Helsinki Ice Hall is an indoor arena

Arena

An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...

 located in Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

, Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

. It is capable of holding 8,200 people.

It is the home arena for HIFK

HIFK (ice hockey)

HIFK is an ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays at Helsinki Ice Hall. It was founded in 1897...

 of the SM-liiga

SM-liiga

The SM-liiga is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. As of March 2008, it is ranked by the IIHF as the second strongest league in Europe. It was created in 1975 to replace the SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur league. The SM-liiga is not directly overseen by the Finnish Ice...

. It is sometimes called "Petoluola", Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

 for "The beast's cave", referring to the logo of HIFK: a red panther

Leopard

The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...

 or the Old Hall of Helsinki as it is dated in comparison to Hartwall Areena

Hartwall Areena

Hartwall Areena is a large multifunctional indoor arena located in Helsinki, Finland...

, which is the largest indoor arena in the country.

Helsinki Ice Hall used to be the main arena for all important ice sports events, as well as indoor arena concerts, but after the construction of Turkuhalli and Hartwall Areena

Hartwall Areena

Hartwall Areena is a large multifunctional indoor arena located in Helsinki, Finland...

, many events take place in the newer arenas.

Nevertheless the Helsinki Ice Hall still remains an active arena for concerts, conferences, expos and sports events.

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