A final approval is expected later this year for proposals to build a new 14,000-capacity multi-use arena in Tampere, Finland.

The planned Tampere Central Arena will be the new home for the city’s two professional ice hockey teams – Ilves and Tappara – and the flexible design will also allow the venue to host other sporting events as well as concerts and exhibitions.

It is expected that the €124m (US$166m, £96m) venue will have an ice-rink set up for most of the year, with more than 80 days a year taken up by the sport between the months of September and April.

More than half of the venue’s revenue (54 per cent) will come from ice hockey and the remaining 46 per cent from other sports and cultural events.

There will be 50 executive boxes and 2,500sq m of conferencing space, as well as a range of restaurants with a combined total of 9,500 covers.

The arena will be managed by operating company Tampereen Keskusareena, established for the project by the stakeholders, which include the site owner TKK (Tampere Central Arena Real Estate).

Designed by US-based architects Studio Daniel Libeskind, the arena will be part of the larger, mixed-use Tampere Deck project which also includes a hotel, residential towers, and office space.