Written by Emma
Ground #73
Sunday 19th October 2025
Elite League
Nottingham Panthers 5 – 3 Dundee Stars
Attendance: 5,506
Entry: £24.50 (Bronze Seating)
The Nottingham Panthers were formed in 1946, due to delays with the Second World War and are members of the Elite Ice Hockey League playing at the Motorpoint Arena. They have one of the largest fan bases in British Ice Hockey and have a fierce rivalry with the Sheffield Steelers. Having won four league titles, five championships, six Autumn cups and eight challenge cups; they are also the first British team to win European club honours with one Continental cup in the 2016-17 season. They are also the current play off champions wining the most important honour in British ice hockey for the first time in nine years last season.
Todays match saw the Panthers take on Scottish opponents the Dundee Stars, whom they also played the night before in Dundee with the Panthers taking the win 5-2. This game started in a similar way with the hosts dominating proceedings and took a deserved lead with 3 minutes to go in the first period.
Into the second and whilst Max was still in the queue for a drink the Stars equalised with what seemed like their first real chance at the match. Just as we were mentioning how the Panthers had thrown away their good start, they went up the other end and scored putting themselves 2-1 ahead. One memorable feature of last seasons play off win was the Panthers ability to score multiple goals quickly when required, this trait seems to have continued into the new season as very quickly 2 became 4.
Into the third and final period and 9 minutes in the hosts scored the 5th goal to surely put the game to bed. A late wobble as the Stars scored two late consolation goals to give the score some respectability but in the end it wasn’t enough as the early onslaught was enough to give the Panthers the win.
Now to rate our evening in Nottingham.
Location: 9/10
The Motorpoint Arena is a 15 minute walk from the Nottingham Train Station and with plenty of parking around the city it is a very easy place to get to by transport or by foot. There is a bar right on Bolero Square with of course, numerous other bars, pubs and restaurants within close distance. I hear you ask why it is not a 10? It is my blog, I make the rules. I don’t want to seem too keen.
Kit: 10/10
To me the Nottingham Panthers play in one of, if not THE best kits. ‘The Panthers’ play in a stand out jersey, black with the logo in the middle, gold design on the bottom and sleeves. My favourite additional extra is the Nottinghamshire flag in the middle of the collar. To me the black and gold always makes the jerseys stand out both on and off the ice, the crowd always looks well kitted out in their gold and black in support of their home team that they are all very proud of. If I could find it within me to part with £80 of my hard earned British Pounds I would get one myself, it is true when they say ice hockey is an expensive sport to get in to. Both as a fan and someone looking to take up the sport.
Facilities: 8/10
In recent times, the layout of the arena on a matchday has changed with tickets scanning now done outside in Bolero Square. This has massively improved the inside areas as now it is much more open and less crowded once you get inside.
There are wide concourse areas around the arena although these do get busy during breaks in play and it can take a long time to get served as Max found out missing a goal.
A new feature for this season is the ‘Grab & Glide’ from Amazon, where you scan your card on entry and grab the items you want, which somehow it tracks and charges you for what you take. Assuming it works correctly and you don’t get a £100 charge for a packet of Walkers, this is a great way to speed up service and reduce queuing times.
Look: 9/10
There is ice and there is seats. What more could you want for an ice hockey rink. Guess you could say the only downside, its cold………
The arena has 7,000 seats which makes it the second largest in Britain behind Sheffield. It is three-sided with the other side used as a stage for gigs and other events, the curved seating bowl means a great view of the action wherever you sit. A good bonus is all the seats have padding which you don’t see in other places. The Elite League must agree as every year they use this venue for the play off finals weekend.
Food and Drink: 8/10
We have been going to the Motorpoint Arena for many years to multiple different events and in years gone by it was always a cheeseburger or hot dog which were overpriced and below average. Because of this we haven’t eaten the food there for a while so were a bit worried to do so for this blog.
BUT we were please to find that over the many years there has been a massive upgrade and there is more to find. There is a chicken shop, fish and chips as well as a more gourmet burger counter. Max had the Minty Lamb Burger and chips for £10 whilst I opted for the Peri Peri Loaded fries for £7.50 (I am cheap date). We were both a bit concerned about the price as £10 for just a burger seemed a lot but when realising it came with fries it seemed more reasonable and Max also said it was all very fresh and good quality meat. The loaded fries although after seeing Maxs burger wish I ordered that, were also very good value for money.
Throughout the various bars around the concourse was a really good variety of drink offerings. Again, we can remember in the past a limited offering of Stella only so it is fantastic that there is now much better choices. Unfortunately, as you would expect at a large arena like this the drink are overpriced with the average pint costing you £7.50. One positive though is that for match days there is a Panther larger available for £5.50 which is a nice touch. BUT NO DARK FRUITS.
Although were were surprised by the quality of the food and drinks, we would still 100% recommend going to a restaurant in Nottingham rather than a burger at the side of the concourse in the arena itself. There is a sit down restaurant in the arena but we have never tried this.
TOTAL SCORE: 44/50
Ice hockey is definitely one of my favourite sports and we have even visited with family members who didn’t have a clue the sport even existed in this country. They have all come away saying they would go again and it’s a great night out even if you don’t know the rules (like me). There is music and lights, with some entertainment between each period where young figure skaters come out to show their skills. Sometimes if you are lucky they even put a kids game on.
As you can tell by the fact this is the highest scoring ground we have visited so far, we enjoyed our evening at the Motorpoint Arena and would recommend it to anyone thinking about going. This is now our 5th sport covered on the blog and we are really enjoying comparing the different events to each other. You can see some of the others here:
Cricket at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston
Emma’s Ground Guide 