Why the IOC moved the 2030 Olympic hockey venue

Once bound for the French southern coastal city of Nice, ice hockey at the French Alps 2030 Olympic Games will be moving to Lyon, in a shift from the initial venue plans. The move will bring all ice sports to the arena from the south coast, while speed skating will take place in the Netherlands at an existing venue. 

The Olympic men’s hockey tournament was initially proposed to be played at the Allianz Stadium, home to French top-division soccer club OGC Nice, and would host two rinks on the usual field. However, after disagreements over funding, where the women’s competition would be played, and concerns about staging an intense, two-week competition on temporary rinks, organizers decided to move the events. 

Now, following a three-day visit from the IOC’s coordination committee, the hockey tournaments will be split between the LDLC Arena and Hall Tony Gauthier in Lyon. 

The LDLC Arena is a multipurpose venue built next to the stadium that hosts Lyon’s Ligue 1 soccer team, Olympique Lyonnais. Ahead of the Olympics, it will get a test run with the 2028 IIHF World Championship and is expected to host the medal-round games, despite a capacity of between 10,500 and 11,000. 

The Hall Tony Gauthier, a concert venue built in 1905, will also host hockey games and will be retrofitted with an arena, similar to the secondary venue for the 2026 Olympic tournament, held at the Fiera Milano exhibition center in Rho, on the western side of Milan.

While hockey, curling, figure skating, short-track speed skating, and the main media center will all be in Lyon, the 2030 Olympics are spread across a vast region, with Heerenveen, Netherlands, hosting speed skating, and the Briançonnais Venue Cluster, which includes famed mountain towns Courchevel and Val d’Isere, among others, hosting the various snow and sliding events. 

The 2030 Olympics are scheduled to run from Feb. 1 through Feb. 17, with the Paralympics to follow from March 1-10.