page_title: Nottingham Panthers
section_title: Stadiums
hierarchical_section_title: Nottingham Panthers / Stadiums
caption_attribution_description: English: Interior of the Nottingham Ice Stadium.
context_page_description: The Nottingham Panthers are a British professional ice hockey club based in Nottingham, England. They are members of the Elite Ice Hockey League. Their main team sponsor is the Nottingham Building Society.
  The Nottingham Panthers have won four league titles, five Championships, six Autumn Cups and eight Challenge Cups during their history. The Panthers are the only British team to win European club honours with one Continental Cup. They are the only team to have played in every season where a British league championship has been contested and are the only founding member of the Premier Division in 1983 to have continually participated in the top flight league. The Panthers have 16 members enshrined in the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame and have had 34 players represent Great Britain at the World Championships and in Olympic qualifying.
  The club was founded in 1946 after earlier attempts to establish a team were postponed due to World War II. During their first eight seasons the Panthers played in the English National League. They joined the newly formed British National League in 1954, which they competed in until its disbandment in 1960.
context_section_description: The original home of the Panthers was the Ice Stadium. Built by Sims, Sons and Cooke Ltd, the Ice Stadium was based on the Harringay Arena design and officially opened on 10 April 1939. The building hosted its first game two days later with the Harringay Greyhounds defeating the Harringay Racers 10–6 in a challenge game in front of a crowd of 5,000 spectators. Though a team playing under the name Nottingham Panthers would play three games during the winter of 1939–40, it would be 1946 before the venue would host a competitive match. During World War II the Ice Stadium served as a makeshift munitions store and morgue. The building reopened on 31 August 1946 and hosted another game between the Greyhounds and Racers before the Panthers made their competitive debut on 22 November, defeating the Wembley Monarchs 3–2. The venue became the home of the team between 1946 and 1960 and again from the club's reformation in 1980 to 2000.
  The Ice Stadium held a capacity of 2,950 spectators and had an ice pad measuring 185 feet (56 m) by 85 feet (26 m). After the club's reformation a second ice pad was installed in 1983. In October 1996 plans were announced by Nottingham City Council to replace the ageing building with a twin-rinked National Ice Centre. Work began on the 6,500 capacity arena section of the facility in the summer of 1998 and was completed in the spring of 2000. The Panthers played their final game at the Ice Stadium on 22 March 2000. After the game supporters were allowed to dismantle anything easily removable from the interior of the building to take home as souvenirs. The Ice Stadium was demolished soon afterwards to allow for the completion of the new Ice Centre.
  The new National Ice Centre was designed by Nottingham City Council officials and was built by John Laing plc. The building cost £40 million to construct, of which £22.5 million was awarded by the National Lottery. The arena half of the facility was opened on 1 April 2000, with the second public skating pad opening a year later. Both rinks are Olympic sized ice pads measuring 196 feet (60 m) by 97 feet (30 m). The Panthers played their first game at their new home on 2 September 2000 when the team hosted the London Knights in the Benson & Hedges Cup. Barry Nieckar scored the club's first goal in a 2–1 Panthers victory played to a crowd of 4,800.
caption: Nottingham Ice Stadium
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