New Olympic hockey arena opens at UBC

The first indoor venue for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games the new UBC Thunderbird Arena was opened by B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell on Monday morning.

Construction was completed four months ahead of the originally scheduled date of November 2008, according to officials.

Work on the new arena began in April 2006 and involved refurbishing the original facility,built in 1963, and the construction of two new rinks: a practice rink and a 7,500-seat competition arena.

The venue will host the preliminary games in the men's and women's ice hockey events, as well as the men's Paralympic ice sledge hockey competition.Thehockey finals will be held at the 18,630-seat GM Place arena owned by theVancouver Canucks.

Prior to the Games, the arena will be home to the UBC Thunderbirds varsity hockey program, student and staff programs, and community programs.

That will be welcome news to thousands of amateur hockey players in Vancouver who had their ice time restricted by the closure of the old UBC facility and two other Vancouver rinks for Olympic redevelopment.

The new facility also builds on the Olympic legacy of a Canadian hockey icon.

"It was here in 1963 that Father David Bauer founded Canada's first national Olympic hockey team with a nucleus of UBC players," UBC president Stephen Toope said. (Previous Olympicsquadscomprised amateur club teams).

In addition to opening the arena, the Vancouver Organizing Committee launched the Vancouver 2010 Venues' Aboriginal Art Program, an initiative to include aboriginal art in all 15 Olympic and Paralympic venues.

"This program provides a unique landscape for talented aboriginal artists to participate in the 2010 Winter Games and an opportunity to showcase to the world the rich artistic tapestry of Canada's aboriginal peoples," said John Furlong, VANOC's CEO.

The UBC Thunderbird Arenais the first of the indoorvenues to open, but all of the outdoor venues for the 2010 Winter Games have already been completed.