Location: 3200 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City, Utah
Events: ice hockey - men's and women's tournaments; paralympic ice sledge hockey - men's tournament; Complete schedule
 
Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News |
Previous Olympic-type events: 2000 Five Nations men's under-18 hockey tournament; 2000 World Ice Sledge Hockey Championships; 1998 U.S.-Canada women's hockey exhibition.
Briefly: The E Center is a state-of-the-art, built-for-hockey facility, with superb visibility for spectators and an abundance of luxury suites. Its only real drawback is that it is fairly small. Olympic officials would love to have a capacity of about twice the projected 8,500.
The Five Nations men's hockey tournament—the venue's test event in November—went without a hitch and drew the largest crowd ever (10,157) to see an International Ice Hockey Federation under-18 game. But an additional 5,000 would-be spectators seeking admission to that contest were turned away at the gate.
One concern may be the venue's media sub-center, which will be a huge, enclosed tent in the parking lot between the E Center and the northbound lanes of I-215.
SLOC is looking to ensure that the sub-center, which will be the main media center for the 2002 Paralympic Games the next month, won't be the chilly, noisy location some fear it may be.
For more information on the venue go to www.theecenter.com.
 Getting to the E-Center |
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