Venues
Thunderbird Arena
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 | 6:41 PM ET
New York Times, for CBC Sports
The UBC Thunderbird Arena is a competition venue in Vancouver, the host city for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. (Kim Stallknecht/Getty Images) Thunderbird Arena on the campus of the University of British Columbia has a central place in the history of international hockey. It was at the sports complex of which it is a part that Father David Bauer helped establish Canada’s first national hockey team in 1963, ahead of the Innsbruck Olympics the next year.
Until Bauer set up the program, Canada had always been represented internationally by its top senior amateur team, illustrious sides, some from British Columbia, whose names live on in the lore of the game, like the Trail Smoke Eaters and the Penticton Vees.
Now, with the Olympics coming to British Columbia, the site comes full circle. The smaller Father Bauer Arena still stands, but in 2006 the U.B.C. Thunderbird Arena opened next door. The 7,800-seat rink will be the main stage for the women’s Olympic ice hockey tournament and the Paralympic sledge hockey tournament.
During the Olympic competition, 16 of 21 women’s matches will take place at Thunderbird, as well as two men’s games. At the Paralympics that follow, the ice surface will be extended into the benches and penalty boxes to add accessibility for the players.
On Jan. 23, the University of British Columbia men’s team plays the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns. When that game ends, Thunderbird will be handed over to the Olympics for a new chapter in the history of international hockey.
