Kuznetsk Metalworkers Ice Palace

The Arena of the Kuznetsk Metallurgists is situated at the end of Prospekt Stroiteley.

Following a renovation that cost 2.583 billion rubles, the arena shed much of its Soviet-era weight. The old water cooling system was ripped out, replaced in 2008 by a seamless 20-kilometre polyethylene pipe that keeps the natural ice layer thin and consistent at 3–5 centimetres. That first overhaul allowed the ice to breathe. This time, the work was driven by necessity: the need to host the Children of Asia games and to meet the Kontinental Hockey League’s strict standards. The new automatic fire suppression system hums quietly above the rink, hidden behind the modern scoring cube that hangs in the centre.

The capacity has shrunk to 6,818 seats. It feels tight, intimate, a place where a single mistake ends it. The crowd does not roar them on from far away; they are close enough to hear the skate blades bite into the surface. This is where HC Metallurg Novokuznetsk plays its home games, a team that has occasionally been forced to move its fixtures to the smaller Kuznetsk Ice complex when safety violations shut down the main arena. But they always come back. The high line was picked apart in the 2024/25 playoffs against Metallurg Magnitogorsk, drawing 6,654 people who dug in for every shift.