• Nottingham City Council announces its intention to prepare a National Lottery bid for funding towards the construction of a new two-rink ice centre / concert venue - at an estimated cost of £13 million - to replace Nottingham's existing Ice Stadium, which opened in 1939. Several sites are being considered for the 'centre of artistic excellence', including the existing site off Lower Parliament Street.

• Feasibility studies presented to a meeting of Council officials and Ice Stadium directors show the existing site is capable of accommodating the new centre.

• Plans for the new centre, designed by the Council's in-house design division, are unveiled at the Ice Stadium before representatives of the press and media and ice sports governing bodies. The plans envisage a main rink surrounded by seating for 7,500 spectators
• (and up to 9,500 for concerts) and a community rink for public skating and practice, with the main Arena pad capable of being covered to provide a major indoor concert / exhibition venue.

• Nottingham's 1984 Olympic ice dance champions Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who have pledged to hold summer training schools at the new centre, visit the Ice Stadium to lend their support to the project.

• The scheme is granted outline planning permission. Nottingham City Council Chief Executive, Ted Cantle presents the Lottery Sports Fund bid - endorsed in a foreword by Torvill and Dean - to the English Sports Council in London. A 150-page brochure is submitted in support of the application. The estimated cost of the scheme is revised to £30 million.

• A scale model of the Ice Centre goes on public display in Nottingham.

• The British Olympic Association declares its support for Lottery funding being made available for the Nottingham Ice Centre project.

• The English Sports Council approves in 
  principle Nottingham's Lottery Sports Fund application.

APRIL 1997

• Gleeds Management Services are appointed as project managers.

• The scale model of the Ice Centre is selected for display at the Royal Academy of Arts 229th Summer Exhibition in London.

• Ove Arup & Partners are appointed as engineers for the new centre.

• Demolition work begins on the site of the new centre. The first phase of work involves knocking down a former warehouse on the opposite side of Barker Gate to the existing Ice Stadium. This part of the site is earmarked for the 7,500 capacity main Arena of the two-rink complex.

• The City Council announces a change in the way it plans to attract part of the funding for the new centre. Rather than appoint a private sector partner as its preferred choice to run the centre in return for a capital investment of at least £3.75 million, the Council plans to establish a charitable company to borrow the money and appoint a facility manager later.

• The City Council submits its final award application to the English Sports Council. The estimated cost of the scheme is revised to £36 million. Ice sports governing bodies, the Nottingham-based British Ice Hockey Association and the National Ice Skating Association, pledge to bring world-class events to the new centre.

• The English Sports Council makes a final award of £22,496,600 to the project from the Lottery Sports Fund. The scheme is granted full planning permission.

• Road works begin to prepare junctions around the development site for new traffic routes and to enable underground pipes and power cables to be diverted. Work is expected to take up to six months to complete.

• Laing Ltd. is appointed as the City Council's preferred contractor for constructing the new Ice Centre following the formal tendering exercise.
• A group of trustees is appointed to spearhead the development of the project. The trust will oversee work to prepare for the opening of the new centre and will ultimately serve as a board of directors of the facility once it is up and running in 2001.

• Specialist contractors begin the task of exhuming remains from a 19th Century graveyard beneath a car park on the site of the new centre, in order to clear the way for the start of construction work.
• The City Council gets the go-ahead to buy land and buildings on the development site when its compulsory purchase orders on the existing Ice Stadium, its surrounds and the New Cheers restaurant opposite, are confirmed by the Secretary of State for the Environment.

• English Partnerships announces it is to invest £980,000 in the new centre. The money will go towards work to divert services including electricity, water and gas around the development site.

• Ice dance legends Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean agree to join the group of trustees shaping the development of the new centre.
• The City Council acquires the New Cheers Restaurant building, which it needs to demolish to make way for the Arena of the centre. The Old Cricket Players pub is retained.
• The City Council appoints Nottingham Ice Centre Ltd to take over the management of the existing Ice Stadium after buying the lease from the Nottingham Ice Stadium Company Ltd. The Foyer is demolished and a new entrance is opened on the opposite side of the building to facilitate construction work on the new centre. Facilities previously in the foyer are relocated to other parts of the stadium.
• Barker Gate closes one week ahead of schedule. New signalised road junctions and traffic routes to accommodate the closure come into effect.

• Nottingham City Council and the English Sports Council sign the £22.5 million Lottery Sports Fund award contract.
• Jayne Torvill attends her first meeting of the Ice Centre Trust, whose members are shown around the construction site by contractors Laing Ltd.

• An operator for the new ice centre is appointed. Nottingham Ice Centre Ltd, the management company appointed by the City Council to run the existing Ice Stadium, is given the go-ahead to run the new facility for a three-year period covering construction, commissioning and completion.
• A planning application is submitted to convert Barker Gate House, a multi-storey office block adjoining the Ice Centre site, into a hotel.

• Building work on the Arena begins with the construction of the steel structure.

• The ice centre unveils its logo and a new name - The National Ice Centre Nottingham.

• The British Ice Hockey Association, the national governing body of the sport, relocates its headquarters to temporary offices in Nottingham ahead of its permanent move to the Ice Centre.

• The first roof support - an 80-metre-long 106-tonne double truss - is lifted 20 metres off the ground and fixed to the steel frame of the Ice Centre's Arena.

• Rene Fasel, President of the International Ice Hockey Federation, the sport's world governing body, tours the Ice Centre site during a visit to mark the re-launch of Nottingham-based British Ice Hockey Association under its new name of Ice Hockey UK.
• Nottingham City Council is awarded its biggest-ever European grant, just over £4million, to create a major new public square in front of the Ice Centre and breathe fresh life into the economy and environment of the neighbouring Lace Market area.

• Plans are announce to create Britain's first academy of ice sports at the Ice Centre. A coaching school will be established to spearhead the development of figure and speed skating, ice dancing and ice hockey from grass roots level through to World and Olympic competition standard.

• Shirley Bassey is confirmed as one of the first major performers to appear at the Arena. Her concert, scheduled for 19 May 2000, is the first at the Arena to go on sale.

• Work begins to install more than 11 miles of ice-making pipes underneath the Arena rink. The job of removing 34 miles of scaffolding around the development also gets under way.

• A project progress report reveals the National Ice Centre is being built mainly by Nottingham people and firms. Some 75% of the 200 workers on site are local, as are 18 of the 21 management staff from contractors Laing. By the project's end, it's estimated that construction work worth £15 million - more than half the cost of construction - will have been carried out by local firms, representing a massive boost to the local economy.

• Former England footballer and now Chairman of Sport England, Trevor Brooking, sees work on Nottingham's National Ice Centre in progress. Visiting the city for a Sport England regional assembly, Mr. Brooking and fellow delegates tour the construction site. With the exceptions of the new National Stadium development at Wembley and 2002 Commonwealth Games stadium in Manchester, the Ice Centre has attracted the largest single Lottery capital grant from Sport England.
• A rare saxon jug known to be at least 1,100 years old, unearthed in July 1998 during excavations for the new centre, goes on display at Nottingham Castle Museum. Experts say the discovery provides new evidence of an important settlement existing in the city in the 8th century.
• Simply Red will perform the first concert at the centre's Arena on 29 April 2000, it is announced.

JANUARY 2000

• Announcement of Paul Weller concert at the Arena on 5 may 2000. Tickets go on sale priced £23.50

FEBRUARY 2000

• The Ice Centre is featured on BBC1's Midweek Lottery draw programme UK2000. Andrew Hallam from Nottingham, and Eve Bentley, Britain's sole ice dance representatives in the forthcoming World Junior Ice Skating Championships in Germany, press the button to start the draw.

MARCH 2000

• It's spring, but the temperatures tumble inside the Arena as around 10,000 gallons of water is frozen to create the first Olympic-sized ice pad. Local schools and colleges are invited to free skating sessions on the eve of the rink opening for public skating.

APRIL 2000

• The first public skating session at the Arena is declared open by Nottingham-born former Olympic ice dance champion Jayne Torvill. Thousands of people flock to the venue to skate and go on free guided tours of the building.
• Simply Red perform the first concert at the Arena to a sell-out crowd. On stage, the band's front man, Mick Hucknall, hails the new venue a "wonderful place".
• Demolition work begins on Nottingham's old Ice Stadium to make way for the construction of the second, community ice rink and the creation of a major outdoor public square fronting the new centre.

MAY 2000

• Minister for Sport Kate Hoey unveils a plaque at the Ice Centre marking the opening of the Arena and the completion of the first phase of the complex.

JUNE 2000

• A rededication service to lay to rest the remains exhumed from the former graveyard beneath the Ice Centre site is held at Nottingham's Southern cemetery at Wilford Hill, where the remains were re-interred.

JULY 2000

• Plans are announced to convert a former warehouse near the Ice Centre into a temporary training rink pending completion of work to build the centre's second permanent ice pad. The move is designed to meet a surge in demand for tuition.
• The first roof truss above the second, public pad is lifted into place.

SEPTEMBER 2000

• The Ice Centre's resident ice hockey team the Nottingham Panthers, play their first match in the Arena, beating the London Knights 2-1 in the Benson & Hedges Cup qualifying round.

OCTOBER 2000

• The Ice Centre opens the 'Ice Box', a temporary training rink housed in a former cold store five minutes walk from the Arena, pending the completion of work to build the centre's second permanent ice pad.

NOVEMBER 2000

• The Arena hosts the annual fund-raising evening for the BBC's Children in Need Appeal in the East Midlands.

DECEMBER 2000

• The Arena is confirmed as the venue for the end-of-season Superleague ice hockey play-off finals.

MAY 2001

• Phase Two completion.