Sokol Ice Palace

Sokol Ice Palace opened in 1984. The capacity is 1800.

There is no roof over the stands, so the wind comes straight through the open ends. The ice is synthetic; it has not been re-laid since the rebuild, and it does not hold a skate blade quite like natural ice, but it is consistent.

Since 2020, the home team has been the youth squad Sokol, playing in the Russian Hockey League (RHL). They are not a big club, and they do not play well when they are tired. They have not won a championship since the programme started, but they do not lose badly either. The older club, the professional Sokol that played in the second division, was dissolved in 2016 when the money ran out. The young side inherited the name and the building, nothing else.

The training school behind the rink has produced players who have moved to the bigger cities, but few stay. The local fans come because they have nowhere else to go. On a Saturday night the place fills up, and if a player makes a mistake it ends it. The building does not look like much from the outside, but it is the only ice hall in town.