The surprising result between hosts Germany and the United States in Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr River Valley on Friday did not break any records but the circumstances certainly did. The opening match of the ice hockey world championship’s Group A was held in the legendary soccer stadium used by Schalke 04, the second best team in the Bundesliga this season.

With the help of spectacular technology, the Veltins Arena was converted into the largest ice hockey arena ever within the span of just a few weeks. There were a total of 77,803 spectators who packed one of the world’s most modern sporting venues and celebrated the entry into the Guinness World Records.

The historic achievement was made possible thanks to a small company from a small village in the Austrian Alps. AST from Reutte in Tyrolia, which has become a world leader in artificial ice production over the last 15 years, got to work on transforming the soccer pitch into a hockey rink with a 15-member crew just hours after Schalke’s final home match of the season.

The first task was laying down flexible cooling pipes with a total length of 120 kilomters – through which 30,000 litres of a water-glycol mixture was cooled down to 26 degrees Celsius. After that “Ice Guru” Gottfried Strauss (52) and his team sprayed a series of thin sheets of ice on top.

AST Managing Director Manfred Fink said turning a soccer pitch into an ice rink for the world championship’s opening in Gelsenkirchen marks a milestone in the company’s history. “The Veltins Arena is in essence one of most holy venues to be found in the sports world anywhere,” he said. AST operates more than 300 artificial ice systems in more than countries around the world – including the largest in Vienna with 6,000 square metres and several on Caribbean cruise ships. The company’s patented system is also used in most spectacular fashion at the Red Bull Crashed Ice events in which athletes race down a 500-metre long track of artificial ice. In Quebec there were more than 120,000 spectators who watched the breathtaking action.
In Gelsenkirchen the dismantling started immediatly after the match. Two days later the ice rink had to be replaced by a stage.

Pictures free for editorial usage only: Andreas Langreiter for Global Newsroom.com