Official information

The Sports Palace was built in 1967 by the order of the State Committee for Physical Culture and Sport under the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR. The ice arena was functioning for 9 months a year, where ice hockey and figure skating training sessions and competitions were held. The Sports Palace was the venue for international, Union-wide and national boxing, basketball and karate competitions. Performances of famous singers and ice ballet dancers were held as well as international and national fairs.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the Almaty Sports Palace was revived once more through its interior and exterior reconstruction and major re-equipment which were carried out owing to the attention of the president N.A. Nazarbayev and the akim of the city A.S. Yessimov. This was further reflected in the Sports Palace being home to the ice hockey program and the formal closing ceremony of the 2011 Asian Games. After the Asian Games were held the newly-reconstructed began to be actively used: it became the venue for the 2010-2011 UEFA Futsal Cup Final, a stage of the 2011 World Volleyball Grand Prix, a stage of the 2011 Judo World Championship, a stage of the 2013 World Women’s Volleyball Grand Prix, the 2014 World Weightlifting Championships, the 2015 MMA International Tournament, The 2015 Asia-Pacific Curling Tournament, stages of the 2016 Men’s and Women’s Volleyball Grand Prix.   

Дворец спорта им. Балуан Шолака Дворец спорта им. Балуан Шолака

The 28th World Winter Student Games were held in the Sports Palace in 2017: In women ice hockey and short-track. Now, the Palace frequently holds sports competitions in Olympic sports at the continental and global level, as well as concerts and shows of Kazakhstani and international stars. As the Baluan Sholak Palace of Culture and Sports is a self-financing entity, its financial and technical condition depends entirely upon the quality management of the executives that make every effort to maintain functioning of all supplies of the building, the condition of the main demonstration arena and ice rink around the clock.

The Palace is a four-storied building with the ice arena, lobby, cafeteria, underground VIP parking, technical area, halls, loading area with auxiliary rooms, room for judging panel and security, changing rooms, sport equipment preparation area, garage for ice cleaning equipment, fire escape and VIP emergency elevators, office and service areas. The total area of the complex is 1.6216 hectares.

In the Palace, figure-skating class and ice hockey class are offered. Mass skating takes place at the lesser ice arena. The Palace also offers fully equipped rooms for press-conferences, workshops, exhibitions, and concerts.

The Ice Arena of the Baluan Sholak Palace of Sports is one of the biggest indoor ice rinks of our city that functions all year round. 

Дворец спорта им. Балуан Шолака

The Sports Palace is located in the center of the city neighboring with the Central Stadium and Promenade shopping center. At the south end, Astana Hotel is located, as well as exits to Abay Avenue and Baitursynov Street. The metro station is nearby.

The fact that it is located in the heart of Almaty makes visiting the rink a comfortable and enjoyable activity. The Baluan Sholak Palace of Culture and Sports is a multi-purpose exhibition and sports venue with the capacity of up to 5000 visitors. In addition, it offers the services of renting the ice rink to sports schools, sports sections, hockey teams, short-track teams, and figure skaters for exercises, matches, and training sessions.

We guarantee: comfortable indoor environment:

  • temperature +17oС;
  • humidity 44%;
  • ice surface temperature -5oС;
  • new comfortable changing rooms;
  • and convenient under roof parking.

The Baluan Sholak Palace of Sports also offers a number of other services:

  • providing the facility for concerts, performances, and ice shows;
  • for competitions in volleyball, indoor soccer, sambo, Greco-Roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, box, and others.