Venue: Ice Arena Wales
Town: Cardiff, GB
Capacity: 3,088

Ice Arena Wales (Welsh: Canolfan Iâ Cymru; known as Vindico Arena for sponsorship reasons) is an ice hockey rink in the Cardiff International Sports Village in Cardiff, Wales. It opened on 12 March 2016, and had two ice rinks and seating for 3,088 spectators. The ice rink currently only has the use of one rink, with the smaller public pad leased out by Cardiff Council to Sayers. It is home to the Cardiff Devils ice hockey team, who play in the professional British Elite Ice Hockey League, which is the top tier of ice hockey in the UK. It replaced the Cardiff Arena, which was close to the current site. The Cardiff Arena (affectionately named the Big Blue Tent) was a temporary structure, built after the Wales National Ice Rink was demolished in September 2006. The Cardiff Devils played their first game at the arena against Belfast Giants on 12 March 2016. Cardiff Council had named the operator Planet Ice as the company they had chosen to build a new ice rink to replace the Cardiff Arena, which is a temporary structure in the Cardiff International Sports Village. Work was due to begin in early 2011, subject to planning, with the ice arena to be completed by February 2012. Planet Ice would have run the rink as well as design and build it. However, by July 2011, Cardiff Council said in statement "We were unable to find the comfort that we required from them to show the ice rink would now be progressed. As a result, it is being recommended that the executive cancels the current tender. Instead it is proposed to deliver a new ice arena, as a priority, within a new waterfront tender which would go out this summer." The contract to build the arena was eventually won by the Wigan-based developers, Greenbank Partnerships. The cost of the arena was approximately £16 - £17 million and was meant to form part of a larger £250M development, including a 32-storey indoor ski slope, a hotel and apartments, and viewing platform, but much of this was later cancelled. The last game in th