey competitions during the 2014 Winter Olympics. Following the Games, it became the home arena of HC Sochi, an expansion team of the KHL. The arena has also hosted concerts and other events. Prior to the Games, the arena hosted the IIHF World U18 Championships and Channel One Cup in 2013. The arena's exterior is distinguished by its LED-illuminated roof, which its designers described as resembling fabergé eggs and frozen water droplets. The arena was named "Bolshoy", meaning "big", "large" and "huge" in Russian. This highlights the integral role of ice hockey at the Olympics, which has been dubbed "the most popular sport" of the Games by the organizers themselves. Furthermore, the name was chosen due to its universal familiarity in other countries, in addition to its allusion to the Bolshoi Theatre, Bolshoi Ballet, and other great Russian accomplishments. The Ice Dome was situated in the Coastal Cluster zone of venues for the 2014 Winter Olympics. It served as the main arena for the men and women's ice hockey tournament throughout the Games. It is the only venue in the Olympic Park located on top of a hill, and is less than 1,000 feet (300 m) away from Shayba Arena, which was the secondary ice hockey venue that hosted mainly preliminary round matches. The construction of the Bolshoy Ice Dome started in 2009 and finished in 2012. It was designed by architect firm Mostovik and completed at a cost of approximately US$180 million, although ITAR-TASS estimated the cost to be as high as $300 million. A total of 20 architects and 70 engineers - headed by Andrey Ustinov - were responsible for the construction of the arena. The exterior structure of the Ice Dome was designed to resemble a frozen ice droplet. It has also drawn comparisons to a Fabergé egg, due to the light-emi