 Ground was broken for construction on May 22, 1990, and was completed on October 4, 1991 in time for late-October basketball games; it was built at a cost of $93 million.During the 2002 games the arena hosted all the figure skating events, and the short track speed skating event.The arena was capable of holding an average of 14,600 spectators for each session, and 100 percent of available tickets for events in the arena were sold, for a total of 145,997 spectators witnessing events in the Ice Center.