The Klagenfurt ice rink will be given a new face in two construction stages. By October, a new board and stands will be installed inside. The outer shell and the forecourt will be renovated during the summer break in 2023, when there will be no games. A total of 8.7 million euros will be invested.
The planning work in the Architektur Consult office took a year and a half. At the beginning of April, construction finally started for an important infrastructure project in the city: the 60-year-old town hall in Klagenfurt was torn down to the supporting structure and completely renovated. “Today is an important day for the state capital, for professional, young and popular sports. Klagenfurt gets an ice rink that meets modern requirements. A heartfelt thank you also to Countess Heidi Goess-Horten, without whose generous support this project would not have been possible,” emphasizes Mayor Christian Scheider.
Sports officer City Councilor Mag. Franz Petritz adds: “The renovation of the sanitary areas and cabin wings that has already taken place was the beginning. Now the renovation of the hall continues. With this project, the city is showing that it stands behind ice hockey and the club.” The project is being implemented in two stages according to a tight schedule. The EC KAC game operations are taken into account.
Unobstructed view of the pitch for up to 4,500 spectators
The 1st stage is therefore running during the non-playing period of the 2022/23 season. Completion of the first phase of construction is planned for October this year. Then the interior should be finished and the ice rink should be playable once more. “The hall is currently being cleared completely. Boards, grandstands and electrics are stripped down to the basic structure. Then the ice surface will be minimally narrowed to 28 meters and new boards and grandstands will be put up,” explains general planner DI Josef Tischler from Architektur Consult. New VIP boxes and a separate media area are also being built in the upper tier.
A total capacity for around 4,500 visitors will be created. Each seat will have an unobstructed view of the pitch, which hasn’t always been the case in the past. The second stage will then start during the summer break in 2023 and will include the renewal of the entire hall envelope and the forecourt. The estimated investment costs amount to around 8.7 million euros. Half of it is borne by KAC patron Countess Heidi Goess-Horten. The renovated ice rink will also bear her name. The federal government is contributing 3.2 million euros in grants. The city of Klagenfurt and the state of Carinthia share a little more than one million euros.
