Be-Ge Hockey Center

The Be-Ge Hockey Center does not announce itself from the street. You find it at the end of Döderhultsvägen, tucked inside what was simply called Arena Oskarshamn. The building feels older than it is, a result of the heavy renovation that ran through 2004 and 2005. That work smoothed the edges of the original 1974 structure without erasing its history, leaving a facility where the artificial ice sits beneath a roof that has seen the Swedish Hockey League (SHL).

Inside, the attention turns to the surface and the stands. The capacity is fixed at 3,275, a number that likely has not shifted since the promotion. The fans who set the all-time record here in 2011, watching IK Oskarshamn take on Leksands IF, filled every seat. The club, known as IK70 until 1996, has grown into a serious proposition in the SHL, and the arena has grown with it, adopting the Be-Ge name in 2015 to mark the new era.

There is no pretence of grandeur here. It is a working hockey arena in a town that knows the value of its local team. The complex is known to locals by its older name, but the team plays under the new one.